Why is America becoming more overweight?

Last nite we went to see an Irving Berlin musical review in D.C. a GREAT show with so many tunes recognizable from old movies...Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Annie Get Your Gun, White Christmas and others. The guy was a pretty prolific song writer and I started thinking lots about my parents (both deceased) who would have just loved the show. My parents died prematurely from smoking related diseases. That was their generation...many smoked. That generation also knew little about the risks of cholesterol. As a matter of fact, when I first became a physician (this was some long time ago in between the dinosaurs and the development of rap music) the "normal" cholesterol was listed as up to 300. 300???? didn't we have any idea how detrimental this type of cholesterol number was? So, in the World War 2 generation, they smoked, they ate all the wrong foods, there was no Pilates classes, spinning classes or Washington Sports Clubs. But yet, we are heavier than them. Why??? We all know much better about the risks of obesity....we know much more about the benefits of eating low cholesterol diets, we have many more work out facilities at our disposal. How can this happen???

Multitude of answers....from the dual working parents that our generation has spawned, leaving little time for meal preparation, to the use of high-fructose sweeteners that became a mainstay in the 1950s, to the growth of fast food restaurants, to the advent of the internet which puts too many people on their asses instead of moving them...there are countless other reasons as to why America is becoming more and more overweight despite knowing more and more about the risks. Fred Astaire and Ginger were "dancing cheek to cheek" as opposed to eating high-caloric foods in front of a computer.

Last thought....pretty fascinating that a Jewish immigrant wrote the most popular American Christmas song, White Christmas. The show is great so any of you out there who have as much gray hair as me, you have 2 weeks to get to see it...Lincoln Theatre downtown.