From the St. Louis Post Dispatch

I wish I weighed a little bit less. Or a lot less. And I often fear, to paraphrase Kingsley Amis, that I’m heading in the wrong direction, that inside of me is an even fatter me waiting to get out.

I’m not alone. A recent study found that 80% of the American people are overweight. Many of us seem to have trouble saying no to that second piece of pie, the super-sizing of fries and the longing to lay on the couch burning up as few calories as possible.

I have always thought of my weight as kind of personal. It often is. When I get my driver’s license and the clerk ask my weight, I’m on the honor system. The clerk demands an eye test, but there’s no scale. A confession—I take what I actually weigh and what I’d like to weigh and split the difference. So far, even the security people at the airport let me get away with this deception.

But like everything else these days, the personal is political. Some people say my weight problem is your problem and vice versa. Obesity is related to higher risks of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and lots of other unpleasant outcomes.