General Mills says it has reformulated a quarter of its products this year to improve their health characteristics. As a trent, this is good news, of course, and not only because we are what we eat.

The company says it made these changes because its customers have told them it's what they want. I write, very often, that America talks about "solutions" for obesity but really has nothing that measures up to the word, since nothing is being solved. But this is evidence of a solution — Americans' asking for better food. It's early — in the main, we're still super-portion-let's-eat-outers — but it's a sign of hope.

I notice, too, that this is what moves manufacturers to change. It's much easier to get corporations to change if they deem the changes to be in their selfish interest, rather than cuffing them with government regulation. I don't say that regulation is bad, per se; I just acknowledge the obvious, that lots of people will fight to the death (others') to thwart what they glibly call the nanny state, which undermines regulation as a solution.

 A Grocery Manufacturers Association poll cited in the story, by Caroline Scott-Thomas at FoodNaviagtor-USA.com, says that companies have doubled the pace of reformulations in the name of health in the past three years.