“Fat camps” for five-year-olds represent only one of the countless campaigns introduced recently by England’s anti-obesity activists. For the kindergarten-and-up crowd, legislators have considered a “fat tax” on foods deemed by government officials to be “unhealthy.” And for the usual waistline whipping boy, British food bobbies are campaigning for radical regulations all along the food chain: corner stores, restaurants, and everything in between.  Today, London Times columnist Alice Miles followed suit and dismissed personal responsibility: “Ministers should be targeting the junk and fast-food industries.”

But Miles and others are kilometers off target. Food-focused policies proposed in the UK and US are shortsighted (not to mention draconian and shrill). Food is only one of the countless contributors to weight gain. In fact, studies released in the last week point to gene mutation, marriage, indoor playtime, weight hysteria, inactivity, and hormones -- to name just a few. So why aren’t activists lobbying for spousal regulations or an X-Box tax? 

The reason is simple. Author and professor Patrick Basham provided The Independent with insight on the hidden agendas of these obesity scaremongers:

These organisations and individuals, with their need for ever-greater empires and funding, know only too well that warning of impending disaster captures the Government's attention. Yet in this classic case of spin, there are real victims: those people condemned by wrong-headed policies to a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and an unhealthy obsession with food and weight.