Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 27, 2012

As is often the case with large-scale public problems, the ever-increasing rate of childhood obesity is a joint product of individual weakness and misguided government intervention.

For decades, the federal government has promoted a ?food pyramid? that encourages heavy carbohydrate consumption. It has also subsidized the production of the toxic ? and ubiquitous ? sweetener called high fructose corn syrup.

Government-inflicted distortions in the agricultural economy have resulted in an abundance of relatively cheap and thoroughly unhealthy consumer foods. The ever-increasing cost of living ? which results from the depreciation of the dollar ? has made most households dependent on such unhealthy fare.

The military is now treating childhood obesity as a ?national security? issue. The Pentagon?s concern with cultivating a new crop of trigger-pullers overlaps Michelle Obama?s Nanny State obsession with micro-managing the diets of other people?s children. As a result, school lunch menus are filled with low-calorie foods kids aren?t willing to eat ? which is creating a black market in junk food.

As is the case with every other public problem, the first step to curbing the obesity epidemic is ignoring everything government says, and ? to the greatest possible extent ? getting it out of our lives.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.