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January 30, 2002
Malign Providence
The latest grenade in the War on Obesity was lobbed by The Providence Journal in an editorial this week. The paper blamed "cheap and plentiful prepared food" for obesity, while praising "expensive, time-consuming to prepare" organic food as an answer. Falling for the trick of the anti-fat jihad, the Journal cries for someone to protect the children, faulting restaurants that "aggressively court children" with toys and soft drink companies that "target school districts."
"As long as fast-food and soda companies continue their marketing assault, as long as we let mass media and video games have a choke hold on our free time, and as long as it is cheaper and easier to be fat, liberating America from its obesity will be near-impossible," the paper argues.
It seems that the Journal has joined ranks with the anti-fat brigade. What the paper's readers may not know is that anti-obesity activists want to use soft drinks in schools as a "wedge" issue meant to open up all sorts of foods and beverages to new government regulation, treat food advertising like "tobacco advertising to children" to spark government intervention, and even call for "the government doing battle with the food industry."
The latest grenade in the War on Obesity was lobbed by The Providence Journal in an editorial this week. The paper blamed "cheap and plentiful prepared food" for obesity, while praising "expensive, time-consuming to prepare" organic food as an answer. Falling for the trick of the anti-fat jihad, the Journal cries for someone to protect the children, faulting restaurants that "aggressively court children" with toys and soft drink companies that "target school districts."
"As long as fast-food and soda companies continue their marketing assault, as long as we let mass media and video games have a choke hold on our free time, and as long as it is cheaper and easier to be fat, liberating America from its obesity will be near-impossible," the paper argues.
It seems that the Journal has joined ranks with the anti-fat brigade. What the paper's readers may not know is that anti-obesity activists want to use soft drinks in schools as a "wedge" issue meant to open up all sorts of foods and beverages to new government regulation, treat food advertising like "tobacco advertising to children" to spark government intervention, and even call for "the government doing battle with the food industry."
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