How Do You Feel About Regulating the American Diet?

I noticed that I’m seeing more and more in the news about the government and it’s various departments and legally extended arms, reaching out and trying to regulate various aspects of the American diet.  I’m not sure if, with the increasing awareness of the health care problems in this country, the government is wanting to Big Brother us more on our diets because it is causing severe taxing of the health care system since so many health issues are diet and weight related, or if it’s just an increasing movement to help make American healthier.

I personally think that it’s a little of both.  I think that the agenda is really to help lower our exorbitant health care costs so that we can help make this Obama healthcare thing work better and be more efficient.  However, I do have to admit that it raises my hackles thinking that the government may be able to some day tell me how much salt I can consume in my diet, or how much sugar, or fat for that matter.

This whole movement really started with cities requiring restaurants to put the calorie counts of their dishes and offerings on the menus in conspicuous locations. New York City was one of the first, and several other metropolitan areas followed suit. Heck, some restaurant chains even instituted this on their own. Perhaps to look like they were part of the solution and not the problem or perhaps part of a pre-emptive strike for new laws that might require it anyways.

It think that there are arguments both ways about where this whole food regulation thing is going. I think that the menu item calorie listing thing is a great benefit to consumers. What harm is there in showing people the calories in items, as they can still make up their own mind about eating that item?

However, where I think it gets a little sticky is where the government may start regulating how much salt can be added to foods. This is a direct control over what we are eating, and could be construed as a loss of basic inalienable rights. Sure, that right may be to screw up our bodies and run them into the ground. But you get what I’m saying here.

You could argue that reducing sodium in foods and processed foods could be a good thing also though, because we have built up such a taste for salty foods that gradually reducing the salt may make us re-adjust our old tastes, and help us to start naturally desiring lower sodium foods.  Still, the anti establishment part of my conscience is saying that this should still be up to the individual and not the government. It’s almost starting to remind me of a utopian/big brother society type of thing like Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World – no?