Fat is the American condition. We are a super-sized nation. Of our population, 62% are overweight, 26% are obese. That leaves millions of oversized Americans living large and fueling a multibillion-dollar diet industry that thrives on failure.
We fight fat. We laugh at fat. We surrender to fat. Beyond the endless how-to advice for shedding pounds and medical warnings of the health risks, jokes still make up the bulk of our national conversation about weight. Fat remains the last bastion of acceptable bias in this country.
In the United States, we celebrate tolerance, diversity, and lifestyles of all shapes and sizes, but fat people remain the big butts of cruel jokes and discrimination. The massive majority gets the short shrift on respect. Listen in for the skinny on the health and social hazards of fat (Hosted by John Donvan)
