LET THEM EAT FAT.(Brief Article)

Harper's Magazine, March, 2000 by Critser, Greg

The heavy truths about American obesity

Not long ago, a group of doctors, nurses, and medical technicians wheeled a young man into the intensive care unit of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, hooked him to a ganglia of life-support systems--pulse and respiration monitors, a breathing apparatus, and an IV line--then stood back and collectively stared. I was there visiting an ailing relative, and I stared, too.

Here, in the ghastly white light of modern American medicine, writhed a real-life epidemiological specter: a 500-pound twenty-two-year-old. The man, whom I'll ...