Bolton, Ont. -- Re Fat Children Outweigh Fat Adults, Statscan Says (Oct. 19): Reporter André Picard concludes that "Statistics Canada data . . . make it clear that obesity has its roots in inactivity."

I would like to make it clear that the data Statistics Canada has presented -- 38 per cent of obese children are inactive compared to 30 per cent of non-obese children -- is correlational, i.e., doesn't indicate cause and effect. Eric Schlosser, in his book Fast Food Nation, presents an alternative view, that the cause of obesity has its roots in fat-enriched diets and the exploitation of children by companies such as McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Coca-Cola, to name a few: "During the 1980s, the sale of fast food in Japan more than doubled; the rate of obesity among children soon doubled, too."

I like to suggest that the fact that obese kids are less active is primarily due to being obese -- resulting from a fat-enriched diet promoted by fast food companies.