In Sunday’s Outlook section of The Washington Post Rachel Dry spoke with former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler who raises concerns about a new study claiming medical costs associated with obesity in the United States have risen to $147 billion. (He doesn’t, however, compare lifetime medical costs between the obese and the svelte.)
Most concerning, he and others are encouraging even greater government involvement in Americans’ lives, suggesting that in addition to more sin taxes and warning labels, the government needs to be more “empathetic” to people’s eating habits.
Dry and Kessler are keen on drawing comparisons between the government’s campaign against tobacco in the 1990s and a new “fight against food.” According to Kessler, stopping people from eating too much “is going to require a public health effort and campaign that far outstrips the campaign against tobacco.”
It’s a tough row to hoe, though. Kessler agrees with the WaPo, “food is more difficult to demonize than tobacco.”
Hmmm. Perhaps there’s a good reason for that? As far as I’m aware, everything in moderation – even excess – can be good for you.
