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The Marketplace Reader

Los Angeles keeps it trim

Melissa Kaplan Jul 22, 2008

Among the many things Los Angeles is known for, keeping trim might be at the top of the list. You can even see it in the city’s recent politics.

A city council member in Los Angeles is trying to stop new fast-food restaurants from opening in a 32-square-mile part of L.A. where obesity rates are high. The Wall Street Journal reports the targeted area is already home to some 400 fast-food restaurants. Thirty percent of adults in the area are obese, compared with about 21 percent in the rest of the city. Today, a committee will weigh in on the proposed ordinance before sending it on to the full city council for a vote.

Not that this will necessarily affect the area’s obesity rate, but the L.A. Times took a look at what makes people fat and has a list of links with different popular theories. My favorite: Maybe it’s all that high-fructose corn syrup. Is that stuff good for anything?

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