by Robin Canada

Created on: March 31, 2008

Imagine a world filled with diabetes, high blood pressure, and a vast array of diseases that can be attributed to obesity. People walking around, too tired to work out, too unhealthy to do anything about it, and the lack of motivation of an English bulldog trying to take a nap. That is where we live. Our society today is consumed by McDonalds, Burger King, and enough fat on the Colonel's fried chicken to insulate a human for a year. With no government intervention, this situation would only escalate to catastrophic proportions. Let us look at the other option first.

So many people out there say that the government should just stay out of it. "This is a free country." "They should let us make our own choices." While this is a good point, it is just not in human nature to be left to do whatever we want, whenever we want. If government were to completely back out of the issue, people would gradually eat themselves to an early grave. There has already been proof of this. Years ago there was much more trans-fat in the kitchens of fast food businesses. They were shelling out buckets of it on every customer that entered. It was so thick that you could probably gain a pound just by walking in the door. Then people began suing those same places for making them "fat". Therefore, the government tried to step in. What happened? Those same people complained that the government should keep its big nose out of it. It was their business. There were protests and more lawsuits and it all was blown out of proportion. When the government "stayed out of it", people lost their self-control. They got fat and blamed it on the establishments from which they never had the self-control to stay away.
Now, people are still overweight everywhere you look and it is no longer politically correct to say someone is fat. No, they have some extra pounds. Soon we will just be spherically challenged. God knows, I have some too. Of course, government should never take or be given complete control. That is not what I am saying. They won the war with the fast food restaurants and now trans-fat is no longer allowed. Has this directly caused anyone to lose weight? We will probably never know. However, what we do know is that it has helped those people who do not have the will power to make healthy choices.
The programs that the government offers are valuable to the health of society. If we were truly given the opportunity to experience the freedom to be completely responsible for our own health, the

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