Despite (Because of?) having spent three decades of my life writing and editing for them, newspapers haven't yet been a very successful venue for "Fat Boy Thin Man."

But perhaps owing to the Hartford threads in the book, the Hartford Courant decided to tell its readers about the book this morning, and they did a very nice job. It's a Q&A; I found the questions well considered, and the condensing of the conversation was very good.

Thanks to Lara Davy and Harry Powell for directing and producing a series of videos related to my book, "Fat Boy Thin Man. Here's a reading from Chapter 7, which describes my spiritual awakening:

A European Commission report says that half of Europe is either overweight or obese, and that in most member states, rates have doubled in the past 20 years.

They've got nothing on the US, where two of every three American adults — about 145 million — are considered in one of those categories, but they're gaining. 

The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale is possibly the foremost entity for research and advocacy into the issues embedded within its name. Regular readers will know that I've been seeking to illuminate a report it released less than a month ago on the marketing of junk food to kids, strictly because I believe in their mission, and their information.

The Bakersfield Californian publishes my op-ed on the food industry's efforts to escape responsibility for what its products are doing to Americans, while harping on the eater's responsibility for choosing what it makes.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel also ran the piece.

Motivated by this post, I'd like to revisit a very important point about food addiction, as I experience and understand it: Getting the diagnosis, which in almost every case is a self-diagnosis, did NOT release me from responsibility for what I eat.

I'll repeat: Nobody ever held me down and forced food into me. I was totally, completely responsible for what I ate — and, I still am!

General Mills says it has reformulated a quarter of its products this year to improve their health characteristics. As a trent, this is good news, of course, and not only because we are what we eat.

More from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale's recent f.a.c.t.s. report on Food Advertising to Teens and Children:

Children’s exposure to fast food TV ads is increasing, even for ads from McDonald’s and Burger King, who have pledged to reduce unhealthy marketing to children. Compared with 2007, in 2009 children (6-11) saw 26 percent more ads for McDonald’s, 10 percent more for Burger King, and 59 percent more for Subway.

I now have a set of videos that I hope will be another avenue to spread word of "Fat Boy Thin Man" and the ideas contained therein. A couple of them are readings from the book, but this one is the centerpiece:

The other night, some toy store's TV ad boasted its "lowest prices ever," and its absurdity was enough to break through my ad defenses, although not deeply enough that I remembered the offender.

How ridiculous, how absurd.