Can Violence Solve Obesity?
The UK has previously been described as the most obese country in Western Europe.
When government looks to impose new regulations and fines, they are looking to use violence to try and solve a problem they've identified in society. It is violence because it is force that is being applied, via a central organization with a monopoly on coercion, to bring about the change they seek; threats of wrongdoing and consequences that must be faced. If you go against their edicts, the effect of that decision can be severe, you will face the consequence of being subjected to violence (in some form) in-return for your disobedience.
To try and deal with their “problem” of obesity, they've come up with the idea to impose calorie restrictions on various food items.
The “problem”...
Should it be the business of the government to tell us how and what to eat? That seems to violate our basic liberty and free choice.
If we have made the decision to eat poorly and we are obese, then is it the business of our friends and family to impose their views on us and try to deal with that problem? Or the government? Some might say yes, at least for our friends or family, because they are acting out of love and concern for our health. However, you certainly wouldn't go next door and try to tell your neighbor how to eat, would you? We can recognize in those scenarios our limited authority in telling others how to live their life and what they should be eating and whether or not it is a “problem” to us if they have decided to eat too much. Why is it okay to attempt this level of control, in telling others how to live, when it's a large group of people who've been lumped together, say the obese crowd? Now, all of a sudden we find it acceptable to try and impose various restrictions that will guide others into eating what we think is acceptable.
What is “healthy” for one individual also might not necessarily be healthy for the next.
Our food choices are an extension of our personal responsibility, if we want to consume 10 pizzas tonight then we should have the freedom to. Perhaps the government is trying to solve a “problem” that shouldn't be a “problem” for them in the first place.
For millions in the UK, maybe they could find that they might be able to purchase healthier food items if they had more income and were taxed less. What about that as a solution? This doesn't mean that you cannot eat healthy however if you are living on a strict budget, though many might suggest that eating frugally as such would require that you make most, if not all, of your meals at home. Cooking your meals at home is a habit and unfortunately for many people today, their preference for convenience has them opting for a myriad of other food solutions rather than cooking their own.
While those pushing for these calorie restrictions on various food items might have good intentions behind their efforts, in wanting to help people to make better food choices, the policies are almost comical in how misguided they are.
State violence will not solve a problem caused by state violence.
(in The US) the FDA has sold us out. They are the number one culprit in the causation of diabetes, and obesity.
Lets take milk as an example. Everyone "knows" that pasturization is good for people, because the milk won't make anyone sick, however pasturization kills the milk. It is now no longer a perfect food, it is a dead food, with lots of bad consequences for ingesting it. (and homogenization is even worse)
The FDA has assured us that their "perfect" diet is good for us, although it was bought and paid for by big Ag.
Most people do not do well on grains. Especially grains with fast rise times. (it used to be that bread was made over 24 hours, now it is 3) Even more so with grains with lots of yeast and added gluten.
Like the buns you find at McDs.
The food at McDs is all FDA certified. It is cooked and then irradiated so that no germs can possibly exist.
However, MdDs food has very little nutrition content. Calories are not a measure of how much energy your body gets out of food, it is how much energy you get out of food if you burn it in a fire. And so, the people who eat at McDs are actually being starved.
This starvation triggers lower metabolism and higher fat storage.
Along with the couch potatoe lifestyle, this is destruction to the body.
And the FDA encourages this.
So, have more state violence, to "solve" the other state violence will only kill more people faster.
The British government is becoming more and more like dictatorship. Brits are too soft and just roll over and let their liberties get taken away. Like the sugar tax the price of anything with sugar in has rocketed and people are now taking the "health option" and pumping themselves full of Aspartame instead.
Educating people and showing the better option is the only way. Currently the most popular cheap food options are the worst. society needs to wake up and realise they the only ones that can change this is us and to stop relying on the asses in Downing street they are the poison in this society! 💯🐒
like a frog in a slow pot of boiling water...
Unfortunately spot on! 💯🐒
So what is next? Are they going to put people on scale before serving them? And serve them according to their BMI?
I agree, obesity is a huge problem and something must be done! But not like this!
Just get active. Trying to diet away the problems of a sedimentary life is futile.
I think that obese people shouldn't get special treatment. They also shouldn't be surprised if they have to pay for 2 airplane seats because of their size. Just saying.....
Although the government has the intention to help, each person deside if he eats healthy or not, everyone is master of their actions, ideally healthy eating and avoid many evils, but you can not force anyone, is the desicion of everyone
There must be another way to help obese people
@doitvoluntarily governments and officials do not learn more, with restrictions, prohibitions or threats do not get things, it is common sense, psycological insus, the mere fact that they tell you NOT to go I have tried.
many grace spor spread this news
I wish you a great day
It is my opinion.....
.....that as an adult, nobody wants their government or anyone else, so far up in their deeply personal business, as to try to tell them what they can and can't eat.
.... Affordability, which like others say, the worst food is the cheapest in most places and being able to provide something.... anything.... as sustenance to someone who is financially challenged sometimes leaves very few healthy choices. Sometimes the lack of proper finances causes the poor to raise their children on these foods merely trying to survive, which in turn, gets those children in the habit early on, that many times may be hard to break. On these type issues, education may be able to help change a point of view somewhat... sometimes.
.... that obesity is more of an emotional issue, than a lack of education issue. Many obese people know about nutrition and most of the time, what healthy eating should look like, but for reasons that others can't image nor understand, are emotionally compelled to consume certain types of food that are not nutritionally good for them. Therefore, nutrition education and restriction will not help anything to solve the core problem. Nutritional/diet programs are not going to be successful if the emotional side of things is not addressed
I have often wondered how for example, someone with anorexia is seen has having an eating disorder and society recognizes that it is a condition that is mental / emotionally based and not a matter of education, yet those with the opposite condition, which is STILL an eating disorder, are treated as if it is different. I don't think it is that different.
...that it is a lack if understanding by people who are not obese to only see an obese person as an uncaring, uneducated, irresponsible person, who it is ok to call out or make fun of or treat with less respect than others. The obese people I know do care and are not personally proud of the condition their bodies are in, but the struggle is deeply, deeply personal and much harder than anyone else could imagine to fight.
Whatever people do, they should be kind to all, no matter their body type. Nearly everyone is trying to make it through their life the best they can figure out how too, whether others can see it or not.
I think that the government should do is just to educate the people on how to eat healthy @doitvoluntarily and also eating healthy must start at home and it will boil down to educating the child in particular on how to be healthier in school, this is a long-term process to achieve.
that shouldn't be their job. I don't need anyone to tell me how to eat...