Is Fast Food the New Tobacco? Should the obesity issue be government regulated or remain personal responsibility?

    Obesity has been a problem in America since the early 1990's, and it is still prevalent throughout the United States today. 40% of adult Americans are considered obese, and this number just keeps rising. The American Diet is probably the worst diet on the planet, and mass media, along with good advertisement keeps these fast food industries flourishing. Many people compare fast food to tobacco, and I think that is the perfect analogy. Fast food is extremely cheap and addicting, and when you eat it, the food stimulates the brain the same way as addictive drugs such as cocaine. By no means am I saying that cocaine and fast food have the exact same effects on a human, but they definitely have some similarities. Unlike cocaine, fast food is cheap, easily accessible, and normalized by society. Fast food chains like McDonalds show no remorse for the disgusting, unhealthy food they serve on a daily basis, and it seems like they have a new ad campaign or receive more funding on a daily basis. The government understands this obesity problem and acknowledges it whenever it is brought up, but oddly enough, they don't do anything to fix it. The government is actually enabling these fast food industries to flourish and it all ties back to one thing; money.

    The government has been "regulating" obesity by creating campaigns for healthy lifestyles and creating new laws that pass on the medical expenses so the people with the disease don't have to come out of pocket. The problem with these two methods of regulating is that these campaigns include diets that have foods known to cause diabetes and obesity. The problem with making the medication practically free is that there is no incentive to get healthy if someone else is paying for your medical expenses. After all, why put down that triple quarter pounder if someones paying for your heart medication?

    I personally do not believe that the government should intervene with what people eat for multiple reasons. There are plenty of healthy Americans that like to indulge in junk foods from time to time and I believe it to be unfair to take that option away from healthy Americans. Also, the government has not been doing a very good job regulating, and I believe they've actually made things worse when it comes to obesity. If you look on websites such as Diabetes.org, they have a list of recipes that are supposed to be "healthy" but they include foods such as pork and dairy which are known for causing diabetes. This is probably one of the most ironic things about the website. I do not believe that the government actually cares about it's citizens being healthy, they are only worried about maximizing profits.

    In my opinion, the government should stay out of what we put in our bodies, and they need to take a step back and ask themselves this question, "is the money really worth killing our population?" If the answer to that question is yes, than Americans should understand that the government isn't going to help them, they can only help themselves.