checkout my idea for improving America's health

Yeah bullying and shaming people to lose weight won't work, but keep doing that to the people around you, and alienate everyone until they realise what a hateful, judgemental and misguided self righteous person you are.

What makes a food healthy or not healthy?

Considered that fast foods are a massive export for the US? May well be contributing a fair bit to your economy too.
Then there's the health insurance industry and so on.

We've got a lot of your chains in the UK and no doubt a load of that money ends in the US - not sure where Starbucks UK is paying tax, but it's not the UK. All the tech staff were based in the US.

We don't have HFCS over here, but why is it really that much of a problem, or just that people have loads of high calorie food and drink?

Many of your ideas reflect how life was once lived by most of us. There was a time when people had natural portion control and being " greedy" was a horrible attribute. At that time , almost everyone ate decent portion sizes.

For example, in my elementary school years, there was perhaps ONE overweight child in the entire school. This in included the inactive kids and the sporty types ---- everyone understood not to overeat, I remember my Uncle telling my Mother ( his sister ) "your apple pie is wonderful but I had one slice, I have had enough sweets". So people knew not to overdo sweets.

Many of your ideas are great, but the Food Industry, Big Pharma, the corporations involved fight using highly financed ads and commercials--- so people are always encouraged by those industries to buy more, eat more then take pills to control the predictable results.

A bit of Fat Shaming wasn't always considered a negative.

. Shame people who are fat, in a similar way that we do with people who smoke cigarettes.

It's not acceptable to shame people or make fun of them WTF everyone has the right to exist without feeling like a piece of **** even if they smoke or are fat who cares

Research the difference between American and European food. Note what's packed in our food, and find a reason to end it.

You do know Europe isn't one country, right? And Europe includes Britain, Greece and Germany who has an average BMI of over 27, just like the US.

If you want to look to somewhere it should be Japan.


http://www.indexmundi.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/weight-of-the-world.jpg

Open market insurance policies have always been tied to your health- before this year. People abdicating personal responsibility in favor of the nanny state has led to most of these problems. People find solutions to solve a demand. Case in point HFCS. When I was a kid ONLY wealthy people could afford soda pop. It was a treat- not a beverage. Millions of non -wealthy people wanted to enjoy this treat. Hence the development of HFCS. The problem with your solutions is that they have nothing to do with personal rights and responsibilities. In the U.S. people are in control of the government BUT they decided that was just too much work to pay attention to so they decided to vote for people that promised to do their thinking for them. Let us take school lunches, for example. The parents voted for the school board and the meetings are open. Have you gone to the school board to question the menu? Why do all the private schools in the US have a significantly healthier menu? They have less not more money to spend on food- they are not subsidized. They purchase from the same suppliers. It is because the parents are paying and they watch the menu and what is spent like a hawk. Instead of having a wide buffet of multiple items of crap they have a limited menu of healthy food. Even tho these families can afford to purchase these meals up to 30% still bring their lunch. My kid does because I can still save money by doing so. My kid is not lucky to go to a private school. I worked 3rd shift while getting my degrees. I paid every penny of my education. I drove a beater and shopped at Goodwill. We lived in 1 room efficiencies until we saved a down payment on a foreclosed 1bedroom condo. We ate rice and beans 2yrs and 11 months to pay off the mortgage. All so that I could afford to put her in a school that teaches her critical thinking and personal responsibility. Which are the ONLY proven solutions to your list of societal problems while preserving the liberty and dignity of each human. You need to reread 1984. We now have smart TVs that watch you. Maybe you would like them to wake us every morning and watch us exercise?! Watch what you eat?! As for shaming people...do you have any idea of the damage that would do to you? You would shame a stranger for gluttony while heaping the sin of pride on your soul? I know you have good intentions but you know what road that paves... Perhaps you could take all that passion and start teaching a free nutrition and exercise course with one of your local charities. I am sure your local rescue mission or food pantry would be thrilled to have you teach. My work with the homeless and imprisoned has changed my life. God bless

mmk.

