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 ...
If we want to talk about controlling behavior, how about rounding up everyone involved in “bug chasing” with AIDS, executing those intentionally spreading it and denying all care to those who deliberately get infected?
I agree that the recommended low-fat high-carb diet is a major cause. Beyond that, it became non-PC to consider that there was anything wrong with obese people so we lost the power of social pressure.
“Tolerance for regulation is growing even though we know little about its effectiveness.”
How foolish...to believe that feckless leaders have anything good in mind.
Larger fonts on food product packaging is about as effective as warning labels on cigarette packs.
Oh what a tangled web they weave.
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