The American diet has gone astray, lured by fat-free grains, breads, and cereals that have led not to a leaner promised land but to a quagmire of flabby bodies and rising risk of diabetes, experts at the Harvard School of Public Health said Sept. 9. ...

Helped along by supersized portions, soft drinks, and a lack of exercise, America's unhealthy diet has led to such a rapid increase in obesity rates nationally, that Mississippi earned the dubious distinction in 2001 of becoming the first state with more than 25 percent of its adults considered obese.

—HARVARD GAZETTE, Building a better American diet: School of Public Health conference looks at science behind diet recommendations

According to Dr. Kelly Brownell, PhD, an expert on American diet and health, a study was conducted with the Pima Indians who live both in Mexico and Arizona. It was found that those Pima Indians who live in Arizona have much higher rates of obesity than their counterparts in Mexico, even though both groups of people have the same genetic and ethnic background. This is also true for many migrants of the US who have a much higher obesity rate than their relatives back home.

—Obesity in America, downtoearth.org

Once generally criticized as a symbol of American economic imperialism and culinary mediocrity, McDonald's restaurants can now be found in nearly every major Mexican city. In one, however, some worried activists are trying to draw the line.

Plans to open a toned-down Golden Arches in the colonial arcades of the central plaza in Oaxaca City are pitting local cultural groups against businessmen, with the city government stuck firmly in between.

The plaza, or zocalo, has been designated "patrimony of humanity" by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. Oaxaca City is the capital of the heavily Indian state in southern Mexico by the same name. Analysts said this is the latest skirmish over globalization in a nation that has gone from zero McDonald's in 1984 to 250 today [2002]. An additional 65 are slated to open this year, and 85 in 2003.

—Dallas Morning News September 3, 2002, via globalpolicy.org, Mexico Culturists Want a Break Today from McDonald's

Nearly a half-millennium after the Spaniards captured this fertile valley that contains some of the grandest pyramids on Earth, some residents are battling what they view as a new invader: Wal-Mart, Mexico's largest retailer and private employer, which Thursday opened a discount superstore on the outskirts of the Teotihuacán ruins. ...

'This is a fight against all outside forces threatening our cultural heritage,' said Ortega, a co-leader of the Teotihuacán Civic Front, which has vowed to continue protests -- including sporadic blockades of the entrance to the pyramids -- until the store closes. 'It's about genetically modified corn replacing our pure corn and Halloween replacing our Day of the Dead ceremonies. It's about television programs that impose the U.S. vision of the world.' ...

Mexico's "globofobicos," as foes of multinationals are known here, scored a victory two years ago when they forced McDonald's to drop plans for a fast-food outlet in the historic central square of Oaxaca, a city famous for its colonial architecture, indigenous influences and culinary specialties such as fried grasshoppers.

But the globofobicos failed to stop the discount giant Costco from razing an historic hotel filled with valuable murals and surrounded by forest to make way for a shopping center last year in the picturesque city of Cuernavaca. After massive protests, Costco agreed to salvage some of the murals and put them in a mini-museum -- inside the asphalt shopping complex."

—Is Wal-Mart ruining the Aztec ruins?, newsday.com