Childhood Obesity Report Calls For Government Regulations to Limit Access to 'Unhealthy' Restaurant Chains

Here's something else for us to think about.

Now the new target of behavior modification via government edict is our preferences for what our children should be "permitted" to eat, enforceable of course through targeted taxation and zoning regulations. While I would like to see all children eating healthy foods, I do NOT favor imposing that preference on others through more government regulations. But I fear it's coming. We've seen it with the regulation and ever-increasing taxes on tobacco. Not that I'd ever claim smoking is a healthy thing to do, but again, I think taking the risk should be a personal choice, not one controlled through tax policy and ever more stringent regulations on private business owners. And, let's not fool ourselves, the new target area is the foods we and our children should be permitted (by government) to have access to.

If you doubt this, you may want to take a look at the following article. -- S. Lane

Childhood Obesity Report Calls For Government Regulations to Limit Access to "Unhealthy" Restaurant Chains Wednesday, September 02, 2009 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) - A newly released report by the Institute for Medicine and the National Research Council details strategies for local governments to combat what it calls an epidemic of childhood obesity, including enacting zoning and land-use regulations that would “restrict fast food establishments near school grounds and public playgrounds.”