Joan Ifland, principal organizer of the Promising Practices in Food Addiction conference last weekend in Houston, shared some back-of-the-envelope figuring, and suggested that overeating is responsible for 7 percent of the economy. It went like this:

I fear no contradiction when I say that if you don’t act insanely around food, then you know someone who does. That shouldn’t even stir contention in a nation where 2 of every 3 adults — 145 million of us — are considered overweight (defined as a body/mass index of between 25 and 30) or obese (a BMI over 30).

Here’s a window on that insanity, cited by Diane Rohrbach of Seattle, program director of Food Addiction Recovery Education, during her presentation at the Promising Practices in Food Addiction conference last weekend in Houston: The Cookie Diet. This is an actual product.

New York is contemplating a penny-per-ounce tax on sugared drinks. Here's how New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg justified his support to a state Senate committee:

“Today, more than half the residents of New York City, and nearly 40 percent of our public school students, are overweight, many of them seriously so. That puts them dangerously on track to contracting diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma, depression, and other serious health problems later in their lives.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Society, reviewing CDC figures, says that obesity has leveled off. Though it's based on data I accept as credible, I do have to say that what I see at the mall, at a ballgame, or at the airport, I still see a lot of overweight people. Maybe I'm just looking for them, based on my sensitivities.

But what made me want to comment is this:

But for the Democracy Institute, a free market think tank, the new data in the JAMA exposes the myth of the obesity epidemic.

The second annual conference on "Promising Practices in Food Addiction Recovery" will be at the end of the month in Houston. The focus this year will be on assessment — refining how the standards measures of addiction can be recognized in problem eaters.

Sponsors include Kay Sheppard, Renaissance Nutrition Center, Turning Point of Tampa, Shades of Hope Treatment Center of Texas, Milestones Eating Disorders Program of Miami, and ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services of Sarasota. Essentially, these are the, uh, heavyweights of food addiction treatment.

Yeah, OK, so I've been MIA forever, and probably, that's likely to continue. Georgie's family leave ends today, and I'll be finally taking on the full reality of what I set out to do when I left the Globe almost three years ago — be the full-time caregiver for my child. (His name is Joe; you can view photos here if you want.)

More than a hundred hardy people huddled together for warmth and solidarity in a frigid downtown Boston Friday night to declare their support for a strong and binding climate agreement, whose prospects are being discussed these days in Copenhagen.

"This has been a true expression of the deep sense of betrayal many [blanks] feel about [blank]'s lack of effective action on climate change," said Georgina Woods, spokesperson for the demonstration. "We voted for this government so they would stand up to the big polluters, and lead the world on dealing with the impending climate crisis."

"Instead, [blank] has perfected a marvellous line in greenwash, the polluters are getting taxpayer handouts and under the legislation currently before the Senate, [blank] will not have to cut domestic emissions one jot."

Author and activist Bill McKibben [above] wasn’t only preaching to the choir when he addressed the annual meeting Sunday of the Mass. Climate Action Network, he was among the adoring.

I received this over the transom, and am happy to pass it along. I know no one personally who has reached out to ABA, but I do know people who have gotten help from food-related 12 Step groups, and I could not endorse them more strongly.