Community | July 13, 2011 | 5 comments

Fat Kids and More Government Intrusion

source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/07/13/2449966/physician-suggests-taking-obese.html#ixz...

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congoboy
CHICAGO Should parents of extremely obese children lose custody for not controlling their kids' weight? A provocative commentary in one of the nation's most distinguished medical journals argues yes, and its authors are joining a quiet chorus of advocates who say the government should be allowed to intervene in extreme cases.

It has happened a few times in the U.S., and the opinion piece in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association says putting children temporarily in foster care is in some cases more ethical than obesity surgery.

Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital Boston, said the point isn't to blame parents, but rather to act in children's best interest and get them help that for whatever reason their parents can't provide

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/07/13/2449966/physician-suggests-taking-ob...... The federal government has a growing interest in the eating habits of Americans for the same reason it has an interest in tobacco consumption, said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The standards are part of a much larger push by medical professionals to regulate the food sector. The medical professionals, led by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have allied with professional advocacy groups, such as Center for Science in the Public Interest, and with leading Democratic politicians, to blame the food-sector for increasing obesity rates in the American population, and especially among African-Americans.

People like to eat the increasing amount of cheap food produced by the food industry, and the rate of obesity has climbed steadily. In turn, obesity has spiked government and private health-care costs, because fat people are more prone to expensive diseases such as heart-failure and diabetes.

Federal health-care bills have risen in step, partly because of obesity’s costs, but also because many medical-professionals and Democrats want the federal government to fund a growing portion of the nation’s health-care spending.

http://investmentwatchblog.com/more-government-control-feds-look-to-regulate-foo...
  1. groups:
    Community
  2. tags:
    Obesity,  government overreach
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5 comments // Fat Kids and More Government Intrusion

  • littlwarrior
  • wynnmeg61
    • -1
      wynnmeg61  

    • This is absolutely the most ridiculous idea I have heard in quite some time. This will not help those children but it will do great things for people like the "Bachmanns" who use foster children as a money mill. We can't afford to actually spend a dollar to help these families unless first we take the children and give them to someone like Bachmann. Frankly, many innercity people do not have access to healthy, nuticious food in the first place, second it requires some pretty significant education to be able to understand what they are actually putting in their bodies because of years of food industry shenanigans. This "Physician" should go screw himself.

    • 11 months ago
  • congoboy
    • +1
      congoboy  
    • wynnmeg61:

      its funny that you should blame a loving mother like bachmann who has no need of foster children as a money mill. thats really more of a liberal tactic as is the thought of stealing children away from their parents. those considering such laws are the ruling democrats. the right would never even dream of such a nightmare. its a free country and we all have the choice to eat well or eat crap. inner city kids have just as much access to healthy food then do their country counter parts. its those lazy inner city neglectful parents and their selfish self centered liberal ways that are really to blame

    • 11 months ago
  • nashkildare
    • 0
      nashkildare  

    • No more corn subsidies. I think the author from the medical journal knows so much about what's in food that she thinks everyone knows what good eating is, but we don't know specific items that are listed in food (i.e. calcium benzoate). I know a little bit about what's in my food and quite frankly it scares me. Nobody in the food industry wants us to know what's in our food. It's up to us to know what's in our food from getting detailed labels on every food item including fast food to educating our young people to know what's good and bad. But specifically on the issue of food police, don't like them. I like the freedom to eat and to be stupid.

    • 11 months ago
  • congoboy
    • 0
      congoboy  
    • nashkildare:

      thats right. theres a lot of shit in our food and the corps that serve it to us know what theyre doing. on the other hand living in a free country we have a choice to eat healthy or live on cheeto's and ding dongs. its not up to big brother to tell us what to eat nor to take the children away from parents if theyre fat

    • 11 months ago
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