Is What You Eat Your Choice?

Life has just gotten easier for automatons.  But is that who we are? If happy meals in San Francisco and super sizing 16oz sodas in NYC are beyond our decision making capabilities, how can we be expected to make the big choices in life?

Will the government's next step be regulating whether or not people are even qualified to be parents? Everyone is a suspect in the great debate about obesity because, after all, this epidemic is about personal choices.

Do we want a nanny state? Should we be treated with a "one-size-fits-all" solution to the obesity epidemic when we are not an homogenous nation? After all, our cultural context is freedom of choice and expression. We are not living in China.

Although, FDA regulations passed in March, 2010, for restaurants with twenty or more locations under the same brand name, require that they provide calories on the menu, researchers report "we were surprised that we could not detect even the slightest hint of changes in purchasing behavior as a result of the legislation."

Cognitive dissonance shows that attitude changes follow behavior changes. Eventually the child in the photo will have a happy face even if he can't have a happy meal. The behavior that changes is that he is getting a shake or ice cream in lieu of the toy, not that he is eating fewer calories. Of course there are children who are exceptions and maybe they reside in your house.

Bottom line, being "force fed" is un-American.