And here's how our nation compares with others for this category.

sorry, couldn't help!

The referenced OECD study broke out overweightness by socioeconomic level, but unfortunately, only did this for boys and girls rather than adults. Nevertheless, it supports my observation that "rich folk ain't so fat". I spend a fair amount of time in a very affluent town in MA, and there is a definite scarcity of obese folks. This also goes along with a healthier diet (lots of fresh fruits and veggies, more fish and other lean protein) costing more on average than a less healthy one (think hot dogs and pasta). One might also expect the well-off to have more access to active recreation, gyms, and the like.

Fully credible, Mike. It is amusing to look at political cartoons of the eigtheenth and nineteenth centuries portraying the wealthy as plump and the poor as slender.

It is true that obesity is inversely correlated with level of income. As you noted, Mike, part of the problem is that the cost/calorie of foods like Mac-n-cheese or Lunchables is far lower than the cost/calorie of fresh friuts and veggies. So for less money you get more fat and fewer nutrients. And that's all supported by government subsidies of the additives (corn syrup leading among them) that go into fast and processed foods. Your typical chicken Mc Nugget is chicken (raised on corn), processed with corn syrup added, breaded in corn meal, and fried in corn oil. As long as trans fats (which don't occur in nature) are subsidized, food manufacturers will have an added incentive to put them in our food, and because it will be cheap (and tasty) we will have incentive to buy it and eat it. And we'll get fatter and fatter. Right now 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese, and preventable, lifestyle related disease (cholesterol, diabetes, etc) account for 3/4 of our astoundingly high health care costs. Many people are literally eating them selves to death.

This trend, while alarming, keeps me employed and funded so I am not complaining too much.

Good NPR piece from this morning:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer...amp;m=137838919