A child carrying a small broom walks by a line of National Guard members deployed to Bellevue Square as community members clean up after looting and vandalism that occurred Sunday at Bellevue Square in downtown Bellevue, Washington, U.S. June 1, 2020. (Photo by Lindsey Wasson/Reuters)

This young boy wrestled with his emotions at the National Children’s Sumo ­Tournament in Tokyo on July 30, 2012. (Photo by AP Photo/LaPresse)

A novice monk holds a book during an inauguration ceremony at Jogye temple in Seoul, May 11, 2015. Ten children on Monday were given the opportunity to experience life as Buddhist monks by staying at the temple until Buddha's birthday in two weeks. The writing on the book reads, “Novice Monk Prayer”. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Dancers resting on the rooftop of the SKD Theatre Asakusa, Tokyo, 1949. (Photo by Tanuma Takeyoshi/The Guardian)

Two and a half year-old Jennifer Martin in tears during a visit to Santa at Harrods department store in London, 10th December 1949. (Photo by William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Radio City Music Hall Rockettes perform after days of rehearsal and routine polished to perfection at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City on July 26, 1949. (Photo by Ivan Dmitri/Getty Images)

Britain's Princess Elizabeth clasps her hands in sympathy as Sergeant Jean Bayliss faints at her feet during an inspection of the guard of honour of the Women's Royal Army Corps at Shrewsbury Castle, Shropshire, on July 6, 1949. (Photo by AP Photo)

“The most serious health problem in the U.S. today is obesity.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? But that pronouncement about obesity’s primacy in the hierarchy of national health problems is not new. Rather, it’s the opening line to a remarkable article published 60 years ago in LIFE magazine. This photographs made by Martha Holmes to illustrate that March 1954 article, titled “The Plague of Overweight.” Photo: Dorothy Bradley (left), photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, 1949. (Photo by Martha Holmes/Time & Life Pictures)