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Diabetes is rising startlingly fast in Asia, and while Asians aren't as fat as Americans, a big reason for the increase is the spread of the Western diet—with all its calories, sugar, and refined grains—into developing countries.

A study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association predicts that cases of diabetes worldwide will grow from 240 million in 2007 to 380 million in 2025. About 60 percent of those cases will be in Asia.

Given that "high fructose" is part of the name of "high fructose corn syrup," it's somewhat understandable that if a study comes out saying bad things about the health effects of consuming too much fructose, people are going to point fingers at the corn-based, industrial sweetener.

Over at our sister publication Newsweek, economics editor Dan Gross notes that P.F. Chang's China Bistro (PFCB) is an outlier in the casual-dining sector. It's actually doing OK. No store closures, no massive layoffs, no desperation pricing. Sales are down, but only a bit, and profits are way up.

Come to New Zealand, Johnny Rotten, and meet our cows, the dairy farmers of New Zealand are pleading.

Why would they proffer such an invitation to the former Sex Pistol now going by his real name of John Lydon? Because Lydon is a TV pitchman for Britain's Dairy Crest's Country Life brand of butter. In the TV spots, Lydon highlights the New Zealand provenance of Fonterra Anchor butter. In doing so, the author of "Anarchy in the U.K." appeals to British nationalism.

On The Colbert Report Wednesday night, Michael Pollan told Stephen Colbert that if the bellicose host cooked for himself more often, and ate fewer processed foods, perhaps he wouldn't be so "pasty." Colbert shot back with a zinger about Pollan's baldness, then pointed to his own jet-black mane and said, "This is what high fructose corn syrup gets you."

Disputes over food-label claims are always political. But the current, insane iteration of the American right has walked several steps past the crazy line with its collective reaction to the Food and Drug Administration's demand that General Mills (GIS) tone down its health claims for Cheerios.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Senate leaders are "considering" taxing sugary soft drinks to help pay for health care reform. So far, though, it seems the consideration will consist mainly of listening to testimony Tuesday from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which advocates such a tax.

Oprah Winfrey's decision to put her name on KFC's online coupon promotion turned quickly into a "PR nightmare," as described by QSRweb, which covers the quick-service restaurant industry.

Tom Philpott, who blogs about the food industry's many ecological sins for the environmental news site Grist, took issue Wednesday with my examination of the overheated allegations against the pork industry in regards to the swine flu outbreak.

The "health claims are often misleading" story has been done to death, including by me.