This news about rising rates of obesity is alarming, but so are the responses coming from certain "experts." Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America's Health, the organization behind a new obesity-scare report, says, "If we're going to reverse the obesity trends, willpower alone won't do it. (Translation: Americans can’t be trusted to manage their own diets.) We're going to have to make healthier choices easier for Americans." (“Easier”? How do you make choices easier without reducing them or taking them away? Who has the power to determine others' choices?)
The article goes on to say: “Some groups say such behavioral initiatives are not enough, arguing that food manufacturers and restaurant chains need limits on how they market to children.” (Uh, Happy Meal-age kids don’t take themselves to McD’s. And who's to say that what the parents feed them at home is any healthier.) Behavioral initiatives (i.e., government propaganda) aren't enough, huh? Does this mean that the First Lady's "Let's Move" campaign hasn't gotten the job done? (An ineffective Obama initiative? I know--perish the thought!)
Obesity is a real concern, but so is protecting individual liberty. Reading between the lines of such comments, it's hard not to feel that certain forces are not only after your "freedom fries" but your freedom. Period.
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