Despite exercise videos, diet pills and low-fat foods, Americans are fatter than ever. A recent study released by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute found that approximately 55 percent of American adults are overweight - up from 43 percent in 1960. The institute also found that 22.5 percent of Americans are clinically obese. The study redefined obesity calculations on the basis of the body-mass index - a common standard to measure body fat. Under the new standards, a person with a BMI of 25 is considered overweight, while a BMI of 30 is indicative of clinical obesity.

Concerned about the rising problem of obesity in the United States, on May 30 the federal government released new guidelines designed to allow parents and pediatricians to more accurately gauge whether children are overweight.

Federal health officials extended the standard measurement of weight for the first time to children as young as age 2 and young adults up to age 20 to provide a better way to track a child's physical development and alert parents and doctors if they should intervene with diet and exercise.

The scientific evidence that led to the new guidelines arrives at a time when some researchers are finding that genetic influences appear to be a powerful factor in weight gain, underscoring the debate over whether obesity should be protected as a civil right or targeted as a major health concern.

Both sides of the obesity debate are now following proposed legislation currently before the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-DC, submitted the Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise (LIFE) Act, which would allow for increased federal government research into the causes, prevention and treatment of obesity.

On One Hand...

We are suffering an epidemic of obesity and the financial and personal consequences of obesity impose a considerable burden on our nation's resources. According to the National Institute of Health, an estimated 300,000 Americans a year die from obesity-related causes. Obesity greatly increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and other diseases that kill, along with a host of diseases that don't kill but can make life miserable.

A January 2000 study, published in the Journal of The American Dietetic Association, found that eating habits primarily determine obesity. Acceptance of the overweight condition can imply approval of unhealthy habits. We run the risk of overwhelming the health care system with entirely preventable diseases, such as heart disease, the nation's number one killer, if large changes in lifestyles do not take hold.

On the Other Hand...

Obesity is often caused by genetic influences. Many people cannot lose much weight no matter how hard they try, and promptly regain whatever they do lose, the vast amounts of money spent on diet clubs, special foods, and over-the-counter remedies, estimated to be on the order of $30 billion to $50 billion yearly, is wasted. More important, failed attempts to lose weight often bring with them guilt and self-hatred.

Moreover, the data linking overweight and death, as well as the data showing the beneficial effects of weight loss, are limited and often ambiguous.

Research is severely limited by a shortage of funds, inadequate insurance coverage for treatment, and discrimination and mistreatment of people with obesity. The time is ripe for the size acceptance movement to influence how federal research money is allocated, and to help prioritize the obesity research agenda to address issues of how to make fat people healthy and increase their well-being, independent of weight loss.

• Each year, obesity causes at least 300,000 excess deaths in the U.S. and costs the country more than $100 billion.

• Based on new evidence and increasing prevalence of obesity, the American Heart Association has upgraded obesity to a "major risk factor."

• The Center for Disease Control finds that 21.2 percent of New York City's sixth-graders are overweight. Currently, approximately 12.5 percent to 14.7 percent of American boys and girls aged 6 to 11 are classified as overweight.

• In 1992, due to the efforts of fat rights activists, Santa Cruz, California enacted a local ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on height and weight. This year, San Francisco also voted to extend the city's discrimination laws to size to protect residents from discrimination based on height or weight.

National Institute of Health, Center for Disease Control