jollystomper
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2012
- Messages
- 6,196
In my opinion the best approach would be for the govt to restrict levels of sugar and fat in processed foods, restrict or eliminate food and restaurant advertising, impose a national tax on the caloric content of restaurant meals , increase physical education in the school system and launch public awareness campaigns to stigmatize overeating in the way that smoking has been. The alternative is that by mid-century as many as a third of Americans could suffer from preventable diabetes, a treatment load that would be likely to swamp the health-care system.
Of course, such a comprehensive approach to the leading public health issue of the day might offend those who believe in a individual's Right to Diabetes.
The problem with a lot of this that is doesn't address the source and you still have the government playing both sides - they are still subsidizing those who are producing the very substances that are bad, under the guise of "creating jobs". So the more this is done, the more we get more laws of unintended consequences (look at what happened to corn prices when the government decided to promote ethanol as a "cleaner" energy source).
While the above are noble goals, there is always the matter of bureaucracy. You are going after the folks at the end of the food chain, instead of where it starts, which would be more efficient. I can see some many ways things would be exploited by the above, just as other massive programs have been.
The approach that would work best would be to teach healthy food skills (like teaching folks how to cook healthy), exercise (this I agree with the above, I remember having to take and pass fitness tests in grade school as part of advancing to the next grade) and discipline. I would even accept tax credits for fitness - if you are healthy and therefore less likely to have health issues that will cost everyone, why not be rewarded for it. Of course no one has time to cook (but somehow we have lots of time for Facebook and Angry Birds). Discipline these days is a bad word, we might hurt someones feelings. And tax credits for accomplishing something just reeks of unfairness.