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You could use this logic to ban unhealthy foods, or restrict people from eating too much.
by slibhb 6mo ago
You could use this logic to ban unhealthy foods, or restrict people from eating too much.
- Noumenon72 6mo agoOr to resist ever passing a national health system.
- marcusverus 6mo agoThere is something insidious about the state forcing a citizen to pay for its services, only turn around and insist that the use of said services entitles the state to further control of the citizen.
- DicIfTEx 6mo agohttps://www.diabetes.org.uk/about-us/news-and-views/junk-food-advertising-ban-childrens-health https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about-us/news-and-views/junk-foo... https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/government-bans-high-sugar-and-deep-fried-foods-from-school-menus/2135206.article https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/government-bans-high-sugar-a... https://www.gov.uk/government/news/soft-drink-levy-extended-to-protect-children-and-improve-health https://www.gov.uk/government/news/soft-drink-levy-extended-...
- Gud 6mo agoConsidering the general state of the UK population, this may not be such a bad idea.
- nutjob2 6mo agoThis is just whataboutism, but the UK also regulates sugar in fairly draconian ways too, for example. There are good reasons to target smoking given how addictive and deadly it is. Nicotine is fairly unique in this regard.
- slibhb 6mo agoIt's reductio ad absurdum. Obesity is really bad for you and strains public health services. Should the government enforce a cap on caloric intake?
- lol768 6mo agoThey already prevent advertising the sorts of foods that contribute to obesity to children, and encourage you to drink less sugary drinks by applying tax to them (though unfortunately manufacturers have responded to this by reducing choice and adding artificial sweeteners instead of selling something at a higher price that can be enjoyed once every few weeks. I don't think any of this is unreasonable in a country that picks up the tab through both subsidised dental care and completely free-at-point-of-use healthcare.
- slibhb 6mo agoWould a calorie cap be reasonable?
- tredre3 6mo ago> Would a calorie cap be reasonable? A legislation that isn't possible to enforce is not reasonable, no. Banning cigarettes = easy to enforce. Banning sugar in soft drinks = easy to enforce. Limiting how many calories you can consume = how do you propose we do that? Do we even have the technology to track what someone eats? And do we carve out exceptions for athletes? If there was a way to cap calories without surgically inserting trackers into everybody I'm sure you'd see a lot less opposition to your idea.
- testing22321 6mo agoIndeed yes. We have extremely large governmental departments regulating what can and can not be sold as food.
- reassess_blind 6mo agoNot the quantity of food though. Deaths attributed to obesity are higher than those of smoking in recent years. Smoking rates are falling, but obesity continues to climb in the UK.
- testing22321 6mo agoTrans fats are banned in restaurants in Canada. Crazy food additives and preservatives are banned in Europe that are common in the US. https://foodbabe.com/food-in-america-compared-to-the-u-k-why-is-it-so-different/ https://foodbabe.com/food-in-america-compared-to-the-u-k-why...
- negura 6mo agonot could, should. i'm fully in favor of banning processed foods that fall below a threshold for calories/micronutrient ratio (and no artificial enrichment permitted)