Hello:
ALL of us can feel the rumblings of this coming war. This one is shaping up to be like the war on cigarettes. Or, at least I hope so. We WON that war.
This one is going to be tougher. The direct link between tobacco use and death is clear. It's NOT so clear that empty calories contribute, or are DIRECTLY responsible, for our epidemic of obesity..
Yes, it's VERY nanny state to prevent people from buying HUGE, LARGE cups of sugary empty calories, but we ALL pay the cost when obese people get sick, so why ISN'T it our business?
Here's the problem. Healthy foods are MUCH more expensive than empty calorie food. Secondly there are what's called "food deserts" in the poor neighborhoods... That means, even IF a poor family wanted to feed their kids healthy foods, there are NO STORES in their neighborhoods to shop at. Whole Foods does NOT have stores in the hood, and even if they did, nobody would shop there because it's TOO expensive.
So, the problem is NOT about lousy poor people who don't love their kids, but it's a STRUCTURAL problem that is easily fixed.
Finally, if fruits and vegetables were subsidized like sugar, corn, soybeans and wheat, they WOULDN'T be so much more expensive... That's another easy fix.
What are we waiting for?
excon