Inbox

Feeding Frenzy

Jeffrey Kluger's cover story was the best read on pleasure-seeking factors that are making America fat [June 11]. Please don't share that information with junk-food marketers! The report also showed the extreme effort we devote to finding a cure for obesity other than healthful food and exercise.

MeMe Roth, President National Action Against Obesity NEW YORK CITY

Grocery stores are filled with junk food disguised as health food. Prepared and fast foods are degrading our palates and making us overweight. The old trick of buying only from the store's peripheral aisles works. Fresh fish and meats, vegetables, fruits, whole-grain breads and dairy products will please our palates if we quit eating the garbage. And if you really want that ice cream, go for the real McCoy, full fat and all. Just don't eat too much too often.

Karen Soubeyrand, HOLLAND, OHIO

In the comparisons of eating habits around the world, the family you selected to highlight the African experience lives in a refugee camp. Are most Africans refugees waiting for handouts?

Tapiwa Nedziwe YPSILANTI, MICH.

Joel Stein spent only two days on the Master Cleanse fast, which should be done for at least 10 days. That's like taking two days' worth of a 10-day antibiotic and saying it didn't work.

Peter Glickman, Author of Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days CLEARWATER, FLA.

If the emptiness of the heart is not filled with the right substance, it will fixate on poorer substitutes. When God is missing, our appetites can be infinite and create troubled relationships with substances meant to fulfill biological, not spiritual, needs. In other words, we will have addictions.

Otilia E. Husu, PEORIA, ARIZ.

I promise to eat more wisely, exercise more regularly and cut back on martinis. Now please tell me where I can buy one of those sundaes you showed on your cover!

Dick Ramette, GREEN VALLEY, ARIZ.

Slaughter as Spectacle

The Postcard from Mexico should have been titled "Postcard of Animal Cruelty" [June 11]. Bullfighting is dying a natural death because people are choosing not to support animal torture. As a result of public outrage, Barcelona's city council passed a resolution opposing bullfighting. Bullfighting involves a being who has the choice of participating and another that has no choice and is ultimately always the loser. That is just plain wrong.

Susan Hargreaves, JUPITER, FLA.