Ready, set, throw!

Posted by admin on Mar 21, 2007 in Volume 14 Issue 1 | 0 comments

The ‘war on terror’ may still plague the American government, but many Western countries are discovering a new war that must be fought: the war on obesity. Ever since the Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a study showing that obesity kills 400,000 Americans annually, the United States and the rest of the world have declared an attack on fat.

Earlier this month, Britain’s Prince Charles said he wants to ban the sale of all fast food. In the United States, Illinois and New York have recently begun to force restaurants to post nutritional labels and signs warning consumers about high fat and calorie content. The U.S. Surgeon General has said that obesity is just as dangerous as terrorism.

An American organization of physicians has petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to censor cheese—yes, cheese. Comparing the dairy product to crack cocaine, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says that it is important to protect our children from food.

Politicians have found that the anti-obesity bandwagon is an effective way to garner votes and support, and “big government” has taken on a whole new connotation as food becomes political. Some politicians have even proposed higher taxes on food that is deemed unhealthy.

These fat taxes and food bans have caught the attention of critics such as the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF). Pushing hundreds of full-page ads and public service ads, the CCF says that it’s unethical for politicians to monitor and control what people eat.

But even the CCF is not untouched by the politicization of food. A look at their corporate sponsorship includes alcohol giant Anheuser-Busch, cigarette-maker Phillip Morris, and countless fast food restaurants such as KFC. Obviously, the CCF is not as unbiased as it claims.

However, this doesn’t diminish the CCF’s argument. The question remains: what right does the government have to control a person’s food choices? We must consider where the responsibility for obesity lies: is it the restaurant’s fault for serving greasy food, or the customer’s fault for eating it? The government says it’s the former, and reacts accordingly. Consumer advocates say it’s the latter and question the legality of food restrictions.

The general populace has reacted mostly in favour of fewer restrictions. Many people believe that it is not the role of government to dictate the food choices of its constituents. What people eat or don’t eat is a matter of personal preference.