Fat, Starving, Or Both

THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC, like most manifestations of American culture, has gone global. Perhaps this is a positive development, a sign of spreading prosperity, unless its root cause is globalization of American fast food. If it is, we're in trouble. Time was when you didn't see all that man corpulent sorts upon the fruited plain. Those days are long gone, along with balanced home cooked meals, immovable telephones and remote-free TV. Traditionally, in most parts of the world, obese people have been rich; american fast food permits poor fat to be fat as well. The Chinese'll find out soon enough; American fast food kills, fast, or slow, your choice.. The USA is so obese that we are beginning to take extreme measures. In some places in freedom's land school children are required to consume fruits and vegetables, or suffer severe consequences. The Bible says that disobedient children must be put to death, and, after all, America is a Christian nation, so say our Christian conservative brethren and sistern. Obese people in America are paying to have their intestines surgically separated from their stomachs. Mayor Bloomberg tried to impose a soft drink size limit in New York, but was thwarted by the forces of libertarian freedom. Meanwhile, the fast food industry continues its meteoric explosion of prosperity, decades ongoing now, as ever new and clever forms of the stuff are invented, marketed, and digested by the expanding masses, at home and abroad. And yet, twenty percent of American children do not get enough to eat everyday, we are told. In a country overflowing with cheap food, a huge surplus of it. In America, if present trends continue, everyone will either be morbidly obese, or starving to death.