I love the ideas but... well the first thing (and this is small) is that we already have a $0.05 tax on soda because they all come in cans and bottles. It doesn't seem to have had a significant effect on recycling and I can't imagine it would have an effect on drinking habits. In fact, if cigarettes have taught us anything, it's that the last thing people care about when they are addicted to something is the price.

After that, your goals are pretty good BUT... we can't even agree that everyone should have access to health care and we don't even care all that much about our education system as it is and you want us to agree to spend a bunch of money on EATING? Not lack of food but eating too much! Don't get me wrong, I like the idea. The problem is that a lot of Americans are idiots will see it that way. And that segment, while not a majority, is large enough to offset the relatively small group that makes up the voting public.

When it comes to politics, you've got about 50% of the country who can't be bothered to care about other people, even if doing so benefited them in the end.

Shaming people who use food to cope with just creates more situations for them to need to cope with.

This however, is poor education on behalf of the parents too.

Indeed. So many seem to see this sort of thing as a problem of government.
Personally I think parenthood should be a privilege people should earn; unfortunately biology thinks differently.

No one should be made to feel inferior because of their appearance.

What about smoking?
Lazy behaviour?

Open market insurance policies have always been tied to your health- before this year. People abdicating personal responsibility in favor of the nanny state has led to most of these problems. People find solutions to solve a demand. Case in point HFCS. When I was a kid ONLY wealthy people could afford soda pop. It was a treat- not a beverage. Millions of non -wealthy people wanted to enjoy this treat. Hence the development of HFCS. The problem with your solutions is that they have nothing to do with personal rights and responsibilities. In the U.S. people are in control of the government BUT they decided that was just too much work to pay attention to so they decided to vote for people that promised to do their thinking for them. Let us take school lunches, for example. The parents voted for the school board and the meetings are open. Have you gone to the school board to question the menu? Why do all the private schools in the US have a significantly healthier menu? They have less not more money to spend on food- they are not subsidized. They purchase from the same suppliers. It is because the parents are paying and they watch the menu and what is spent like a hawk. Instead of having a wide buffet of multiple items of crap they have a limited menu of healthy food. Even tho these families can afford to purchase these meals up to 30% still bring their lunch. My kid does because I can still save money by doing so. My kid is not lucky to go to a private school. I worked 3rd shift while getting my degrees. I paid every penny of my education. I drove a beater and shopped at Goodwill. We lived in 1 room efficiencies until we saved a down payment on a foreclosed 1bedroom condo. We ate rice and beans 2yrs and 11 months to pay off the mortgage. All so that I could afford to put her in a school that teaches her critical thinking and personal responsibility. Which are the ONLY proven solutions to your list of societal problems while preserving the liberty and dignity of each human. You need to reread 1984. We now have smart TVs that watch you. Maybe you would like them to wake us every morning and watch us exercise?! Watch what you eat?! As for shaming people...do you have any idea of the damage that would do to you? You would shame a stranger for gluttony while heaping the sin of pride on your soul? I know you have good intentions but you know what road that paves... Perhaps you could take all that passion and start teaching a free nutrition and exercise course with one of your local charities. I am sure your local rescue mission or food pantry would be thrilled to have you teach. My work with the homeless and imprisoned has changed my life. God bless

HFCS was not put in soda or other foods to make them affordable. Nor, in fact, is it actually less expensive.

For that matter, priavte health insurance premiums always have been and are still tied to overall health, age, and lifestyle choices (obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption) - at least in the U.S.

Why don't you just move to France?

Most of the things listed are already being done. Most of the others are completely pointless. No idea what a ban on HFCS will do, as manufacturers will just go back to using cane sugar instead (which is identical nutritionally).

Some of them are just horrendously naive. "Make healthy meat cheap"? Really? That's your answer? How do we do that? "Change the stigma on eating well"? What? There's a stigma on eating well? If there is, how do you change it?

This isn't a plan. It's a smattering of nonsense based on no evidence and no data.

Unfortunately, the people who deal with these problems in the real world have to deal with the burden of coming up with actual methods and then producing results.