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February 4, 2008
Too Fat To Eat, Say Legislators
On Friday the Center for Consumer Freedom rushed to send out a special bulletin about a proposal so egregious that the public outcry couldn’t wait 'til Monday morning. The notice, “Mississippi may outlaw serving food to the obese,” highlighted House bill 282, a new proposal that aims to make it a crime for state-licensed restaurants to serve food to anyone deemed “obese.”
Reporters from Jackson, Mississippi to London, England covered the food cop faux pas. As usual, a Consumer Freedom spokesman provided the voice of reason: “I’ve seen a lot of crazy laws, but this one takes the cake. Literally. Whether it is menu labeling laws, taxes on fattening foods, or Mississippi’s new ‘you’re too fat to eat here’ proposal, the food police have gone too far.”
As we explained yesterday on the Fox News Channel, this is a particularly egregious example of food cops run amok. (Click here to watch the video.) Though bureaucrats claim this measure would combat Missippians' growing waistlines, the food-focused policy completely misses the biggest problem: sedentary lifestyles. Americans are far less active than earlier generations. With their state ranking “dead last” in the country for physical activity, residents of the Magnolia State are generally classic couch potatoes.
We left overeager policymakers with a little piece of advice: “Maybe the state’s Legislature should do something to help people burn more calories instead of pretending that eating out is a cardinal sin.”
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