Over the pat decade, the obesity rate among French children has doubled, from 6% to 12%, and between 1997 and 2003 the percentage of overweight and obese adults jumped from 37% to 42%. That growth curve parallels the one in the U.S. about 10 years ago.So Britain has learned the lesson by seeing what happened in the States, and has taken action. France has learned the lesson by seeing what happened in the States, and has taken action. Why hasn't the federal government in the States learned the lesson by looking at itself in the mirror and taken any action? Several states are enacting legislation to rid schools of junk food, but where is the federal government involvement in the effort?
The French are ahead of us in one important way: they have launched an ambitious state-sponsored effort to head off weight gain before it reaches American proportions. Le Guen is backing several bills in the National Assembly that would regulate diet and exercise nation-wide. Starting this fall, vending machines will be banned from all public schools and universities.
Ten cities have adopted a school curriculum based on eating well and in moderation.
I guess Bush is busy riding his bike, so he can't deal with the obesity crisis facing the nation. Plus, if he acted, his fat-cat friends in the food industry would lose millions, and he can't let that happen!
2 comments:
Do you really think we need our Government dictating what we eat? What about personal responsibility?
Personal responsibility is great, if you are responsible. I don't consider teenagers as responsible as adults, therefore, we SHOULD take vending machines out of schools, because if junk food is right under their noses, they'll eat it.
And many adults aren't responsible either (if they were, the majority of the population wouldn't be overweight,) and many others don't have a choice because they can't afford to eat better (fruits and vegetables are MUCH more expensive and WAY less filling than a Big Mac, so if you're poor, you'll forgo the former and go for the latter.)
And you know what? Multinational corporations in America are so powerful that we DO need to be protected by our government (take a look at Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me just to get an idea of how much those companies WANT us to keep binging of junk food.) Unfortunately, that won't happen as long as the government itself is run by former CEOs.
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