Late last month, a man in New York filed a lawsuit against four fast-food restaurant chains claiming that they were responsible for his obesity problems. Blaming advertisements that supposedly mislead consumers into thinking that their products "are good for you," the man and his lawyers hope to win their case on grounds similar to those that have been used successfully against the tobacco companies. The fast food industry has called the lawsuit frivolous, saying it's ridiculous to claim that food is addictive.

The parallels with cigarettes are not quite as frivolous as they might seem. True, it's doubtful that most Americans, whether or not they live on hamburgers, fries and sugary soft drinks, really do believe fast food is good for you. But fast food marketing schemes are mostly aimed at children in an obvious attempt to engender certain kinds of eating habits. One of the more insidious schemes in the United States is "supersizing." If you order a cheeseburger, a small Coke and a small order of fries at McDonald's, you can get more than double the volume of beverage and twice as many fries just by adding 79 cents. The caloric increase is almost exactly double. The idea is that once you're used to supersizes, nothing smaller will do.

If the fast food industry in the States needs evidence to counter the claim that their product is addictive, they should come to Japan. The recent pricing changes carried out by McDonald's Japan has proved that Japanese consumers are not hooked on hamburgers. When the company raised the price of a hamburger by a mere 15 yen last February, sales dropped almost 20 percent.