An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga female officer bites a snake while demonstrating skills during a graduation ceremony in the Kurdish town of Soran, about 100 kilometres northeast of the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region Arbil, on February 12, 2020. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)

Public Space series, 2015. This series by Morteza Niknahad and Behnam Zakeri tends toward cinema, taking an almost cartoonish view of modern life in Iran. This work was inspired by the social life of dolphins. (Photo by Morteza Niknahad and Behnam Zakeri/The Guardian)

People gather to view a new art installaiton at Waterfront Park entitled, Interstellar Influencer (Make an Impact) by Jason Klimoski and Lesley Chang of STUDIOKCA on Saturday March 30, 2024 in Alexandria, VA. The artwork depicts an asteroid that struck the region millions of years ago. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

A woman weeps after an announcement that Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej has died, at the Siriraj hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, October 13, 2016. Thailand's Royal Palace says King Bhumibol, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has died at age 88. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

American actress, singer, and songwriter Olivia Isabel Rodrigo arrives at the White House to promote the COVID-19 vaccine, Wednesday, July 14, 2021, in Washington. (Photo by Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

A young exiled Tibetan girl gets her lips painted by her teacher before she performs a traditional dance at an event to celebrate the 89th birthday of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharamshala, India, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (Photo by Ashwini Bhatia/AP Photo)

The dancers are posing after the Topeng Bekasi dance performance, a presentation from the West Java Pavilion, during the 50th anniversary celebration of Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII), in Jakarta, on Sunday, April 20, 2025. (Photo by Andri Munazir/ZUMA Press Wire/Alamy Live News)

“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)