Over at Childhood Obesity News, Dr. Robert Pretlow writes about the journal Childhood Obesity, which launched in September with a luminous editorial board and a grant from the Kellogg's Foundation. 

I wrote previously about Sue Shekut's blog post triggered by a Men's Health story titled "I Hate Fat People," by Richard Cunniff, and now I return to the story itself. It is excellent, full of reporting and original thought, and I commend it to you wholeheartedly.

I try to scan the field of blogs routinely, to connect with others who are writing about it, and I came across this one this morning at the very simpatico childhoodobesitynews.com.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has sued McDonald's in California over the fast-food giant's use of toys as come-ons to kids to purchase their products.

According to an NPR dispatch, "The lawsuit asserts that under California's consumer protection laws, McDonald's toy advertising is deceptive. It targets children under 8 years old who don't have the ability to understand advertising."

Sue Shekut, the owner of Working Well Massage in Chicago, riffs off a Men's Health article and gets to the question of what's causing the US obesity problem. 

I was delighted to see this morning that the Morning Call, a newspaper in Allentown, Pa., picked up the Hartford Courant's Q&A with me. So, hi to all my new pals in the Lehigh Valley.

Added 12/14: Turns out, the Courant is part of the Health Key, and the story ran in quite a few places across the country: South Bend, Ind., Chicago, New Orleans, and other places I'd know if I had more patience for Googling. 

At the Huffington Post, Kerry Trueman, co-founder of eatingliberally,org, asks Marion Nestle about why the food wars have become a red state/blue state issue.

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.