In the British cult comic 2000AD, future lawman Judge Dredd patrols the streets of Mega City One, a vast metropolis on the eastern seaboard of what was once the United States. Mega City One makes Tokyo seem spacious, and its residents make Harajuku's weirdest seem tame: One group of future misfits are the Mega City Fatties, citizens whose only goal is to get bigger, heavier and fatter. To help them move their flab, most of the fatties use a belly wheel, a mobile support for their immense guts.
The way the United States is going, the belly wheel might not be fiction for long.
Obesity affects 60 million adult Americans, accounts for at least 300,000 deaths a year and costs $100 billion in health-care. The incidence of obesity has increased by approximately one-third, from 23.3 percent of the population in 1991, to 30.9 percent today. This could be an obesity epidemic. The World Health Organization says it is a leading global health problem.