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What Is Government's Role In Fighting Obesity?
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by: Guest
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I say that because time and time again, people have proved they are incapable of making intelligent choices about their diet and lifestyle.
The issue is that people's decisions don't occur in a bubble, and when people eat themselves into obesity and Type II diabetes, they become chronically ill and require long-term care, which is funded by tax dollars. Thus, it affects all of us.
So, sadly, the government obviously needs to play parent because we've proved we can't.
Jarrad Smith, Newington
Professor Kelly D. Brownell's laudation of federal efforts to combat obesity are misguided Opinion, July 11, "Government Must Act To Protect Citizens" . Aside from the freedom to choose what we eat, he overlooks a basic economic fact: Government agricultural subsidies contribute to obesity by distorting price incentives.
Totaling between $15 billion and $35 billion per year, many crop subsidies allow farmers to sell at lower-than-market prices. Manufacturers benefit from these subsidized crops because they can sell their final products cheap. Such products have contained any number of favorite culprits (such as high-fructose corn syrup) that are routinely cited by public health experts as contributing to obesity. Eliminating the billions spent each year on these subsidies will empower people to make better-informed nutritional decisions without distorted prices.
Promoting nanny-state solutions to a problem created by government policy is a knee-jerk reaction to a symptom and ignores the disease totally. Abolishing the crop-subsidy program will allow Americans to, effectively, compare apples to apples.
Andrew J. Kwiatkowski, research associate, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C.
As a mother and a registered dietitian/nutritionist, I am concerned with the increasing problem of overweight and obesity, especially in children. But I am not in favor of government intervention to the point of taxing foods (such as soda, per Kelly D. Brownell), or banning foods such as trans fats. It starts with soda and sugars. What's next, salt, fats, white flour? Who decides which foods are bad and, once taxed, where would the money go? Can you say "food czar"?
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