When Dr. Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale University Center for Eating & Weight Disorders, said, "To me, there is no difference between Ronald McDonald and Joe Camel," it should have sent a chill down the spine of executives at every major food and beverage company in America.The rising number of conferences on obesity, the warnings about food allergies, the continuing concerns about additives approved years ago by government agencies focus a bright light on the vulnerability of food and beverage manufacturers as they confront the looming crisis in children's nutrition.According to Promar International analyst John Hedlund, "The problem today is unlike anything before. Children are not deprived of nutritious food. They are not the undernourished of a few generations past. Instead they suffer from 'too much."' Too much of a good thing has become a reality for many American children and Hedlund observes, "In the media attention that this issue is generating and the inevitable policy debate, food companies and food service operators are certain to be singled out as guilty parties."