Not long ago, a lawmaker in the great State of Mississippi, decided in all his wisdom that the best way to fight obesity in the state would be to give restaurants the ability to decline service to patrons who were, in fact, clearly obese. The story appeared in USA Today on Feb. 5. Clearly, the Republican legislator who had this braniac idea knew it wouldn’t get far. But, my friends, it’s gotten far.
Far enough to prompt debate in newspapers all around the country, like the Council Bluffs, Iowa, Nonpareil. In the editorials and letters to the editor I’ve glanced at, a key point is raised again and again. Should we attack the nation’s fat problem head on or tip toe around obesity like a Minnesota driver who gets cut off on I-494 by someone with out-of-state plates (Minnesota “nice” tells us to just wave that driver on by…with a smile)?
Giving restaurant owners/wait staff the ability to not serve a patron based on how far his or her ass hangs off the chair is clearly not the way to go. But c’mon people! What’s the answer here? And why are we dancing around one of the biggest (guffaw) epidemics of the century? The term “morbidly obese” means that someone with this condition could easily die from the problem. Their fat issue will lead to chronic conditions including heart disease, diabetes and more – all at a huge cost to our already taxed health care system. Do we, as intelligent, educated citizens stand by and watch this happen?
I would argue that if it’s OK for us to agree to ban smoking in commercial buildings, restaurants and other public places, ban drugs, and require bar owners to cut off patrons who are obviously drunk and intending to get even more so, then it’s not out of the question to find a way to restrict those who don’t have a “stop” button from eating themselves into further oblivion and even to death. Why is it NOT ok to at least have frank conversations with our neighbors about finding alternatives to that pound of butter and several gallons of Crisco they use to fry a turkey in their garage at Thanksgiving?
The nicey nice attitude toward obesity has to go on the shelf. It’s time to get angry and break out the anti-fat messaging that will ring clear in peoples’ heads once and for all. If not for them, then for their children. Let’s do it before our DNA alters itself and predisposes all of humanity to be obese.
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Land of 10,000 Perspectives 
I don’t agree with you this time, Chuck. All the information is out there, readily available to anyone serious about weight loss, requiring nothing more than determination and a change in lifestyle. In most cases, the issues behind the problem of obesity run so much deeper than simply what people eat, and I believe it is a personal choice that should be left to each individual.
Do you think there’s any validity to the theory that it may be related to all the additives in our food? The harmones? Just asking. I wouldn’t know. I don’t even know how true it is. I just hear about cows and chickens being juiced up all the time and kids hitting puberty at say, nine.
About getting cut off in Minnesota: Not a good idea in Houston.
Also about Minnesota: The only way I would survive the weather your’re having right now was if I was wore a spacesuit
Jill: I understand your sentiment. I think my frustration in all the talk/no action is just getting to me.
Greg: The theory you’ve raised seems like another theory that’s based at finding excuses. Not sure if any real science has been done on the long-term affect of additives and hormones in our food sources. And spacesuits are handed out when you cross the border into Minnesota, just FYI.
I agree, but also disagree. It’s a gray line. Something does need to be done. This can’t be swept under the carpet like many other things.
What I find that irritates me the most is seeing the morbidly obese with cart fulls (the electric, sit down kind too) of junk food, not a healthy thing to be found. Or those morbidly obese and their, soon to follow in their footsteps, chubby children on welfare buying crap. Piles of crap. I just want to shake the daylights out of these people.
Now, with that being said… I have, at one time, tried to buy nothing but healthy food. Fruits, veggies, blah blah blah. And from what I have experienced, it costs twice as much to eat healthy than it does to eat crap. If you are on a really strict budget you’re pretty much screwed (I’ve been there), unless you eat like a bird.
I think I got my point across, I think. Maybe you’ll have to read between the lines, it’s there somewhere… honest.
Also, this is not one skinny girl talking, I was fat once 210 lbs on a 5’9 frame… Not a pretty picture!