Slowly but surely, the US is waddling towards the moment when every chain restaurant will have to advertise the calorie count of each item it sells. The American Medical Association has voted to classify obesity as a disease, which means that the roughly 90 million Americans who qualify as obese – almost a third of the country – must be seen as “downright ill”. But will calorie postings help cure them? The evidence from New York is not encouraging. Since the law came in, the impact on customers’ calorie intake has been modest. At Subway, which during the survey period was promoting foot-long sandwiches for $5, calorie consumption actually increased. (part of an article by Frank Bruni, The New York Times).

America’s obesity epidemic is caused by drinking sodas and eating food deliberately designed to make you want to eat more calories than you need. The answer is to do to them what was done to the tobacco industry, that is tax them according to the calories purveyed and to invest in an advertising campaign pointing out that the fast food industry is, like tobacco, poisoning huge numbers of people. This would be fiercely opposed by right wing “don’t interfere with the inviolable, holy market” crowd (which is itself having to pay more health insurance because of the fast food guzzlers). But Epicureans believe in saving lives and reducing unnecessary illnes, and the obesity is mostly unnecessary. It’s about getting along together and moderation.