Fat chance.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Rundles Wrap-Up

I RECENTLY HAD A BIRTHDAY AND, FOR REASONS THAT NOW HAVE BEEN OBSCURED, possibly by age, I decided to spend it at Disney World. After some pleading, my 6-year-old son talked me into taking him on the "It's a Small World After All" ride, a form of torture that even he finally decided wasn't worth the effort. While in line, I had time--well, you know, time to read "War and Peace," but also plenty of time to ponder all the other people in line and decide that the ride should be renamed "It's not a Small World After All--It's a Fat World."

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I don't mean to be glib, nor do I mean to be mean. Obesity is epidemic in the United States, getting worse, and it is a health-care crisis that each of us, thin and stout alike, are going to pay for dearly. What might be important to readers of this magazine is that the ill effects of obesity are going to cost businesses billions of dollars in health-care premiums, lost work, and lower productivity, if they aren't already.

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Early last month, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put some important perspective on it. These days, "poor diet and physical inactivity"--the key ingredients of obesity--as a health category is right there challenging smoking for the No. 1 underlying cause of death in America.

Ironically, just days before the CDC's report, McDonald's, the fast-food chain that is most often identified as the source of the worst eating habits, announced that it was doing away with its popular supersize fries and soft drinks and increasing its offerings of salads. In truth, the chain isn't doing that much. For instance, it is dropping the 7-ounce supersize fry for a 6.2-ounce regular fry. Keep in mind that when McDonald's launched the fast-food craze back in the 1950s, its regular fry...