Vanity Sizing

Vanity sizing is a term that's arisen in recent years to describe the practice of assigning a smaller size number to larger clothing than that number used to represent. Various national retailers are said to employ this practice; Old Navy comes up frequently in internet rumor mills. At some stores, jeans once labeled size 9, for example, are now labeled size 7. The gal wearing these, unaware of the sizing shenanigans, is proud of herself for dropping a size after making no effort to do so, then might be inclined to reward herself with an extra cheeseburger.

Corn

Corn is an ingredient in almost every processed food these days, often showing up in the form of corn syrup. Lower quality corn is even used to fatten up cows (which, by the way, are supposed to be eating grass). Corn syrup, of course, is said to have a similar affect in that it's fattening up the humans. How did this corn-dependence happen, you might ask if you haven't been watching the documentaries and reading the articles about how f'd up our food production system has become.

Corn is the crop most subsidized by the U.S. government, and because of these subsidies, foods sweetened with corn syrup have artificially low prices. There's no shortage of evidence that consuming too much corn syrup is contributing to obesity, and cows raised on corn end up as fattier meat. Meanwhile, growers of fruits and vegetables, which would be the less fattening choices, get less than 1% of government subsidies, so they cost more to buy.

Light Beer

Just because it's labeled "light" doesn't mean it won't contribute to a beer belly. As seen in this chart of regular beer calories and light beer calories, there isn't a whole lot of difference in the calorie counts of regular beers versus light beers. And considering light beers have less alcoholic content, drinkers of light beer might be inclined to drink more to feel the same buzz...

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