overweight

The idea that French woman could live in the land of wine, cheese, and those mouth-watering pastries without gaining so much as an inch was such a phenomenon that it even spawned a best-selling book, French Women Don't Get Fat. And, yes, it may have created a little envy, too.

But as it turns out, French women do get fat, as do French men. According to Reuters, their obesity rates are very similar to those in the United States ... forty years ago.

Being overweight or obese was also shown to make asthma more likely - and to worsen the symptoms.

A new study of data from 1,326 Canadians suggests that carrying a few extra pounds may actually help you to live longer.

The findings were published in the online journal Obesity, and the results tie in with previous research, including a study carried out in 2007 which drew the same conclusions.

And Paul "PJ" James is not screwing around. He plans to pack on a total of 85 pounds! His "goal" weight is 265. To do it, PJ stopped exercising and started eating deep-fried candy bars and Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

An estimated one in three adults living in the U.S. are overweight or obese. How did this come to be? It's probably due to the cumulative effect of many factors (eg. poor diet, inactivity, lack of sleep, stress), rather than one, isolated problem.

So which states are helping or hurting our efforts to reduce the girth of our nation?