The power of the odd explanation

Heres one plausible story: The nineties saw the advent of drugs like Pravachol and Lipitor that can dramatically cut your cholesterol and increase your life expectancy. With medical advances like that, who needs to be thin? Of course obesity is still bad for you but its not as bad for you as it used to be. The price of obesity (measured in health risks) is down, so rational consumers will choose more of it. With the success of the human genome project, even greater advances are just over the horizon, making obesity an even greater bargain. Todays expanding

waistlines might reflect nothing more than a rational expectation

of future progress against heart disease.