Thursday, May 31, 2012

So, the question is posed whether we want to ponder about and deliberate it or not: should the government start stepping in and attempt to start forcing upon we-the-people things that will, allegedly, reduce the amount of obesity in our nation?

I dunno.  If you believe the statistics, in the next 20 years there are going to be a LOT of obese people walking around this nation.  If people can't find it within themselves to get up and start exercising and put down the cokes, the fat and calorie laden dishes and the sugar-filled desserts, perhaps it's time to try something new.  The idea of a "fat tax" has been floated.  The idea of paying people to lose weight as well - which I think is a ridiculous and dumb idea, who is going to foot the tab?  Yeah, that's what I thought.

And it's allllll too easy to stop at a McDonald's; Burger King; Wendy's etc. to get a quick bite to eat if you are in a hurry and don't have time. I pretty much force myself to stay away from such establishments excepting McDonald's to get a nice cup of coffee on occasion. I love Big Macs which is all the better reason to stay away from that place.  I envision myself at 300 pounds and don't like that particular thought.  I am at 199 pounds right now.  Anytime I break the 200 barrier I go hog-wild crazy and do whatever to get the weight back down again.

Whatever.  There has to be some response to this situation.  It's only going to cost all of us even more money in health care coverage costs and all that is associated with being extremely overweight or obese.  I'm not sure that it's the government's job to step into such a theater and if not, then what?  Leave it go?  The fast food companies and the soft drink and energy drink companies are making far too much money to suddenly decide that they aren't going to sell the fat and sugar laden foods they are selling and go on the vegan road.  The only way that will ever happen is if America wakes up out of it's slumber.

Just an interesting topic, at least to me.

ben

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The mayor of NYC (who is average weight except for his wallet) wants to ban big sugar drinks.

Most of the people I see carrying those half gallon slurpees are 300 pound waddling hippos anyhow, which, for me, is an excellent diet aid.

f

BenB said...

ROFL, you mean seeing those people in that condition makes you NOT want to end up looking like THEM! Good point!~

Fin said...

Check out Harpo's take on this topic. As he frequently does, he has some very wry insights. I particularly like his crack about Bloomberg,

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