“Originally published in the April 9, 1951, issue of LIFE magazine, W. Eugene Smith’s photo essay, «Spanish Village», has been lauded for more than six decades as the most moving photographic portrait ever made of daily life in rural Spain during the rule of dictator Francisco Franco”. – Time & Life Pictures. Photo: His wife, daughter, granddaughter and friends have their last earthly visit with a villager. (Photo by W. Eugene Smith/Time & Life Pictures)

“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)

Costumed guests arrive for the “Life Ball” charity event at the Rathaus city hall in Vienna, Austria, 10 June 2017. The 24th Life Ball is a charity fundraiser for HIV and Aids projects. (Photo by Christian Bruna/EPA/EFE)

Cast member Gina Hutton at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium on December 02, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. King and Gentoo Penguins at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium met their puppet counterparts ahead of Madagascar The Musical's Australian premiere in Sydney. (Photo by Wendell Teodoro/WireImage)

Model Yasmine Petty arrives on the Life Ball plane on May 15, 2015 in Vienna, Austria. The Life Ball, an annual charity ball raising funds for HIV & AIDS projects, will take place on May 16, 2015 at the city hall in Vienna. (Photo by Monika Fellner/Getty Images)

Ali Asair, who has left his family behind and traveled hundreds of kilometers in search for a pasture for his animals, attends to his camel in a pastoralists' settlement in the Bandarbeyla district in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland, Somalia, 24 March 2017. According to media reports, the United Nations says only 31 percent of 864 million US dollars appeal for a drought-hit Somalia is funded. The UN said the world is facing the largest humanitarian crisis since 1945, adding that more than 20 million people are facing the threat of famine in Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria and 1.4 million children could die from starvation this year. (Photo by Dai Kurokawa/EPA)