This bill has great potential for helping to battle the obesity epidemic in America. 1 in 3 people are overweight in the U.S.. The very doctors people seek for medical treatment are not unlikely to refrain from telling a patient they are overweight. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/03/11/134211284/just-talking-with-your-doctor-could-help-you-lose-weight. Why should people be opposed to educating children about preventing ailments that will shorten their lives, increase their medical expenses, and cause debilitating diseases? The cost related illnesses for medical treatment are thousands of dollars per overweight person per year http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/30/us-obesity-idUSBRE83T0C820120430. The supporters are worried that a 'soda-tax' cut potentially hurt the poor. Doesn't increasing the costs decrease the demand after the equilibrium has been surpassed by costs? The contenders argue tax money should not be spent on such endeavors. Is prevention not more cost effective than actual treatment? http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_AMA_OBESITY_EDUCATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-06-20-15-55-57
I too think any measures designed to combat chronic obesity in this country are a welcome blessing. Unfortunately, there are those who oppose this stuff on principle alone. If Obama got on TV and said "People, there's an asteroid coming, here's the proof. We need to organize and build a rocket to move it off it's course. Who's with me?", the rabidly anti-Obama people would say "NO! Don't do that. Saving the Earth is a violation of our freedoms you socialist commie hippy muslim facist dictator!".
Yes, some people have principles, and others just adapt their thinking to believe that right and wrong are come by those with the power to make the rules. The problem with obesity education is that the government has been "educating" children on food for 30 years and all it's done is lead to the obesity epidemic. The USDA food pyramid, first published in 1979, correlates to a rise in obesity almost perfectly. The whole pyramid needs to be turned upside and conventional (ie. government) wisdom needs to be defied. Saturated fat is good. Foods laden with sugar and processed oils and cheap corn starches are making Americans fat, sick, and generally unhealthy. And it's not just Americans. The US is ahead of everyone else in obesity, but not by much. Obesity education of children will be driven by the big agriculture companies which profit greatly from the three the production of corn, wheat, and soybeans. Once the education is proven to not work, since it's teaching kids the wrong message about healthy nutrition, the next step will be to drug them. And, of course, those without principle will be saying things like "whatever drug we can give to children to keep them from being too fat is good is a welcome blessing."
I try to teach kids to eat more meat. Thats why man has eyes close together in the front of our skulls. If nature meant for us to not eat meat we would have eyes closer to our ears. Hunt animals and eat there meat....its natural. Its also one of the reasons we have things like thumbs and fingeres in stead of hoofs. Eat meat and exercise more.
The food pyramid is not the problem. Cheap unhealthy food, junk food, and fast food combined with little exercise is the problem. Not getting the appropriate nutrients, and instead ingesting mostly empty calories is the problem. Education should never be undertaken by the same people who could be hurt by that education, in this case, food and agriculture companies. Obesity is almost all cases is an entirely voluntary disease, in that, your choices contribute 100%, or every close to it, to your becoming obese. Using drugs to solve a problem that is much easier solved through education and teaching people to make the proper decisions is silly. Who knows what kind of side effects drugs can have, while there are no physical side effects from learning about nutrition and being encouraged to live a healthier lifestyle.
Obesity hastens brain decline... Obesity 'bad for brain' by hastening cognitive decline 20 August 2012 - Carrying excess weight may impact on mental performance experts believe
This education is quite important for kids as they generally prefer eating fast food in their daily life which is the main reason behind unwanted obesity in their body. This information will develop healthy eating habits in kids.
While obesity is obviously a major problem, the idea that it can be countered in schools is baffling. This idea that you can socially engineer society through the schools is just plain wrong. Children learn eating habits at home not in the schools. I wish schools would go back to teaching the basics. Instead we have kids that can tell you all about Billy's 2 mommies but can't read and consider math a foreign language.
