This Country Needs to Go on a Diet

A 10-year study of more than 500,000 U.S. adults shows that those who were just moderately overweight in their fifties were 20 percent to 40 percent more likely to die in the next decade. About two-thirds of Americans are now overweight.

Another study shows that adult obesity rates increased in 31 states over the past year.

"What's particularly distressing is that we think we understand why this is happening. It's happening because the environment is built to promote obesity, and it is so pervasive that in order to make changes, we really need to change everything," said Cathy Nonas, director of the obesity and diabetes programs at North General Hospital in New York City.

Meanwhile, high schoolers in suburban St. Louis are protesting their school district’s new healthy lunch menu, which is based on recommendations found in the Missouri Eat Smart Guidelines. "They used to have cookies. Now they have cookies with fake chocolate. They are not as good," said one 12-year-old. "I want the old lunch back. I want chips, pretzels with cheese and nachos." Wow, somebody get these young rebels a supply of Che Guevara T-shirts and machetes! Deactivated.

There are lots of excuses for not working out and letting our waistlines expand. Forty-year-old Heidi Musser, who is blind, doesn't accept them. Heidi just completed the Accenture Chicago Triathlon. Last year she finished the Coeur d'Alene Ironman in Idaho. Activated.