Health in America has been highlighted in current years for the startling number of people, in particular children, becoming obese. However, the lengths at which the government goes to protect people from becoming obese, and even the fact that they are trying to protect people the way they are has drawn a lot of criticism. With this criticism the government has had to try and walk a fine line between criticism of doing either "Too much," or "Too little."
In my opinion, while it is important to try and get the word out there that one should be eating foods like McDonald's and Doritos in moderation at least, you can only do so much before your just going overboard. For instance, a recent ad campaign in Georgia shows an image of a little girl and under her it reads, "It's hard to be a little girl when your not."I think it's safe to that this takes fighting obesity to a whole other extreme because now, instead of just telling people the exact reasons why the food is bad and what it can do, this ad makes an example of a little girl who really doesn't know that much better about what she eats yet. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/georgias-shocking-anti-obesity-ad-campaign/2012/01/03/gIQAZB8HYP_blog.html). In addition to this, kids in her school could now make fun of her for being fat, and if they are questioned about it they would have government-authorized proof that she is indeed fat. In addition to this, their ad campaign seem to be more like little insulting remarks people would make if they saw an obese person. With this, I look at the other poster on the same link saying, "Fat prevention begins at home, and at the buffet line." This draws my mind to remarks like, "I bet that guy knows a good place to eat," and the like. Now, I can see that this may hurt their feelings and drive them to stop, but at what cost? A loss of self esteem and a lowering of one's public image? I just don't see how can be worth that much.
In addition to this, I was watching "Dr. Drew," a couple of months ago and they were talking to a very obese woman (http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/09/worlds-heaviest-woman-i-need-help). When Dr. Drew asked her how she had reached her current point of obesity, she responded that it was do to bad managing and scheduling and that she had been trying to call TV personalities like Oprah, Dr. Phil, and Dr. Oz to help her lose weight, but none had responded to help her. At first, I had no problem with this story, but after a few minutes I started really wondering, "Couldn't she have done something herself to try and alleviate the situation?" For instance, if she had known that she had these habits, could she have tried to stop herself when she saw herself acting on these habits instead of waiting until one of these shows came along? What disturbed me most was that she had a child who seemed perfectly normal who was stuck having to care for her because she had made the decisions she did and turned out obese. So overall, my feelings are very mixed on this issue and though the consequences of obesity can be big, there are certain lines you cannot cross in combating this problem.
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