USA
Fat!

"We can!", "Moment of Truth", "Check your health", "Make a splash", "Eat healthy, be active", these are only a few of the campaigns launched in the United States to fight obesity. Governmental bodies, municipalities, universities, medical centres, associations, communities, groups of parents…. Many people are involved in the struggle.
About 97 million adults in the United States (about 30%) are overweight or obese. When you know that obesity and overweight substantially increase the risk of morbidity (hypertension; dyslipidemia; type 2 diabetes; coronary heart disease; stroke; gallbladder disease; osteoarthritis; sleep apnea and respiratory problems; and endometrial, breast, prostate, and colon cancers), you understand why campaigning is of such social, political, cultural importance. When you know that by 2015, 75% percent of adults will be overweight, and 41% obese (according to the Centre for Human Nutrition, Department of National Health, John Hopkins Blomberg School of Public Health), you understand why campaigning has become such emergency.

We all know it: food industry is not that pleased with the witch hunt of wrong carbohydrates and other niceties. Actually, one cannot say that consumers’ health is a priority for food industry.
For instance, fast-food restaurants have decided to accept credit and debit card payments. In years past, they accepted only cash (credit card transactions took too long to process). This limitation saved many customers who would bypass the local fast-food joint as they didn’t have enough cash. Now the cash limit is not a problem anymore. As soon as the impulse to grab some hamburger, fries, and milk-shake is felt, it is fulfilled. Are there consequences? Oh yes… A Visa study of 100,000 restaurant transactions found that customers spent, on average, 30% more than those who paid with cash. That 30% can be the difference between a small order of fries and soft drink and a supersize order, or it can be the addition of a high-calorie dessert. In a study published in June 2006 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said they found that the average up-sized fast-food meal added 73 calories, cost an extra 67 cents and resulted in an average 36-gram weight gain. Think about it: 36-gram a few times per week… What will you look like after a year?

Ah, vicious food industry… But is it the sole responsible?
Mind you, banks have their share of responsibility. American Express, Discover Financial Services, MasterCard and Visa all offer contactless credit cards. It means that you don’t need even to sign the transaction receipt, you just hold the credit card in front of a reader, located at the counter or the drive-through window. Faster!
You don’t only amass calories, you amass debts. Fast-food is cheap? That’s a myth. If you charge your fast-food meals on top of your other balances, you'll end up paying finance charges. What does it mean? Your $7 meal can end up costing you $10 when it's ultimately paid in full. Another example: those who eat out for lunch every day, spending about $9 per meal, render $180 a month of their credit line unusable in an emergency.
So, who do you think is profiting here?

(Based on the study of Tamara E. Holmes)