Trees are consumed by the Bridge Fire near Wrightwood, Calif., Wednesday, September 11, 2024. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Women in costumes walk as they participate in Halloween celebrations in the downtown of Seoul, South Korea, October 31, 2015. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

American actress Kristen Stewart arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Young gymnasts practice pull-up on a bar at a gymnasium of a sports school in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province April 11, 2015. (Photo by William Hong/Reuters)

A woman plays on a swing on the beach in Santa Monica, Calif., Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Students take photos with a giant King Kong sculptures made out straw in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai on April 3, 2019. (Photo by Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP Photo)

The Chinese-flagged cargo ship Yu Zhou Qi Hang, which ran aground near Yehliu Geopark as a result of rough weather relating to typhoon Kong-rey, is seen in Yehliu on November 1, 2024. Taiwan on November 1 raced to remove 284 tonnes of oil from the Chinese carrier that ran aground off the island after losing power in rough seas as Typhoon Kong-rey neared. (Photo by I-Hwa Cheng/AFP 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)