Somos unos Gordos

Otro de los temas favoritos de los activistas por el estatismo y un mayor control gubernamental de nuestras vidas. Al igual que con el “calentamiento global”, o “cambio climático”, como se lo conoce ahora ante la falta de evidencia científica, hay que hacer algo porque cada día estamos más gordos y ya es una epidemia.

Pero, como de costumbre, parece que no es tan así la cosa. Como tampoco parece ser cierto que las personas con problemas mentales estén poseídas por el demonio.

No importa, no podemos dejar que un detalle menor, como la ausencia de evidencia científica, se interponga en el camino de una buena causa por el avance del estatismo en el mundo:

A recent report in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology says that girls as young as five years old are beginning to have problems with body image. The authors concluded that the girls "felt 'paranoid' about their weight -- partly because of the Government's anti-obesity message," according to the London Telegraph. Girls as young as eight are being diagnosed with eating disorders.

The situation is no different in the United States. If we crunch the available data on eating disorders (with data from the National Institute of Mental Health) versus the number of children who have Type II Diabetes (the most common ailment associated with childhood obesity -- data comes from the Center for Disease Control) we find that the average child today is somewhere between 222 and 1,097 times more likely to have an eating disorder than Type II Diabetes.

Why in the world would a state like Arkansas, then, boast about how it forces each of its public school students to stand on a scale, then sends notes home parents about the child's Body Mass Index? Why are lawmakers in New York, Georgia, and Texas considering similar proposals? Because, obesity is the outrage du jour of late. Body image and eating disorders are passé. If policies enacted to fight obesity make adolescents and teens more likely to develop eating disorders, well, that's a consequence of how some health activists and media outlets have arranged priorities.

The unfortunate policies don't stop there. Why did Texas attempt to ban elementary students from bringing cupcakes to school, even to celebrate a birthday? Why have some lawmakers proposed allowing teachers to rifle through lunchboxes and seize contraband such as Snickers bars and Pixie Sticks?

The answer of course is hysteria. We're in the midst of a moral panic over obesity. We're told that we've been getting fatter for thirty years, and that this thickening of our waistlines portends a coming healthcare catastrophe. Yet over that same period of time, our life expectancy has risen to all-time highs, while cancer, heart disease, and stroke have dropped off dramatically.