"A five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes"

Katherine Mangu-Ward | August 15, 2008

For those who missed some of this season's finest journalism about the Olympics, ponder The New York Post's account of what swimming powerhouse Michael Phelps eats to make up his daily diet of 12,000 calories a day.

And now meet another Michael: Michael Jacobson, the director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Jacobson thinks you eat too much. He thinks pretty much all Americans eat too much, and that they're not going to stop unless we tax or ban "bad" foods. Everywhere Jacobson looks, he sees danger: Cancer in french fries, diabetes in Frosted Flakes, tooth decay in soda, and obesity in just about every that's tasty.

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) regularly takes the piss out of Jacobson, pointing out that the obesity epidemic is just as much a matter of fewer calories burned in the form of exercise as it is more calories consumed in the form of Cheetos. (Read reason on the obesity "epidemic" here.)

Below, CCF has outdone itself with a side-by-side comparison of the two Michaels. You be the judge:

 UPDATE: Enjoy a typo-less version of the chart!