sheer potentiality

I can’t help but note this story, which is either horribly written, or is accurately portraying the most horribly-written political agenda ever put forward. Here’s some choice quotes:

Nationwide, two-thirds of U.S. adults are obese or overweight, according to the fourth annual report from the Trust for America’s Health, titled “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America.” The report’s co-author says the government needs to treat this trend as an epidemic that threatens the health of Americans and put in place a national plan to combat obesity.

“The key recommendation in the report is we need a national strategy,” said report co-author Jeffrey Levi.

He noted that the federal government has created a comprehensive plan to be implemented in the event of an outbreak of pandemic flu.

Emphasis mine.

Something tells me that pandemic flu is not quite like obesity. For one thing, obesity is not directly contagious. For another thing, obesity is not spread by airborne pathogens. Furthermore, pandemic flu can kill millions of people within months. Yes, obesity can be fatal too, but there’s a difference between “you should eat better or you’re more susceptible to diabetes and heart disease” and “if you step outside this month you have a good chance of dying of influenza weeks later”. And this is even without considering the fundamental issue—obesity is a condition that’s up to the individual to address, pandemic flu is a public safety hazard just like a wildfire or sniper. One of these things is fundamentally something that should be addressed by the government, and the other is an issue of personal health.

Now let’s play “spot the statistical inconsistency:”

Nationwide, two-thirds of U.S. adults are obese or overweight, according to the fourth annual report from the Trust for America’s Health, titled “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America.”

….

In 32 states, 60 percent of the population is either overweight or obese. West Virginia ranks highest in the combined statistic, with nearly two-thirds of its adults obese or overweight.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that’s mathematically possible.

There’s two fundamental points this report fundamentally misses, alongside its strident stupidity in such things as analogy-crafting and statistics. One is a fundamental philosophical point: other people’s bodies are not the personal business of the “Trust for America’s Health” or the report’s co-author Jeffrey Levi. Are Americans too obese, on average? Yeah, probably. Who cares?

The second point is that the recommendations do nothing to address why Americans suddenly are getting fatter. America did not have more farmer’s markets, higher food stamp benefits, or vegetable snack programs in schools before we got fat, why on earth is the lack of them suddenly a causative factor? I don’t have all the answers, but I have one: the federal government, in its infinite desire to mollify both multinational agribusiness and American farmers, have decided that America shall put a tariff on imported sugar. Not only does this help all eight farmers growing sugar in the United States (what next, protectionism for Alaska’s orange growers?), but this also is a major boon to the corn industry, who can now sell something called “high fructose corn syrup” as a sugar substitute. Ever notice how Coke tastes so much better in Canada or another foreign country? That’s because US Coke uses corn syrup, while Coke in all other countries is made with sugar. From what I’ve gathered, high fructose corn syrup, along with fattening the wallets of the corn syrup producers, also affects the insulin differently from sugar, fattening our bodies as well.

I’m not saying it’s a great thing to drink all that much Coke, mind you. Just that Americans drank just as much Coke before high fructose corn syrup and didn’t get as fat as they are now. What Jeffrey Levi and “Trust for America’s Health” misses is that it’s not the lack of new federal interferences that’s to blame—it’s the federal interferences that have already happened.