Follow the Money

When Did Doctors Become Obsessed With Obesity?

The insurance industry can also take credit for connecting obesity to ill health. Between 1900 and 1920, statisticians at Metropolitan Life and other major insurance companies used actuarial studies to prove that obese people die younger. The actuarial findings, as much as any medical breakthrough, helped turn the health care industry against body fat.

Yes, but those were life insurance companies, and since then the health insurance providers have realized how much more money they can make if we remain fat.