Thank you for the January editorial, as well as the article by Judi Daniels, "Obesity: America's Epidemic." While I acknowledge the powerful influence of genetics, cultural and socioeconomic causes, and the many other factors contributing to obesity, it is still worth emphasizing that the slide from overweight to obese is insidious and should be struggled against. All of the sources in Daniels's article note the health problems obesity brings on. And while the article quite rightly concludes with a section called "Motivating Patients," an unspoken problem is the tremendous number of nurses who are obese. How can they do weight-loss counseling and expect patients to believe that the strategies actually work?

Eileen Bonner, MEd, BSN, RN

Brooklyn, NY