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If it bleeds, it leads: the pathos derby

Correspondence to:
Stan Shatenstein
5492-B Trans Island, Montreal, Quebec H3W 3A8; shatensteins@sympatico.ca

Keywords: obesity; fat; rimonabant

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In a major recent review of the causes of death in the USA,¹ Mokdad and colleagues found, unsurprisingly, that "smoking remains the leading cause of mortality". The authors also concluded, notably, that "poor diet and physical inactivity may soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of death." The reaction to this news was swift, broad, curious, and instructive.

From around the globe, headlines screamed out variations on the theme: "Fat gains on tobacco as top death factor" (CNN)²; "Combating Killers: Fat, Tobacco" (CBS News)³; "Fat of the land is killing more Americans than cigarettes" (The Times, London)⁴; "Americans Eating Themselves to Death" (The Scotsman)⁵; "US government moves to reduce rampant obesity" (Taipei Times)⁶; "Obésité : le mal du siècle" (Le Figaro, Paris).⁷

Clearly, Mokdad’s study in JAMA sounded an alarm, but why, and what precisely was the message? Most newspaper reports, derived . . . [Full text of this article]