Coming to a neighborhood near you. Aw heck, it's already here.
Yes, with all the supposed “epidemics” we have that scream for government taxes and intervention - obesity, inactivity, smoking, drinking alcohol, fast food, sugary foods, high fructose corn syrup, cholesterol, diabetes,too much sun, too little sun, etc.
Funny, with all these ongoing epidemics, people are living longer than ever. Most of these ideas have been accepted as true by almost everyone, but in many cases, these epidemics have been created by lowering the bar for what constitutes an abnormal value, studies funded by drug companies that massage or misuse data to give the results they want, and by the health Nazis who want to run our lives.
I recommend the books by Nortin Hadler, MD (Worried Sick) (The Last Well Person) as well as his articles online at ABCnews.com. The blog, Junk Food Science. http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/ is another contrarian view of health matters. Many of you will not believe what they have to say, but you can look up the data for yourselves. See how many studies report on relative risk reduction rather than absolute, for example.