Americas Obesity Crisis

It's easy to be pessimistic about how soft and fat Americans have become. It's not healthy to be obese, and if we keep going the way we're headed, the long-term medical costs may be more than we can bear. The case for optimism is harder to make, although there are signs that the tide may be turning. Preliminary data suggest that 2003 was the first year since 1998 that the percentage of Americans who are obese did not increase. But that doesn't include kids, and it still leaves us at epidemic levels. What can be done? That's the question TIME and ABC News set out to explore in a joint reporting project this spring. The answers in the pages that follow, and in the broadcasts airing this week, will surprise and, we hope, inspire you.