The food police at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) think a chocolate bar and marshmallow are too unhealthy for s’mores and have reinvented the s’more to cut calories and fat. They claim that the federally-approved s’mores  are just as delicious.

The USDA replaces chocolate with strawberries and marshmallows with low-fat vanilla yogurt. They boast on their recipe page "Kids will love that they can make it themselves, and parents will love that it's an inexpensive and healthy treat!"

Is this a recipe for disaster? Perhaps not, but why is the USDA wasting time on recipes?

We do know it is part of an effort to make all Americans healthier. First Lady Michelle Obama has championed ending childhood obesity through the Let’s Move campaign – the cause may be appealing but the massive federal exercise has so far shown no positive results.  The impact on the waistlines of kids has been negligible, kids often won’t eat the food, and the whole program has proven detrimental to the bottom lines of school budgets. High school students are going hungry because schools serve less food on their plates and garbage bins are piled high with what foods the students did find on their plates has been the outcome in many schools.

What good has any  of this done for our national waistlines? Apparently, not nearly what might have been hoped.

The percentage of obese Americans has hit its highest levels, according to Gallup’s report on obesity. In a handful of states more than one third of the population is obese. As a result they are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, heart attacks, and depression.  There’s also a strong link between obesity and well-being.

Mississippi had the highest obesity rate in the nation (35 percent) for the second year in a row. West Virginia followed with a 34.3 percent rate. The less prosperous states, not unexpectedly, lead in obesity.

Life is healthy and good in Hawaii though, with fewer than one in five residents being obese – the lowest obesity level in the nation. Interestingly left-leaning states like California, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut rank among the lowest with obesity levels hovering just below one quarter of their populations.

Here’s more from Gallup:

The national obesity rate continued to rise in 2014 to 27.7%, up from 27.1% in 2013 and significantly higher than the 25.5% recorded in 2008. Since 2013, four states — Nevada, New Mexico, Alabama and Minnesota — have had statistically significant increases in obesity, while only one state, Tennessee, has had a statistically significant decline in obesity.


Obesity rates continue to be highest in Southern and Midwestern states and lowest in Western and Northeastern states, a pattern that has persisted since Gallup and Healthways began tracking the obesity rate in 2008.

Gallup and Healthways have found a consistent and strong link between obesity and Americans' overall well-being. Therefore, many of the states with the lowest obesity rates are also among those with the highest overall Well-Being Index scores.

Gallup and Healthways define well-being through the five essential elements: purpose, social, financial, community and physical. For each element, respondents are sorted into one of three categories based on their level of well-being: thriving, struggling or suffering. Previous research has demonstrated a link between obesity and lower social well-being, but (excluding physical well-being, of which it is a part) obesity also has a deleterious effect on the other three elements of well-being. Across all elements of well-being, Americans who are obese are more likely to be suffering than those who are not obese.

These numbers are important because those suffering with chronic diseases may consume more healthcare services driving up costs in the aggregate.

Public policy aimed at controlling or reducing rising healthcare costs is interacting with a sick population that cannot afford to pay for the care they need. ObamaCare was meant to control costs but it has been an abysmal failure. In fact, we’re seeing the opposite. Earlier this week, we reported that healthcare insurers in some states were planning premium rate increases at the 30 percent, 40 percent, and even 50 percent levels because the participants in ObamaCare are far sicker and demand more in services than they expected.

Meanwhile, the government is trying to administer s’mores?

Give me a break.