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America’s war on obesity is an assault on our liberty
The Financial Times ^ | March 7, 2014 | Christopher Caldwell

Posted on 03/10/2014 1:22:58 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Tolerance for regulation is growing even though we know little about its effectiveness.

There is a glimmer of hope for the fat countries of the world – for Mexico, which has recently outstripped the US as the most overweight population in the Americas, and for Britain and Hungary, which vie for the title of Europe’s most obese nation. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows a steep drop in obesity among US toddlers. While a seventh (14 per cent) of children aged two to five had a very high body mass index a decade ago, only a 12th (8 per cent) did the last time they were measured in 2011-12. The study has been somewhat oversold. The JAMA authors stressed that they had found, overall, “no significant changes in obesity prevalence”. But the good news among the two-to-fivers has left nutrition and fitness advocates fighting over the credit. Who deserves it?

Michelle Obama, the US president’s wife, is ready to claim her share. She is the public face of government campaigns against childhood obesity. In a press release issued by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the JAMA study, the first lady professed herself “thrilled at the progress we’ve made over the last few years”. But this progress largely antedates Mrs Obama. Most of the period covered in the JAMA study came during the presidency of George W Bush. Mrs Obama’s exercise programme “Let’s Move” was founded only in 2010. While she has assiduously promoted new, health-conscious school menus ordered by Congress and regulators, the menus themselves have been a flop. Scraps of meat, grainy pasta . . . As a critical government report euphemistically put it in July, schools have “experienced various challenges related to student acceptance of some of the foods”.(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: bureaucrats; michelleobama; obama; obesity
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I know there are "tons" of people here who hate the fatties, so this should get interesting.

1 posted on 03/10/2014 1:22:58 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
America’s war on obesity is an assault on our liberty

Well, duh.

2 posted on 03/10/2014 1:24:39 PM PDT by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th (and 17th))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If the War on Obesity turns out anything like our ‘War on Poverty’ and our ‘War on Drugs’, we’ll all be Supersized before the decade is out..................


3 posted on 03/10/2014 1:26:27 PM PDT by Red Badger (LIberal is an oxymoron......................)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Everything the Rats do is an assault on our liberty. They literally want to control everything in your lives.


4 posted on 03/10/2014 1:26:48 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Haven't you lost enough freedoms? Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Michelle Obama, the US president’s wife, is ready to claim her share. She is the public face of government campaigns against childhood obesity.

The Moose should concentrate her efforts on adult obesity - her own is a good place to start.

She's not exactly svelte and well toned in spite of the leftist media fawning over her arms.


5 posted on 03/10/2014 1:32:25 PM PDT by Iron Munro (Albert Einstein: The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits)
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To: Iron Munro

She is trying to look at the dog, in a svelte kind of way, but finding the view is blocked.


6 posted on 03/10/2014 1:46:08 PM PDT by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Everything the Rats do is an assault on our liberty. They literally want to control everything in your lives.

Don't worry, the Republicans want that, too!

7 posted on 03/10/2014 1:47:56 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: C210N
She is trying to look at the dog, in a svelte kind of way, but finding the view is blocked.

Are you referring to that bloated paunch filled with lobster and Kobe Beef?


8 posted on 03/10/2014 1:56:08 PM PDT by Iron Munro (Albert Einstein: The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits)
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To: OneWingedShark

Yes, but not all of them like the Rat party.


9 posted on 03/10/2014 1:57:18 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Haven't you lost enough freedoms? Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I choose not to eat processed food, only fresh, and I’m slender-but that is my personal choice, like my occasional cigarette and glass of wine. If someone chooses to be overweight, that is their choice-none of my business, and none of the government’s business. But I don’t want to hear them whining about how anyone else is at fault, or seeking government assistance when they get charged extra for 2 seats on an airplane, or because they are injured when they break a chair by sitting on it and fall. We all need to accept responsibility for our actions and choices-that is what adults do...


10 posted on 03/10/2014 2:06:54 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"....)
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To: Iron Munro

Michelle Antoinette has a fat ass and thunder thighs-she definitely does not practice what she preaches.


11 posted on 03/10/2014 2:09:03 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"....)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I never thought about it that way before. While I agree - choke - that one should not feed ones babies and toddlers bad foods and help cause childhood obesity, it is true that adults should be allowed to be obese.

Why is is saintly to engage in gay sex but sinful to enjoy pie and chocolate????

Let everyone live the way they want. We joyfully support peoples illnesses from bathhouses and anal sex. So let’s joyfully support sequelae from overeating as well!!

Raise your bars of chocolate!!! Be who you are! Come out of your pizza closets !! We’re here, we’re chubby, get used to it!!!!


12 posted on 03/10/2014 2:22:50 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: Yaelle
We joyfully support peoples illnesses from bathhouses and anal sex.

*****************************

Is this sarcasm?

13 posted on 03/10/2014 2:24:51 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The reason we have an obesity epidemic is that the 40 years ago government the government began a concerted effort to convince us all that we needed to eat low-fat in order to avoid heart disease - for which premise they had absolutely zero evidence.

The problem isn't just that the government's trying to force us to take their advice - it's that the advice they're trying to force on us is the cause of the problem.

14 posted on 03/10/2014 2:27:15 PM PDT by jdege
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To: trisham

Sarcastic?? Yes, yes it is. ;)


15 posted on 03/10/2014 2:33:59 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: Yaelle

Good to hear it.


16 posted on 03/10/2014 2:40:51 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Yaelle
it is true that adults should be allowed to be obese.

While I agree, I'd don't think many would choose to be so. Most aren't actually happy with being overweight, they are simply resigned to being overweight, because their repeated attempts to lose weight have failed.

What they don't understand is that the reason they've failed is not because they are slothful and gluttonous, but because the the low-fat, low-calorie advice that our public health officials have been pushing for the last 40 years is demonstrably wrong.

17 posted on 03/10/2014 3:35:25 PM PDT by jdege
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To: jdege

Oh, you are preaching to the choir. I was tongue in cheek, really.

People always complain about the taxpayers’ health costs from obesity (and they are not wrong), but the same folks scream for MORE MONEY FOR AIDS and other problems which can come from indiscriminate gay sex. I just wanted to make a little point about their hypocrisy. Gay is good, fat is bad.

And yes, indeed, the government going along with the carby food pyramid and the low fat craze definitely did it.

Honest food that tastes good, very little of it processed, and good, healthy fats will keep people satisfied, their brains fed, and enhance the nutrient absorption from the rest of their food!


18 posted on 03/10/2014 3:54:40 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: trisham

Lol!! I had thought I’d laid it on pretty thick!


19 posted on 03/10/2014 3:55:53 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: Yaelle

:)


20 posted on 03/10/2014 4:00:34 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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