A new government study declares that "poor diet and lack of exercises" are killing more and more Americans and the Centers for Disease Control is alarmed.

The Associated Press story "CDC: Obesity gains on tobacco as top death factor" (read it) talks about how in 1990, 14% of Americans died from poor diet and inactivity and 19% died from tobacco. As of 2000 though, 16% of Americans had croaked because of their slothful ways, while 18% had passed on because of death sticks.

The story quotes CDC officials who breathlessly gush about the coming apocalypse, but I find it hard to muster much surprise. One of the story's major points of the story is that the death by sloth is gaining on death by cigarette, but given the declining number of smokers, wasn't it inevitable that obesity would start to catch up. And if Americans do suddenly decide to start exercising and eating better, won't some other malady suddenly (and to the CDC, alarmingly) close the gap?

Moreover, isn't an increase in weight to be expected given the decrease in the number of smokers? I mean hell, a good number of people smoked because it helped keep their weight down. Deprive people of that slim benefit of smoking and combine it with the inevitable snacking that accompanies many people's attempts to quit and it should surprise no one -- especially not the CDC -- that the number of sloths in the US (and thus their deaths) increased.

Something else I found interesting was the relatively minor decrease in smoking related deaths between 1990 and 2000 -- with the increasingly rabid anti-tobacco laws, policies and memes that infected America during the 90s, I'd expected the decrease to be more impressive. But perhaps it's just a delayed reaction sort of thing -- maybe we'll see the real decrease between 2000 and 2010.

I've got to wonder why the AP didn't ask if the decrease in smoking could have led to an increase in inactivity/poor diet related deaths, or why the health officials were so alarmed by the growth, when it seems obvious that a decrease in one category of deaths would inevitably close the gap with other lesser categories.

Then again, given the emerging governmental/liberal campaign against junk food, maybe I don't have to wonder at all.