I lost the thread when I tried responding through email so I am sorry
for not linking to the original thread

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7328492/
the number of children 18 and under in single-parent households has
increased over the past three decades. In 1975, about 17 percent of
children lived in single-parent households. By 2003, that number had
increased to 27.5 percent, with most of the increase occurring in the
1980s.
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Divorce and Diet
The Relationship Between Childhood Obesity and Single Parent
Households
Laura Paul

http://www.danecan.org/nutrition/divorceanddiet.pdf
According to obesity researchers, the rate of overweight and obese
children has doubled in the past two decades. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention reports that 15% of children and adolescents
ages 6-19 are overweight, and the rate is higher for children who live
in single parent households.

In fact, children raised by single parents are more likely to be
overweight than those in 2-parent families according to a national
study published in the International Journal of Obesity last year.
They studied more than 7000 children between the ages of 7 and 11 and
found that those raised by one parent were 40% more likely to be
overweight.

Experts speculate single parents are on a tighter budget and cannot
afford dance lessons for their children or more expensive health
foods. They may use television as a babysitter. Another explanation
has to do with the guilt factor. Many single parents may feel sorry
for their children after a broken marriage, compensating for it by
feeding them extra food being lenient about exercise or indulging
their sweet cravings.

Percentage of New Marriages which End in Divorce, in Selected
Countries (2002)
Country     Divorces (as % of marriages)

United States      45.8
Denmark
Belgium
Austria
Czech Republic
Russia
United Kingdom
Norway
Ukraine
Iceland
Germany
Lithuania
France                38.3

In this study US was ranked 6th for divorce rate but divorce would be
one of many factors for overeating, most of which seem to me linked
with emotional factors. The types of weight gaining/unhealthy foods
chosen also relates to emotional factors from divorce, attempts of
emotional fulfillment, advertising, peer pressure, lack of
proprioception to addiction to galanin/casomorphin/sugar substitutes/
caffein and alcohol links w/obesity. Are the "cues to stop eating" as
strong as the addiction?

All an alcoholic has to do is STOP drinking.

If you see behavior of kids in some US public high schools (where coke/
skittles/pizza/doughnuts are used to raise funds for different
programs and sold on campus, eaten in classes randomly without
enforcing rules or the ability to enforce rules not to eat) around
feeding on these fake foods, I don't know how you can call it anything
but addiction. Telling them to stop eating doesn't work. Teachers are
not eating much better and of course have physiques to match. Is this
really as common in France?