Slam the brakes on fast food before health problems get any worse (binge & purge alert)

If we cannot control our worsening eating habits, sooner or later someone else will.

Western societies have a substance-abuse problem that is filling hospital beds and causing premature deaths. Worse, it is affecting children. Governments, however, are doing almost nothing to combat it.

The authorities pass laws and impose duties to protect us from abusing alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Only pharmacists can sell certain medications, newspapers and television can't even reproduce images showing people smoking if the pictures can, in any way, seem to endorse the habit. Children can't front up at pubs and buy a beer. But there's no barrier to overeating.

Recently, I have done a couple of stints behind canteen counters that have made me predict that governments are going to have to start wrapping their heads around the weighty issue of food abuse.

In one recent four-hour stint at a sports canteen, I handed out an endless stream of Burger Rings, Twisties, Chupa Chups, and doughnuts the size of inner-rings. Tiny tots lisped requests for a Cherry Ripe and a can of Pepsi Max - at 9am.

It got to the point where if people asked for a sausage roll, I would think they must be on a health kick. In four hours, I sold only one piece of fruit - a banana - and that was to an adult.

The profits from all this were, naturally, for a good cause. The families were happy and willing customers. If you serve it, they will come.

As a society, it is becoming increasingly obvious that we are helpless to combat the rising tide of food.

It's like a conspiracy: junk food is universally available, and the number of outlets where it is sold is increasing exponentially. It is eminently affordable, and the quantities it comes in are getting bigger. Muffins the size of cushions, sandwiches on ever-thicker varieties of bread, pizzas with ever-thicker crusts ... And have you checked out a "family size" chocolate bar lately? I've seen smaller rafts.

Religion is no longer the opiate of the masses: fast food is. It pacifies querulous toddlers and cheers up bored adults. Taken in combination with our growing love affair with the remote control and the car, it's especially dangerous. And it continues to be fuelled by childhood memories of parents urging us to "eat everything up".

Americans spend something like $US100 billion on fast food every year - more than they spend on higher education, personal computers, software or new cars, according to Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation. Judging from my canteen experiences, Australians cannot be far behind.

I am not an advocate of the school of thought that demands "the Government must do something" whenever some aspect of society starts to wobble. But surely it won't be long before some think tank puts out the notion of government-imposed food controls.

They would be easy enough to justify, given the high cost to society of fast-food abuse. According to the US Surgeon-General, about 300,000 American deaths a year can be linked to health problems associated with obesity. Statistics like that have been used to introduce laws limiting our access to alcohol and tobacco. How could we object when the powers-that-be act to limit our access to fast food?

It won't be long before one of those fat people v food manufacturers lawsuits currently waddling through the US courts ends in a seven-figure payout.

Take the case of Caesar Barber, a New Yorker who last month began suing four fast-food chains. He blames his obesity and health problems (including diabetes and high blood pressure) on his regular consumption of their high-fat meals: "I thought when they said 100 per cent beef they meant it."

How long before governments decide that the only way to protect the population from themselves is to make junk food less accessible, less attractive and more expensive?

The first step would be to ban any advertising of junk food, initially to children and then to the entire population. (Remember when Formula One began to look like so many cigarette packets zooming around a track? Prepare for racing burgers.)

Fast food wrappers would have little warnings, like cigarette packets: "Eating chips can harden your arteries", "A gram on the lips, a kilo on the hips" and so on.

The size of servings would be limited. Levies would be imposed on foods containing more than specified amounts of fats and sugars, to cover the cost to the health system of those who eat excessive amounts of these substances. Not so much user pays as consumer pays.

Will we see ration books again, as in the dark days of World War II and its aftermath? Will people under 18 be banned from buying food containing more than a specified number of kilojoules? Will the number of takeaway shops be severely curtailed?

Maybe not just yet. But it's a weighty problem, and governments are bound to do something about it if we don't.

I am not an advocate of the school of thought that demands "the Government must do something" whenever some aspect of society starts to wobble. But…

Yes you are.

If we cannot control our worsening eating habits,...

Faulty premise -- we can. We don't need a nanny state to do it for us. (Unless you're a big fan of government controlling every aspect of our lives.)

"Western societies . . . premature deaths"

People in Western societies are living longer than ever. It is in the non-Western societies were masses of people still suffer from premature deaths. But I think the day is coming when government, at the urging of "liberals," will begin to impose penalties on the selling and consumption of "fast food." The first step in this process is in the public schools, where activists are succeeding in banning vending machines from the schools, or requiring that vending machines not contain "junk food." The campaign against "junk food" and "fast food" is the next big crusade for the health Nazis, made even more appealing to them by the fact that they can once again demonize "big business" and "cor[porate greed." One big selling point of this crusade will be that it will ostensibly cut medical costs by "preventing disease." It will do no such thing. People will still eventually get sick and medical costs will continue to rise.

What next the exticercise police?

George Orwell's 1984
Physical Jerks - Morning Exercises. Participation was mandatory for all outer party members. These exercises took place every day 3 minutes after the morning wake-up call, which for office workers was at 7:15 am.

Telescreen - Two way television. There is only one channel, and the telescreen may not be turned off except by members of the Inner Party. All party members has one in every room of their apartment. Because of this, the party member is never out of earshot of the latest party propaganda, and not one second goes by that they are not under the surveillance of the party.

If we cannot control our worsening eating habits, I think it has more to do with exersize habits. Eat what you want but metaolize what you consume.

Now the tobacco settlment money has been squndered by all on the receiving end its time to go after another cash cow. Is this parasitic or what?.

According to the US Surgeon-General, about 300,000 American deaths a year can be linked to health problems associated with obesity. Statistics like that have been used to introduce laws limiting our access to alcohol and tobacco. How could we object when the powers-that-be act to limit our access to fast food?

What's good for the goose is good for the gander, you didn't listen when the smokers said you would be next - so tough (/sarcasm)

But seriously folks, the handwriting has been on the wall and many who have spent years beating up on smokers rfused to understand that it was part of the slippery slope. Maybe some folks will now start to wake up and realize it is time for a roadblock to be put up.

If we cannot control our worsening eating habits, sooner or later someone else will.

Who's "we," kimosabe? While it may be comforting to project one's little failures of self-discipline to society at large, it gives rise to the "one size fits all" social policies so beloved of government control freaks everywhere. If roundboy over there has trouble not sticking a HoHo into his piehole the solution isn't to get the government to keep everyone else from doing so.

Excellent post.
I do not have a weight problem and don't need some nimrod telling me what to put into my body.
This whole thing is so freakin' bizarre. If they weren't so serious it would be quite humorous.

As soon as I read the phrase, "Governments, however, are doing almost nothing to combat it", there was no doubt as to the politics of the author. Governments never solve problems, they only create all new sets of problems.

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