A few decades back, obesity was a rare occurrence. It is no more so. At one lime people identified obesity as the cause for some underlying physical disorder or mental disability. So they sought to conlrol excess weight. But later obesity by and large came to be viewed and specified as being the symbol of good health or good personality. Remarks like "How healthy he looks !" "What a personality he has !" are not uncommon. Even in families where no one is obese, we find children who are either obese from childhood or become obese a few years later.

Some still equate obesity with perfect health. If one loses a few pounds of excess weight, people lament often about how good his health was some days ago and how weak he looked after losing weight. Nevertheless today many people are well in¬formed through various health columns, articles and news items published in periodicals and papers about why obesity is not desirable and why one should control excess weight. People now realise that obesity causes a variety of disorders some of which cou!d prove life threatening.