4 ms·

This 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 addict

• slibhb 6mo ago
  It'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 ago
    They 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 ago
      Would 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.
        • dzhiurgis 6mo ago
          Make a lolly bag $100 and not $1 and your problem is solved
        • slibhb 6mo ago
          Whether something is possible to enforce seems like a sliding scale. We can totally imagine a world where a calorie cap is possible to enforce. In such a world, would it be reasonable?
      • negura 6mo ago
        a better solution is banning processed foods which fall below a threshold for calories/micronutrient content (and no artificial enrichment allowed)
  • nutjob2 6mo ago
    Unlike food, nicotine is not a necessity. Also calorie intake alone doesn't determine weight gain or loss. The problem of obesity is much more complex. Governments try to address this problem through education and regulation of food. There are drugs available now to help control obesity and they're very popular, so people obviously want to avoid the condition. I don't know why you think people should have a right to take highly addictive drugs that result in premature death. Contrary to smoker's claims, cigarettes are pure addiction and provide no benefits whatsoever to the smoker.
  • dzhiurgis 6mo ago
    No but you can make sure only healthy desserts are being sold. You can only stuff so much carrot cake. Decent labelling could be a start. Even when shopping online there's basically next to 0 of actual data of what goes into product. Forget trying to create a healthy shopping AI agent.