Jim N. wrote:

Why is it that in American society we need the quick fix- gastroplasty and
other fat reducing surgery or diet pills rather than watching what we eat
and increasing our exercise? Why are our children the fattest in the world?

Because some decades back American health "authorities" came up with the idea of
the "food triangle", and American companies started manufacturing stuff based on
that model. When I was a kid, Italians were the heaviest people in the western
world, and it was presented as fact that this was because their diet was heavy
on starch and bread. What did people expect would happen when we adopted the
same model?

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.