>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