Consider just a few of the latest, some would say confusing, developments in the heated debate over junk food, advertising and obesity:
* Last week, new government research pointed to an unlikely culprit in the recent rise in childhood obesity: large-scale consumption of sugar-laden fruit juice by preschoolers. U.S. dietary guidelines suggest parents give their children fresh fruit, water or milk instead.
* Kraft Foods last month agreed to stop advertising Oreos, Chips Ahoy cookies, Kool-Aid and other non-nutritional snack foods on television to children ages 6 to 11, a move that some critics claim is designed to ward off government regulation and was made only after pressure from consumer groups.
* In January, General Mills announced it would replace refined grains with whole grains in many of its cereals, the same month it launched a new Chocolate Lucky Charms brand (high in sugar and loaded with marshmallows).
* Among the films nominated for an Oscar at Sunday's Academy Awards is a documentary titled Super Size Me, which exposes the health risks of eating a McDonald's-only diet. Meanwhile, according to a report this week in the New York Times, McDonald's expects to buy 54 million pounds of fresh apples this year, up from zero two years ago, making the company the largest wholesale purchaser of apples in the U.S. Apples show up on the McDonald's menu in salads and desserts, alongside such items as the double cheeseburgers (still the company's biggest seller), McGriddles breakfast sandwiches, French fries and hot fudge sundaes.
Mention the word "obesity" to health care researchers and just about the only point of agreement is that the problem has indeed reached critical proportions. Obesity is routinely described as a global epidemic that affects children and adults not only in the United States and Western Europe but in countries like South Africa, China and Brazil.
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