Obesity: Historical Overview: National Health Problem

In the 1930s public health authorities became increasingly convinced that overweight was a national health problem. Physicians determined that the previous maximum intake of 3,000 calories a day for men was too high; it should be 2,400 or even 2,035. A shift in thinking in the medical community occurred when doctors began to view excess weight as a character flaw, signifying lack of self-control and willpower. Physicians were increasingly hostile to fat patients, blaming them for their malady. This mind-set marked the beginning of the identification and stigmatization of a deviant subculture of the obese, who were regarded with disdain and disgust.