So much time spent talking about Health Care, so little spent on our 30% OBESITY RATE. What gives?

Question

Do you agree or disagree with any of the following general statements?

1)  The U.S. has the highest obesity rate in the world.

2)  Obesity is an unhealthy condition... it leads to a number of severe health problems such as heart disease, strokes, some cancers, and other conditions which are expensive to treat.

3)  The unhealthier the country, the more expensive it will be to keep them all insured.

4)  Food policy (e.g. no regulations on advertising junk food to kids, permitting vending machines in schools, subsidizing the unhealthiest foods) as well as, for example, No Child Left Behind forcing schools to cut physical education, and other failed policy has something to do with why we're the fattest country in the world, which has something to do with why we can't afford our health insurance.

If you don't have major disagreements with those statements, then why do you suppose we spend so much time worrying about who gets insurance and so little time worrying about food policy's relationship to our country's poor health?

Books:  Food Politics, The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food
Movies:  Food Inc., Killer at Large

We are not unhealthy because of unaffordable health insurance.  We have unaffordable health insurance because we are unhealthy.  What is going to wake us up and get us off our asses?

Laura · Accepted Answer

I wholeheartedly agree with the previous two posters. The government should not be responsible for holding my family's hands and make us go out and get active, nor should they participate when we decide what foods to eat.

Part of providing affordable health care to everyone is ensuring that we have a better chance to ensure our own personal health. 

If you're so danged concerned about how EVERYONE ELSE eats or doesn't get physically active enough then you should become involved in community awareness programs that promote the healthy habits that our country lacks. Attend PTA meetings at your children's schools (if you have kids) and campaign for better food in the lunch room (just stay away from that diet-soda-instead-of-juice crap, please) or specialized programs in and out of school that promote physical well being. Go to school to become a dietitian or doctor, or one of a number of related professions. 

I'll say it plainly, our country's problem is not lack of government restrictions and control, but the general ignorance that most people choose to accept. This goes for one's health, finances, or education as well as a multitude of other options.

There is a time and a place for government restriction, and my decision to eat that second or third slice of pizza is NOT one of them.

gracely · Answer

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ClanMan · Answer

No soup for you!

Come on man! think! We make choices for ourselves, this is supposedly what free people do. Why does everyone want government to decide for us!

Ok I have to call you out on this one, "We have unaffordable health insurance because we are unhealthy. " 

We have unaffordable health insurance because of decades of government interference in the free market.

? · Answer

What does the gov't have anything to do with the obesity rate?? Its not their fault, nor is it their responsibility. We must worry about our own health, and stop relying on others to make decisions and choices for us.

AT · Answer

Don't worry.  One the Government has control of the Health Care system, they'll take care of that, too.

They'll tell you what you can eat, what you can drink, that you're not allowed to smoke, how many kids you can have, how you're to raise those kids.....everything.

Synful Visions · Answer

Obesity is a choice.

The government shouldn't have to protect people from their own idiocy.

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So much time spent talking about Health Care, so little spent on our 30% OBESITY RATE. What gives?

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