Food Intervention, Government Style

“All right, tubby, if you aren’t going to stop sitting in front of the TV, eating fatty and sugary treats, maybe the government should force you to change your ways.”

“Force me to change my ways? But I know what foods do and don’t make me tubby. I choose to live this way.”

“Yeah, and that’s why the federal committee responsible for nutrition guidelines, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC), says it needs to step in.”

“What do you mean, ‘step in’?”

“DGAC just released a far-reaching 571-page report that gives proposed recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that explain how to ‘transform the food system’ and, hopefully, make Americans less fat!”

“What kind of proposed recommendations?”

“Well, according to The Associated Press, they are calling for interventions by trained weight-management interventionists in health-care settings, community locations and worksites.”

“Interventions?”

“Sure, DGAC also called for interventions into public policy that would limit access to high-calorie grub in government-owned buildings, limit the ability of fatty-foods companies to advertise their goods, and tax salty and fatty treats.”

“They want to tax my junk food?”

“Sure. They are thinking they can use tax revenues, based on foods that aren’t so good for us, to fund healthy-eating education and obesity-prevention programs.”

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