Fast-food, soda companies, and the like have played a role in creating America's fat crisis, say critics like Marion Nestle, Ph.D., chair of New York University's department of nutrition and food studies. "Food companies will make and market any product that sells, regardless of its nutritional value or its effect on health. In this regard, food companies hardly differ from cigarette companies," she charges in her controversial new book Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health.

Legal experts such as John Banzhaf, a George Washington University Law School professor who was an original architect of the lawsuits against the tobacco industry, think the answer may lie in bringing the food industry to court. However, the prospects of a successful class-action lawsuit look slim. Whereas any exposure to cigarettes is harmful, foods like Krispy Kreme doughnuts can be easily integrated into a healthy diet -- so long as they're eaten in moderation. And while tobacco is physiologically addictive, junk food is not. Plus, it's difficult enough to link heart disease to a diet -- much less pin it on Taco Bell.

Nonetheless, the talk about lawsuits has broadened the tactics of concerned folks who are determined to fight fat. One approach, which was included in a bill introduced into the California Senate earlier this year (and later abandoned), is to levy a small tax on soft drinks and use the money to fund programs that promote healthy eating.

The biggest battles are now being waged on behalf of school kids. One target is TV food commercials geared toward children, upwards of 90 percent of which promote fast food, sugary cereals, soda, cookies, and candy. Inside schools, recent efforts have focused on persuading public schools to stop the proliferation of vending machines.

Not surprisingly, the food industry opposes any interference with the free market. The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), a group that represents restaurant and tavern owners, runs radio ads attacking so-called "junk science" -- such as the government's contention that 300,000 people each year die from obesity-related illnesses. "Government intrusion has crossed a line," says John Doyle, CCF co-founder. "The vast majority of Americans don?t like being told what to eat and what to feed their kids."

Yet even in the most conservative corners, panic about the obesity epidemic is leading to intervention. The Internal Revenue Service recently announced that overweight people can deduct the costs of certain weight-loss programs. Other options include subsidizing healthy foods in vending machines so that they are cheaper than junk food. And life insurance companies already have the legal right to impose higher premiums on obese people, as they do with smokers.

Lawsuits? Spare us. But until Americans make intelligent food choices on their own, people need some creative nudges in the right direction from government and others concerned about public health.

--Nancy Stedman