SILVER SPRING, Md.—As obesity has become more prominent as a health issue, it’s time to stop and reflect over the founding of The Obesity Society (TOS). The organization is turning 40 years old in 2021, according to a paper published online in Obesity, the Society’s flagship journal.
“Birthdays are an important milestone. This year we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the founding of The Obesity Society and its precursor, the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO). The events leading up to its founding and its early history have been recounted by two of the founders and the first president in the current issue of Obesity. Happy Birthday!,” said George A. Bray, MD, FTOS, professor emeritus of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center of the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La. Bray is the corresponding author of the paper. He was also one of the Society’s founding members and its president from 1989–1990.
The authors recall in the paper that a group of physicians who provided obesity treatment often in the form of “Rainbow Diet Pills,” formed a professional clinical society on Aug. 7, 1950, called the National Glandular Society, which changed its name to the American Society of Bariatric Physicians on Aug. 25, 1972. This was the first American society related to obesity in this country. Its meetings were usually sponsored by the drug companies that were providing Rainbow Pills to bariatric physicians. On Aug. 10, 2015, the American Society of Bariatric Physicians changed its name again to the Obesity Medicine Association.
The late 1960s and 1970s were important for obesity. The Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO) was founded in London in 1967, and then it held a one-day Symposium on Obesity in London in 1968. “This provided an excellent model for a national society focused on the scientific problem of obesity,” the authors write in the paper. The late 1960s saw many deaths associated with widespread use of Rainbow Pills. These deaths caught the attention of the United States government, and in 1968, a Senate Select Committee of Congress was empaneled to hold hearings on alleged misuse of these medications. In addition, 1968 was also the year that Congress approved formation of the John E. Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Because obesity was already recognized as a public health problem, even when its prevalence in 1962 was only 14%, The Fogarty Center asked Bray to organize an international meeting, which was held at NIH in October 1973.
The funding of the Obesity Center in New York under the direction of Theodore van Itallie in 1975 further increased interest in forming of NAASO. Discussions between Bray and John Brunzell, MD, that occurred during Nutrition Committee meetings of the American Heart Association in 1979 to 1980 led to the informal organization of NAASO, which was founded in 1981 by Bray along with Brunzell, Judy Stern, ScD, RD; M.R.C. Greenwood, PhD, FTOS; and C. Wayne Callaway, MD. Of these five founders, three were clinicians and two were basic scientists, which reflected the composition of the Society over the years to come.
“I had the privilege of being among the attendees at the 1981 foundational meeting of NAASO and to be appointed as a member of the first administrative board. The early years of the Society were challenging as the management of the organization, the planning and conduct of the annual meeting, and the portfolio of scientific and advocacy initiatives were entirely dependent on the resources of the elected officials. Membership in the Society remained low for several years and the number of attendees to the annual meeting and other events stayed around 100 for years. However, clinical and basic scientists who considered NAASO as their professional home persisted, and were optimistic regarding the future of the Society and of obesity as a field destined to grow in size and sophistication. They were right!,” said Claude Bouchard, PhD, FTOS, Boyd Professor, John W. Barton Senior Chair in Genetics and Nutrition, Pennington Biomedical Research Center of the Louisiana State University. Bouchard served as the Society’s president from 1991–1992.
As interest in obesity expanded, NAASO realized that another journal was needed. In 1993, NAASO established Obesity Research with Bray as its first editor. However, in 2005, the journal’s name was changed to Obesity and has continued under that name until the present day. The Society’s journal will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2022.
The words “North American” were initially included in the NAASO name to provide a home for Canadian and Mexican scientists with an academic interest in obesity. NAASO changed its name to The Obesity Society in 2005. In 2006, Obesity Canada and the Canadian Association of Bariatric Physicians and Surgeons were founded, reflecting the expanding community interested in obesity in North America.
“Forty years ago, obesity was not taken seriously by many physicians or the public. The critical founding of NASSO followed by ASO helped change that by providing a multi-disciplinary association. In addition, the advent of molecular medicine has led to many advances in the treatment of obesity. NASSO (now ASO) has much to be proud of. Happy Birthday!,” said co-author Greenwood, Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis. Greenwood was the Society’s president from 1987–1988.
Other authors of the study include Barbara C. Hansen, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla.
The paper, titled “The Obesity Society is Turning 40: A History of the Early Years," will be published in the December 2021 print issue.
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
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The Obesity Society (TOS) is the leading organization of scientists and health professionals devoted to understanding and reversing the epidemic of obesity and its adverse health, economic and societal effects. Combining the perspective of researchers, clinicians, policymakers and patients, TOS promotes innovative research, education and evidence-based clinical care to improve the health and well-being of all people with obesity. For more information, visit www.obesity.org.