>ATHGers may be interested in this article about historical and cultural
>attitudes toward obesity.  I recall reading that the in the early days of
>the English teetotal movement North of England reformers put a very fat
>teetotaler at the front of parades to prove that sobriety was compatible
>with good health.  The anti-teetotal image of the scrawny abstainer
>eventually became less common than the stereotype of the drunkard as fat
>which by that time had become negative.
>
>
>Demonizing Fat in the War on Weight
>
>May 1, 2004
>  By DINITIA SMITH
>
>A growing group of historians and cultural critics who study
>fat say our obsession with it is based less on science than
>on morality.
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/arts/01FAT.html?ex=1084506662&ei=1&en=4f251807fd6e8c92