Can the government force you to eat healthy?

[OakRidgeStars]

You bet your broccoli they can.

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From The Hill

Panel calls for more active federal role in fight against obesity

Federal agencies should step in if industries that promote high-calorie foods to children do not implement common nutrition standards within two years, the influential Institute of Medicine (IOM) said Tuesday.

The recommendation came as part of a 478-page IOM report on the U.S. obesity epidemic that outlined broad policy changes the panel says are necessary to stave off a healthcare crisis.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/nu ... -standards

[ShotgunBlast]

Let me get this straight. A not-for-profit non-government organization that provides advice on medicine and health says we should eat healthier.

The American Dental Association has also been saying that we should brush our teeth twice a day for at least two minutes, but there's no law forcing you to do that.



However, I do not agree with the IOM's suggestion in having more government regulation in the name of health care. Imagine if everyone did have a healthy diet and we weren't paying that $190 billion a year in obesity related healthcare. Wow, I'm sure that could really move our economy. Too bad the end doesn't justify the means.

Why don't people want a healthy diet just for the sake of being healthy?

[Kreutz]

Why don't people want a healthy diet just for the sake of being healthy?

Because we have the freedom to gorge our fat asses on garbage then demand Medicare/medicaid pay for our hypertension, diabetes, and/or renal failure related care.

Punitive taxes on junk food to fund the programs that will sustain the obese is fair.

No sense why I should have to subsidize other peoples poor decisions.

[kelu]

fair

What is fair?
If a woman want to have safe sex, it gets money from gov (birth control mandate).
If a man wants to have safe sex, it gets no money from gov to go to a hooker.
Is this fair?
I'm just learning where my tax money goes, and I have many questions.

[ShotgunBlast]

Why don't people want a healthy diet just for the sake of being healthy?

Because we have the freedom to gorge our fat asses on garbage then demand Medicare/medicaid pay for our hypertension, diabetes, and/or renal failure related care.

Punitive taxes on junk food to fund the programs that will sustain the obese is fair.

No sense why I should have to subsidize other peoples poor decisions.

Well wait a second. Instead of having more taxes in our system, shouldn't we just not treat those who can't pay for services? Shouldn't self-responsibility apply to healthcare too?

[ShotgunBlast]

fair

What is fair?
If a woman want to have safe sex, it gets money from gov (birth control mandate).
If a man wants to have safe sex, it gets no money from gov to go to a hooker.
Is this fair?
I'm just learning where my tax money goes, and I have many questions.

Actually the correct statement to illustrate your point would be "If a man wants to have safe sex, it gets no money from gov for condoms" as both objects are forms of contraceptives.

But yeah, the birth control mandate is interesting to say the least.

[dorminWS]

Most of that evil too-fatty, too-sweet too-salty food's been around a long, long time. The so-called "obesity epidemic has only been around since about the time two-income families where mom works all day and brings home fast food for dinner while the latchkey kids sit in front of either a TV or a computer or game screen and pop Cheetos all day started being the norm. On top of that, the government made a double digit percentage of the population overweight with the stroke of a pen by discarding the Universal life tables and adapting instead the "body-mass index" as the standard for whether or not you were fat.

But because the art and science of political demogoguery demands a villian and the villian must be corporate (because corporations, for one thing, can't VOTE), food and beverage companies become the whipping boys and the whole mess becomes another excuse for even more government intrusion into what is none of their damned business. I swear, sometimes I hope SHTF day will hurry up and get here just because it will starve the useless, overreaching, intrusive, bureaucratic leeches FIRST!

[Kreutz]

Well wait a second. Instead of having more taxes in our system, shouldn't we just not treat those who can't pay for services? Shouldn't self-responsibility apply to healthcare too?

Oooohhh, pushing 350lb people back into the ocean instead of using a crane to lift them into a triple wide hospital bed(as is actually done)? Even better!

What is fair?
If a woman want to have safe sex, it gets money from gov (birth control mandate).
If a man wants to have safe sex, it gets no money from gov to go to a hooker.
Is this fair?
I'm just learning where my tax money goes, and I have many questions.

Subsidizing birth control is an investment, personally I think the water supply should be spiked with them, particularly in ghettos and colleges.

Hookers and safe sex probably are mutually exclusive.

But because the art and science of political demogoguery demands a villian and the villian must be corporate (because corporations, for one thing, can't VOTE), food and beverage companies become the whipping boys

Sure they can vote(by proxy anyway), Citizens United remember?

And they've been loading food up with trans-fats and high fructose corn syrup for decades because its cheap to do so. The health consequences be damned.

But you're right in that diet isnt alone to blame, people are just alot more sedentary now and drive everywhere.

I once had a traditional Irish fry (or, seven bites,then I was full-its a huge mass of bacon, eggs, potatoes, lard, etc) but when that was a farm laborers only meal for the day, it made sense.

People still eat it in Ireland, but then sit at a desk and have lunch and dinner on top of it, hence they're land-whales.

[Reverenddel]

I know from my recent diagnosis, that it's NOT...NOT...NOT expensive to eat healthy! You have to make changes in where you eat, portion control, and you have to monitor when/what you eat as well.

And as to exercise? I have always been a proponent, but infrequent, until recently.

I hate guv'mint controls on things... it just irks me. However, I am seeing that some people really cannot function on their own anymore. Natural selection has been over-ridden, and that's a damned shame.

Where is the lion when you need him?

[Kreutz]

I know from my recent diagnosis, that it's NOT...NOT...NOT expensive to eat healthy! You have to make changes in where you eat, portion control, and you have to monitor when/what you eat as well.

And as to exercise? I have always been a proponent, but infrequent, until recently.

I hate guv'mint controls on things... it just irks me. However, I am seeing that some people really cannot function on their own anymore. Natural selection has been over-ridden, and that's a damned shame.

Where is the lion when you need him?

A game preserve or a Chinamans dinner plate, why?

[ratherfish]

Kreutz will gladly code in you and your familes weight status or any other private information so that under Obamacare the government will have every bit of personal information on your health and lifestyle.

I doubt he cares much about anything but the Obamamoney paycheck.