An interesting article from the New York Times chronicling the history of antibiotics being used to fatten animals. Sometime in the 50s a scientist discovered that antibiotics, when fed to young animals, caused them to gain weight several times faster than a control group. Obviously, this would be seen as a magic bullet in the livestock industry, and soon the leftover sludge from antibiotic manufacturing was being slopped into the feed bins of our country’s meat sources. And the animals grew. Fast.

Now, we have a society in which this tainted meat is ubiquitous. Is it a coincidence then that the obesity problem in humans has reached a pandemic state? I think not.

The interesting question is this: what’s causing antibiotics to create such abnormal weight gain? Also, is it the treated meat that we’re eating, or the antibiotics that we’re taking that’s causing this national weight problem? Keep in mind, the average child goes through at least one regimen of antibiotics a year. Are we unwittingly fattening our children like livestock?