Why we’re getting fatter
Another article about the health risks of obesity without one word about the reason why Americans are getting fatter [Obesity’s Role in Cancer March 22]. The most important piece of information is left out. I assume you do not have that information because you would not have deliberately misled your readers. So let me give you the reason, which is easy to discern.
Evolution is causing Americans to get fatter. In the 1930s, thinner people died faster than fatter people because of tuberculosis. Therefore, DNA makes Americans get fatter, not the common wisdom that Americans are just more slovenly. Today, tuberculosis is ravaging Asia. So Asian people, who are thinner and generally more fit than Americans, can be expected to get fatter in the future because of evolution.
Robert Ligon
La Crescenta
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The Asperger’s distinction
I read your article about the possibilty of the label of Asperger syndrome going away [First-Person March 22]. As the parent of a 16-year-old son who is an Aspie, and an educator of 30 years who has worked with children with both autism and Asperger’s, I adamantly agree with you. When I told my son that he had Asperger syndrome, when he was about 11 years old, I went on to tell him that if I could take away the Asperger, I would not — that he would not be the same boy that I love.
Asperger is part of who he is, and he is not autistic.
Debbie Watson
Lindsborg, Kan.
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I personally do not agree with the eradication of Asperger’s syndrome as a mental disorder. Autism and Asperger’s are two highly distinguishable diseases. I am no specialist, but I have witnessed the behavior of a child with Asperger’s and the behavior of an autistic child, and the two are completely different.
The autism spectrum is already extremely broad, and labeling another mental disorder as autism would simply add to its vague description. Diseases should become more specific with time, not less. This change does nothing to improve medicine or diagnostics.
Taylore King
Coto De Caza, Calif.
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It is a mistake! If there is a difference between Asperger’s syndrome and autism, why title and treat it all the same? This isn’t fair for the children and adults who identify themselves as Aspies. If Aspies can “learn to smooth over many of their social quirks with the right therapy and enough support at home,” then why not give them our support?
Two types of cancers aren’t titled and treated as one and the same. Why place more obstacles in one’s path?
Davita Wright
Los Angeles
