Last week I went to a concert that featured the rockers I had grown up watching on American Bandstand when they were lean, hot teenagers, the '60s equivalent of the Backstreet Boys. I'll leave out names to protect the innocent, but every one of them had been a teen idol, and every one of them had been a household name (some still are).

And every one of them was fat.

Not really fat, mind you. But heavy. The "gee honey this is the suit I got married in and it used to fit how come I can't close the pants" kind of heavy. The "I don't know what happened after I had the baby" heavy. The "but she used to be so thin in high school" heavy. Every baby boomer of a certain age knows exactly what I'm talking about.

But just because it's a common problem does not mean it's a natural part of growing older. We were simply not designed to be exposed to the massive amount of fast, convenient, time-saving food that nearly every one of us encounters every day. Our digestive systems weren't designed for it, our blood sugar control mechanisms weren't designed for it, and it was certainly not in the blueprints for healthy, lean, muscular bodies.

Buffet tables were not in the game plan for the environment of the human organism. Nor were office snack machines, take-out Chinese, pizza, deli sandwiches and the gravy-laden, overcooked fare in your average salad bar. When we're very young, we may be able to adapt to this stuff for a while, but eventually our systems give up and give out. We're now witnessing the result: a massive epidemic of obesity, diabetes and heart disease that is unprecedented in human history.