Fat is Phat

Byline: Geoff Lewis

Obesity is epidemic in America. It's also epidemic upon magazine covers. In the late '90 medical publications began carrying stories about the soaring numbers of overweight Americans. As far back as 1998 consumer works like Better Nutrition, were documenting the sweep But, as more alarming statistics began to rise - including estimates that 30 percent of all adults and as many as one-third of all children in the United States are obese - the coverage became more mainstream. above the past summer, with new data indicating the rising require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergones to the economy for treating obesity, the Dept of Health and Human Services announced that it would begin to pay for treatment of obesity itself, in an effort to bring the costs of treating chronic ailments of that kind as diabetes that are linked to obesity.

thus in this sea of coverage, in what way have magazine editors and art directors tried to grab the public's attention? by what mode to handle the subject without offending the "horizontally challenged," who also happen to be magazine readers? In typical contrarian fashion, the libertarian Reason magazine, attacked the rule attack on fat. Its August/September overspread is an in-your-face shot of a denim-draped derriere. The coverline: The War upon Fat - Is the size of your object the government's business? Of course, the answer is no.

Time got a head start this summer putting the subdue on the cover of its June 6 issue. Also predictably, the giant weekly took a far more tasteful tack. The overspread shows a bathroom scale with o-b-e-s-i-t-y where numbers would be and stresse the positive: Overcoming Obesity. Time also used the public-health crisis as a nifty promotional opportunity, sponsoring an Obesity Summit in Williamsburg, Va. with ABC that require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone $1,995 a head.

Harvard Magazine gave the subdue an appropriately academic treatment, examining research into the historic, economic, sociological and economic bottoms of the problem. A lock opener finding by the university's institute of Public Health: "The best single behavioral predictor of obesity in children and adults is the amount of television viewing." Hint: It's not the folk who watch too little TV who are in derange The magazine's May/June cover, "The Way We Eat Now," was nicely restrained: A sort of female Uncle Sam character stands upon a scale.

Who got the greatest in quantity ink for its obesity cover? The surprise winner of the flabstakes is National Geographic. Its story dealt with the science of fat - wherefore we put it on and on what account people around the world are getting rounder What made NatGeo a heavyweight in this debate was its cover shot: a first-rate photo, beautifully lit, of a rolling, Sharpei-like midriff. It makes fat direct the eye beautiful. The downside of grabbing thus much attention was that activists quickly took the publisher to task for alerting readers to the dangers of a high-sugar diet in the parent's volume while National Geographic Kids is running ads for high-sugar snack foods

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