ABSTRACT
Although the evidence base is very small, some obesity experts argue that Western body weights have been increasing for fifty years; others even suggest that the trend goes back a 100 or 200 years. They may well be right about this, although a large part of this can surely be attributed to the mostly desirable impact of improving living standards. However, my sense is that some obesity experts see this gradual increase in body weights as a creeping, insidious descent into sloth, gluttony and general ill health.
