Over the holiday, while Santa and his elves were busy spreading Christmas cheer, Consumer Freedom researchers were busy spreading a little common sense. In a matter of days, a dozen newspapers nationwide featured glowing reviews of our latest report: Small Choices, Big Bodies. Looming New Year’s resolutions have many Americans focused exclusively on their diets. But Small Choices successfully reminded the public that our waistlines, like our health, have more to do with overall lifestyle than with the kind of food on our dinner plates. In one nationally syndicated article, journalist Carolyn Susman elaborated this point:
The Center for Consumer Freedom, which represents the food industry, continues to produce thought-provoking statements and reports that underscore that overindulgence isn’t the only bad guy here.
Lifestyle is a reason we are ballooning, too, the center’s latest report reminds us. Cleverly, it puts the spotlight on fascinating facts that highlight just why we are growing too large.
We enumerated more of these “fascinating” points along with a plug for personal responsibility in our op-ed published in multiple papers such as the Providence Journal and Philadelphia Inquirer:
From moving sidewalks to power lawnmowers, the way we live affects our well being, at least as much as the way we eat. If the facts were all that mattered, John Deere would be fending off mandatory mower-labeling proposals.
After all, it’s easy for activists to convince people that take-out is to blame for their love-handles. Personal responsibility is a much harder pill to swallow.
