Food cops want to control our diet. And redefining food as a health threat is the easiest way to do that. Taking this to heart, nanny-minded groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) have used the tobacco model (the strategy through which cigarettes have been sued, taxed, and banned to a point of near extinction) to attack our favorite foods. Local governments have even gone so far as to outlaw “fast food” restaurants.

Thankfully, there’s a growing resistance. More and more Americans are realizing that they don’t want special interest groups rummaging through their refrigerators. The editorial board of the San Jose Mercury News is urging readers to pause and carefully re-examine this banall approach to public health:

The philosophical question is whether society should start putting fast food in the same category as cigarettes. While having a smoke is always unhealthy, eating a burger isn't necessarily so.