America has a reputation as the fattest nation on the planet but recent studies are showing that we will not be alone in this distinction very long. The culprit? Sitting.

By 2010, it has been predicted, more than half the workforce of developed countries will be sitting at computers.

Information available at www.who.org shows the impact of a shift to sedentary lifestyles and diet changes is greatly impacting leading nations worldwide. It is startling to think that in an 8 year time period the amount of obese people in China will double.

More than 66 percent of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta. Although the number of obese women in the United States appears to be holding steady at 33 percent, for most Americans the risk is growing.

The notion that Americans ever ate well is suspect. The average American adult weighs 25 pounds more today than in 1960. Two out of every three adults are overweight or obese. 1966, when Americans were still comparatively thin, more than two billion hamburgers already had been sold in McDonalds restaurants, noted Dr. Barry Glassner, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California. The recent rise in obesity may have more to do with our increasingly sedentary lifestyles than with the quality of our diets.