So the United States is getting fatter. Well, not the country; our borders are still slim and… So the United States is getting fatter. Well, not the country; our borders are still slim and trim as ever.

We, as a people, are fatter than we were a mere 17 years ago.

Santa Monica, Ca., researchers found that the number of people who qualified as severely obese – having a body mass index of 50 or greater – went from 1 in 200 people in 1986 to 1 in 50 in 2000. That’s four times the number of severely obese people in the time it took the Olsen twins to go from squashy-faced babies to twin empresses.

BMI is a measure of height to weight ratio, and, while useful, is not entirely accurate. It fails to take into account differences in body-frame – some people really are big-boned – and muscle mass.

But a BMI above 50 indicates something beyond simple fuzzy calculations or needing to lose 5, or even 50, extra pounds. Severely obese people tend to be more than 100 pounds overweight. A 5-foot 10-inch, 373-pound man, for instance, would qualify as such.

According to an Oct. 14 article in The Washington Post, severely obese people are at risk for any number of chronic illnesses, including arthritis and diabetes. What’s more, because these illnesses are chronic, rising numbers of severely obese people will lead to rising health care costs.

Moreover, current health care cost estimates are probably underestimates. Before this study, the severely obese were not counted, since they were considered outliers. But because the severely obese now comprise about 2 percent of the population, they can no longer be considered as such.

It’s no surprise that Americans are fat and getting fatter. We’re a nation of cheese-covered, chicken-fried steak and deep-fried candy bars, where the norm is extra large, not medium, and size really, really matters.

We’re under lots of stress and cope by eating fattening – rather than healthy, – foods, a Sept. 10 article in the San Francisco Chronicle reported. In a sense, we’re overfed and undernourished, and that leads to bigger waistlines and even more stress.

This is a national problem – we have a fat culture, one that’s passed from generation to generation. Indeed, analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health showed that fat teens tend to be fat adults.

So it seems we are facing two options – make obese people get healthy, or pay for it in the long run.