According to the American Obesity Association, 15.5 percent of children ages 12 to 19 are obese, a threefold increase since 1980.

Eighteen percent of the Medicare population is obese, according to the American Obesity Association, a nonprofit advocacy group.

The study was commissioned by the American Obesity Association, which urges the Government and private employers to give more attention to problems of people who are overweight.

"The country has been in denial about the whole obesity issue," said Morgan Downey, executive director of the American Obesity Association.

About 15 percent of the nation's youths from ages 6 to 19 are overweight and another 15 percent are obese, according to the American Obesity Association.

American Obesity Association.

Stern, vice president of the American Obesity Association, says the book offers "pseudoscience."

"Its educational approach is very sound," said Morgan Downey, executive director of the American Obesity Association, a Washington nonprofit advocacy group.

"Most foods have some nutritional value, somewhere," said Morgan Downey, executive director of the American Obesity Association.

But Mr. Downey, of the American Obesity Association, said his group would speak in support of the over-the-counter version.