But I’m disturbed by what I saw in the Wall Street Journal this past week. There was an article about a company that is expanding their plus-size line of women’s clothing to even bigger sizes. The company is called Catherine’s Plus Sizes. Yes, America, it seems our bodies are now ready to wear an outfit in the women’s 28-34 size range. Did you know that the average American woman is a size 14?

It used to be that plus-sizes ranged from size 16 to size 26. Why is this company going for a mega-boost to extra-plus-sizes? Well, a little background first. This clothier simply saw the demand. Women were telling them that their already huge sized clothes weren’t huge enough. To get started, the company invited nearly 700 very large women to their offices, and had them agree to let the company’s fitters take as many as 30 measurements of all parts of their bodies. These numbers were obtained by checking the size of their waists, hips, necks, wrists, ankles, biceps, and everything else you could imagine. As many as 5 fitters worked on each woman at a time. For their efforts, the women were rewarded with a $50 gift certificate to the new clothing line.

The Catherine’s Plus Sizes company thinks that this very large segment of the clothing market (pun intended) will generate $2-3 billion (that’s Billion with a B) dollars in retail sales. We should all know by now that nearly 25% of the American population is considered obese. This company is just being smart, and betting that the trend will continue and accelerate.

It used to be that people would pay money to go to the circus sideshow to ogle the fat lady. Times have surely changed. You don’t have to pay money to see huge people any more. You just have to go to the fast food restaurants or all-you-can-eat buffets and you’ll see plenty of fat men and women, all for free.

Am I picking on fat people? Well, yes, I am. And with good reason. Somebody needs to tell these people that it just isn’t healthy. It fact, it’s downright dangerous to be that big. Now, I understand that genetics and medical conditions can play a role in body weight. There’s no question about that. But the shocking trend is that the increase in obesity has nothing to do with genetics or medical problems. People’s genes haven’t changed in the last 10 or 20 years.

There are a million reasons for the added weight, and they’re different for each person.

I have a couple favorite objects of blame. First, the government came out with the “food pyramid,” which basically was seen as a green-light to chow down on as much complex carbohydrates as you can handle. They’re still pushing it. Unfortunately, pasta, bread, bagels, etc. are very high in calories, which makes you fat. Second, food companies started heavily promoting huge portion sizes as an added “value,” both in restaurants and in supermarket packages. This just encouraged people to eat their money’s worth. And third, people are exercising less. They work longer hours at their jobs and have no time. There are fewer recreation areas for children, and parents are worried about crime when their children are outside. As a result, calories aren’t being burned off.

Also-and I think this is significant-it’s become more socially acceptable to be hugely overweight.

Let’s take the results into perspective. A size 28 woman weighs close to 300 pounds. And the newly proposed sizes will fit a size 34 woman-someone who weighs in at 400 pounds, more or less. Along with the problems of diabetes, heart disease, circulatory problems, and strokes, these obese people have problems with mobility, shortness of breath, back problems, leg problems, joint and hip problems, and limited range of motion. It just isn’t healthy.

It seems that the company coming out with these extra-plus-sizes wants to be as politically correct as possible. They don’t describe their customers as obese. Obesity is a health issue, says one of their salespeople. This is a fashion issue. They see expanding waistlines as an opportunity.

Why not call it super-sized clothes? America is in love with super-sized everything. People go to the drive-through fast-food joints and want to be super-sized for pennies more. You can go to the neighborhood convenience store and super-size your cold soft drink to 64 ounces or even larger. Why, we’ve super-sized nearly everything we buy. We sleep in king-sized beds that were unheard-of a generation ago. We drive gigantic 3-ton SUVs that require super-sized amounts of gas. And we build super-sized homes that waste land, materials, and energy. In fact, a home the size of a hotel is being built across from my house, and only two people will be living there.

Just because something is really bigger, does that make it better? When it comes to our health, I sure hope that many of you down-size for your own good. For many people, it’s a matter of life and death.