As though a perverted manifestation of the maternal warning against making an “ugly face” (“or it will be stuck like that for the rest of your life”) has actually rung true, the playground taunt of “fatty, fatty, two-by-four” is no longer a simple and vindictive pre-adolescent utterance but a fact. Much like a face stricken with a permanently contorted expression, our nation has been punished with a nationwide obesity epidemic. Throughout this article, the term epidemic is used to mean a rapid and extensive growth and not the outbreak of disease. Short of pathogen-laden Twinkies or Little Debbie being diagnosed with tuberculosis, obesity is not a disease. The United States has devoted greater attention to the obesity issue in the past year, but the country has yet to reach a solution to its pudgy predicament. [More]