The global anti-obesity frenzy accelerates as politically-correct legislators from city councils (New York City and Chicago, for example) to the European Parliament weigh into the "consensus" that some foods are bad and governments should discourage (or even ban, e.g. trans fat) them.
Good nutrition is in danger of being converted from a worthy health objective to a food safety imperative like e coli or mad cow disease.
This rhetorical esacalation has an eerie similarity to the US-led multi-national effort to overthrow Saddam Hussein and erect stable self-government in Iraq. People understand that food choices influence good health; they understood that Saddam had butchered his people and thumbed his nose at UN resolutions condemning his actions. Unleashing massive efforts of public awareness has produced dietary changes, but the underlying problem of diet-related chronic disease continues, forcing consideration of a "surge" of government intervention into food processing decisions to "protect" the public from making wrong food choices. Whether improved food choices can be compared to peace and freedom in Iraq, the similarity is that failure of largely voluntary measures (food labeling or UN resolutions) is followed by more draconian interventions that invite the observation that policy-makers may have "bitten off more than they can chew" and risk not only failure, but undermine the credibility of their sponsors.
No one doubts the validity of the objectives of healthy diets or Mideast peace. The consensus breaks down in interpreting the intelligence (medical studies of health outcomes of dietary interventions or whether Saddam's government in fact trained, encouraged and exported terrorists to supplement his internal barbarities) and developing effective strategies (improving overall dietary quality versus "good food/bad food" demonization or the role of the US and its allies in preventing inter-factional blood-letting among Iraq's Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites).
In February, the European Parliament expects to vote on an anti-obesity measure that declares excess body weight a "chronic disease" and would call on the European Commission to push for rules to end the promotion of foods high in fat, salt and sugar to children. Whether you believe Saddam ever had weapons of mass destruction, you should be concerned about the "intelligence" linking non-caloric salt to obesity; there's no science behind this. And whether expanded food nanny interventionism will be more successful than "boots on the ground" along the Tigres and Euphrates should give strategists pause.
Increasing speed if you're on the wrong road won't get you where you want to go.
