PS
By the way don't count me among those who blame it all on fast food.
Out Southern forebearers ate greasey, calorie ladden food in large amounts. The difference between them and us is they worked from sun up to sun down, did't have central heating and air conditioning and if they wanted "fast food" they had to catch it or shoot themselves and then cook it.
We seem to be talking past each other. I'm not defending what you're attacking and I'm not attacking what you are defending.
Of course obesity exists and of course it's an unhealthy condition. I have seen a lot of extra-large people where I work that concern me how they'll be as they get older.
One of my co-workers died last year at this time of a heart attack. He was 39 years old and about 35 pounds overweight. I know what's at stake.
I simply disagree with the contention that Generation X is going to die before their parents will. That's just alarmism, the same sort as we've seen with overpopulation scares (the 1970s) global warming (the 1990s-present), SARS (2005) and the bird flu (2006).
If people aren't smart enough to change their dietary and exercise habits on their own, with all the evidence available, why should the government force them to change? Why should we empower the government to do that?
This is the point of almost all scare stories - to soften the people up for government intrusion. There's another story on FR today where some British doctors are calling for "fat" taxes on soft drinks. THAT'S what you are buying into if you accept blindly the alarmism coming from these types of studies.