p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'}The epidemic is a post-World War II phenomena. At the Turn of the 20th century diabetes was virtually unknown as well as obesity. Fatty liver disease showed up only in extreme alcoholics but now it's present in our children. The obesity diabetes epidemic originated primarily in the United States and is now spread to every culture pretty much around the world. Starting in the early 20th century nutrition science got the explanation of why people got fat wrong - that created the condition for doctors, the food industry and pharmaceutical industry to produce the obesity/ diabetic epidemic. Basically it's not an energy imbalance[eat too much don't exercise enough] but a hormonal regulation disruption that produces the accumulation of fat-- leading to obesity, diabetes and contributing in a major way to all the chronic diseases that are the bane of Western society. Heart disease ,cancer, Alzheimer's arthritis etc. The cost of the epidemic medically alone in the United States is put at $1 billion a day and growing. Fortunately new scientific findings… New diets… New exercise programs are emerging… and increased public awareness of the dangers of sugar and processed carbohydrates are beginning to turn things around.