Fat Land (EE): How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World - Softcover

... by the end of the last century, supersizing - the ultimate expression of the value meal revoultion - reigned. As of 1996 some 25 per cent of the $97 billion spent on fast food came from items promoted on the basis of either larger sizer or extra portions. A serving of McDonald's french fries had ballooned from 200 calories (1960) to 320 calories (late 1970s) to 450 calories (mid 1990s) to 540 calories (late 1990s) to the present 610 calories. In fact everything on the menu had exploded in size. What was once a 590 calorie meal was now 1550 calories. By 1999 heavy users - people who eat fast food more than twenty times a month- accounted for $66 billion of the $110 billion spent on fast food...

Greg Critser contributes regularly to USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and Harper's Magazine, where FAT LAND originated as a cover article. He lives in Pasadena, California.