The Influence of Obesity on Health

Abstract

EXCESSIVE body fat, which can be called by the pejorative term obesity, has long concerned medical scientists. The basic question for them is the extent to which large fat stores impair health. But consideration of this root question soon leads to examination of the optimal ways to measure and classify obesity, to the causes of obesity, to estimates of its distribution in varying cultural and socioeconomic groups, and to the optimal methods of treatment and their hazards. This review will deal with each of these questions, but especially with the influence of excessive body fat on health.It is plain . . .