How Far Should the Government Go to REGULATE Our Diet?

The same types of bills are been trying to be stablshed on my country. These may actualy became a trend worldwide.

The effect of a bad nutrition has been more than proven to cause severe health problems that cause a high economical pressure on a goverment health service. The costs of the complications associated with obesity are huge. No contry will be prepared to solve such problem by provinding direct health care alone. The only solution is prevention.

Here is where the subject becomes tricky. Most of us live on societies that no longer teach kids to eat healthy. Mostly because we weren´t teached to eat healthy. The only solution i see besides impositive charges, taxes, and more strict food regulations would be be huge social change of attitude. That our communities as a hole start changing the way we eat, and how we teach kids how to eat.

This would be very difficult. Many bad nutrition habits are closely related to very old cultural structures on communities. And is difficult to make some people belive that their habits are bad.

Even us, if we don´t prevent diseases, in 30 years our chindren taxes will be paying our dialisis machines, our hearth surgeries, our hip replacement protesis. Just because we refused to walk 30 minutes daily and avoid high fructose containing foods.

Theres no easy answer for this situation. I see you take the freedom banner. I take the medical banner. I work for my country´s health goverment service. I understand why our countries are doing this. There are not enough resources avilable to treat everyone of the consecuences of their own bad behavior.

I been trying to change the bad habits of many diabetic patients for 3 years in a row with poor results. Even in my own family i had failed miserabily. Targeting the marketing is a good way to start. It is true, kids don´t spend money, but how many times have you seen a spoiled brat crying and nagging his mom to buy him some sweet treat. This is not uncommon.

I don´t see that it completely limits our freedom, basically it is trying to make the new generation to reduce their calorie intake. This is a realy big problem every one should be worrying about. If you have a mother or a father or a spouse with obesity. Sooner or later you will start to notice the huge trouble those bad desicions taken on their youth are causing on their health.

I would say that it is entirely reasonable to require a listing of ingredients and percent of each food class. Of course, this has already happened. We can now (most of us) read the labels and make our own decision.

What is your problem with this, Hawkeye?

Would you prefer that in the name of freedom, we allow the food manufacturers to do what they like with sugar, salt and trans fats?

Do some research on sugar in the modern day western diet, and find out what damage it is causing.
Better still, find some old photos from the thirties and forties and work out the ratio of fat people. Then go out into the Mall and have a look round. See if you find the same ratio.

The same should be done with salt and trans fats. I'm not talking banning stuff altogether, just cut back to reasonable levels and let young people get used to a non sugary or salty taste as the norm.

Just because you like this excess in your diet doesn't mean to say it's in any way healthy. Quite the opposite.
The UK population is fast becoming as fat and unhealthy as you Americans. Our "minders", as you call them, are trying to nip this in the bud.

I'm all for it.

First, the government should get their facts straight.


Having wheat and other grains as the base of a healthy food pyramid is absurd. Wheat is known to be one of the major causes of obesity, and therefore, diabetes in this country.

Not only is it becoming clear that switching out fats for carbs has fucked up our metabolism, but what is the justification for starch carbs and fruit carbs being considered different and much better than sugar carbs? TO the body a carb is a carb is a carb near as we can tell right now.

I have been reading some studies about no fat diets, a few cardiac patients have been put on them, there is growing doubt that extremely reduced fat diets are good for us. The body needs fats, and some nutrients are only transported in fats. The whole idea which we have been following for 50 years that fats are dangerous and need to be minimized not only was never justified based upon science, but there is an increasing body of evidence that it is harmful. Likewise on salt, too little salt kills more people than too much. Likewise on calories, too little calories kills more people than too much does. The alleged really good stuff, vitamins and supplements ( A $30 billion a hear industry if memory serves) according to science does not help our health AT ALL on net. The scientists have over the last two decades changed their minds repeatedly about how cholesterol intake effects our bodies, at this point they pretty much admit that they dont have a clue. There was just a huge study that claims to prove that taking fish oil supplements does us zero good (damn, I thought we had that one locked down!)


Science clearly does not know what the **** is going on, so the food nazies and their allies the government should shut up for the foreseeable future.

I agree with most of your post, but this part is tricky. Not all carbs are equal. The body reacts differently according to the type of carbs that we intake.

The principal carb in mammal organisms is the infamous glucose it has the perfect molecular characteristics that allow it to work as energy source in metabolic systems, but is a highly oxidant substance that inhigh concentration reacts with proteins causing lesions to vascular tissue.Fruit carbs are formed by a molecule called fructose. It works on a different system and most be transformed to glucose to be used. The most important difference between both is that our cells need insuline and potassium in order to use the blood glucose as a source of energy. But fructose is absorved without a requirement, so it does not accumulates in the bloodstream so it never biults up in blood and do not causes direct damage tissues.

Theres an exception, if we abuse of the fructose intake the excess will be transformed into glucose and ultimately will cause damage.

The real problem is taking something in excess.

My country is starting to battle the problems of a high calorie intake diet. We have a socilized medical system, not as strong as the UK. Therefor it does not has the resources to fight the obesity epidemic. There are studies that claim that the carb calorie intake in some sectors of my country´s population can ascend to 70 per cent.

It is true medical science has not solved the nutritional riddle yet. But every study agrees that abusing high calorie diets causes disease.

There is for instance currently a huge debate on if the body handles different types of sugar differently. I would not be shocked if we find out that not all carbs work the same in the body, if it matters. But we are not there yet.

What is shocking is how well after over 50 years of dismissing the old wisdom "eat a well rounded diet of what you like in moderation" is getting proven to be the best advise. These idiots who eat like scientists, choosing on the basis of nutrients, usually following the latest fad and eating disgusting crap, are the ones who made the worst choice for their health. And they gave up enjoying food too!