There was that funny (and prophetic) Garfield panel from the 1980s. This one:

Jim Davis

In modern Amerika, life imitates art: On average, people are shorter and fatter.

The average U.S. adult is overweight and just a few pounds from obese, thanks to average weight increases in all groups – but particularly whites and Hispanics.

Overall, the average height for men actually fell very slightly the past decade. There was no change for women.

One factor may be the shift in the country’s population. There’s a growing number of Mexican-Americans, and that group tends to be a little shorter, said one of the report’s authors, Cynthia Ogden of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The findings come from a 2015-16 health survey that measures height and weight. More than 5,000 U.S. adults took part.

CDC records date to the early 1960s, when the average man was a little over 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed 166 pounds. Now, men are almost 1 inch taller and more than 30 pounds heavier. But today’s average height of 5-foot-9 is about a tenth of an inch shorter than a decade ago.

The average woman in the early 1960s was 5-foot-3 and 140 pounds. Now, women are a half-inch taller and about 30 pounds heavier, on average. The average height is about the same as it was a decade earlier: 5-foot-4.

Other survey findings:

• In the last decade, the average weight of men rose about 2 pounds, to 198. For women, it rose 6 pounds, to nearly 171.

• Men have 40-inch waistlines, on average. Women’s waistlines are a little under 39 inches.

So, today’s big beautiful women are heavier, despite being a half foot shorter, than the men of yesteryear. And, with the average for both sexes bloating towards obesity, that means that a considerable percentage are obese, many grossly, morbidly so.

Because you asked, I’m right around the average male height but 20 pounds under the average male weight and six inches off the belt size. This, with a much lower than average BMI, half the body fat, and around twice the general physical strength.

It’s hardly surprising that these changes are coupled with shortening lifespans and the wild increase in various physical and mental maladies. Factor in the decreasing IQ’s and lack of education, and we have a problem.

I wonder how much of the increased average weight is tattoo ink?