ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I will provide a brief introduction to the history of obesity research from the perspective of my interest in the 20th-century history of chronic disease epidemiology. I begin by explaining why obesity is best considered as a modern phenomenon and describe the ways in which contemporary medical knowledge about obesity and overweight derives from American and British research into the causes of coronary heart disease. I continue by describing how risk factor approaches to chronic disease were adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and became an important precursor to understandings of obesity as a global epidemic that developed in the 1990s. Finally, I conclude with some thoughts of what the history of medicine can contribute to debates about appropriate responses to rising rates of obesity and overweight.
