Body weight and mortality.

A sign next to a finger pulse meter in a Kansas truck stop makes an interesting offer: if your resting pulse rate is less than 60 per minute, you will win a double bacon cheeseburger, home fries, and a bowl of gravy. The often conflicting information about nutrition, fitness, and weight control exemplified by this offer has confused and frustrated many Americans. Calorie intake has been increasing in the past 20 years, because of an increased intake of foods low in fat.1 Cholesterol levels are therefore dropping in the United States,2 but because levels of physical activity have changed little, . . .