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first of all, is american sports data accurate? are they telling you where the data come from?

i'm basing my comments on discussions with scientists on this subject (not specialists in it) and from some books by non-scientists who have done research on this subject and condemn america's treatment of it. so perhaps my method is not the best. i'll give you that.

BUT, the most important thing to consider here is that statistics, no matter where they are from, have no meaning on their own. the meaning we give them comes from our cultural values and preoccupations, and therefore the reason they exist comes from our society's conclusions as well. there's the big question: why are scientists weight a whole bunch of people and comparing results? why does this matter at all? scientists, as far as i know, are not comparing everyone's chin size and seeing how much that has increased in the last few decades. it is because our society is not obsessed and does not feel threated by chin size, just weight. we see weight as a moral issue -- people are better if they are thinner. so we compare states and countries to see which is "best" which one is not declining. yet weight has nothing to do with anyone's personality. "fat" people aren't "lazy" but we all believe to some extent that they are. so i advocate not taking any statistics on this subject seriously. their existence is the problem, not their "truth."