Stop blaming McDonald’s

“The sizes of the portions and plates in more than four dozen depictions of the Last Supper – painted over the past 1,000 years – have gradually grown bigger and bigger, according to a Cornell University study published in the International Journal of Obesity (April 2010), a peer-reviewed publication.” The study was led by someone decorated as “the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and of Applied Economics and director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.” If the tendency to eat gargantuan portions grew only so gradually, then fast food chains and snack manufacturers synthesizing ever more irresistible items have been unfairly accused by the author of “Supersize Me” and other radicals. These fine companies may have even contributed to the unfolding of a higher stage in the onward march of human civilization away from the taste deprivation of the cave living. And researchers who help them fine-tune their branding messages are carryng out a noble public duty which should be more widely appreciated.