Land of the Fat
Once, in hunter-gatherer societies, being able to store excess calories in body fat was a survival trait. Who knew when the next meal was coming? In Victorian times, having a pot belly was often considered a sign of affluence. Today being overweight sends out different signals; indeed, many people look on obesity as a vice. Oddly enough, in the USA today, problems with obesity seem to be most prominent amongst the poor
Read more in Access to English: Social Studies, pp. 336-337. Then do the tasks in the textbook and on this website.
Extra Tasks
Web resources
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Obesity in America (ABC 2010)
(youtube.com) -
Obesity and Overweight: Faststats
(cdc.gov) -
Is Fat the New Normal? : WebMD (article)
(webmd.com) -
Obesity could bankrupt NHS if left unchecked
(theguardian.com)