In This Issue:

- The Size of the Problem

- Searching for No-Fat Mr. Goodbar

- A Prescription for Doctors

- A Prescription for Patients

- Excerpt from Introduction:

The More Weight-Loss Treatments Change, the More They Stay the Same:

Does this country make me look fat?

Americans are obsessed with weight. Sometimes it's vanity, but sometimes it's because so many of us really are overweight. While the country as a whole is a lot fatter than it/we used to be, finding an effective way to lose weight and keep it off has been a perennial issue for a long time.

At the turn of the last century, the famously fat President Taft was rumored to have gotten stuck in his bathtub. That's unconfirmed, but, according to a report in the Annals of Internal Medicine, before he became president, Taft sought medical help to lose weight in order to relieve his heartburn, indigestion and fatigue. Some of the advice he got was good, and some was ineffective.

Sound familiar?