Instead of punishing the obese, health care practitioners should be educated, and people making wise choices rewarded… but I am afraid that the opposite is going on!

I like the idea.

1) There are no bike lanes anywhere in the area where I live or work, and riding your bike on the main road as the law requires – well, you take your life in your hands.

Bike lanes are only found in certain rich communities, not in the lower-middle class areas I’ve lived.

2) In high school I rode my bike from the train station the one mile out to school each day. There was no bike lane. There probably should have been, especially with not one but two schools in the vicinity.

Make bike lanes accessible by building more and people will use them. It might not help people lose weight, but overall it’s a good idea.

Steps in the right direction here – most busses now have bike racks on the front. I see plenty of folks using them.

BART loosened it’s bike policy quite a while back (from allowing bikes on one car only, to all cars except the first).

Sometimes it makes me wonder whether or not they are genuinely interested in getting the population healthy and slim & slender. At the risk of being considered a conspiracy buff I dare to put forward the contention that, after all is said and done, it is much easier to control and squeeze more money out of a tired, obese, lethargic population of (rather defenseless) sheep instead of a slim & slender, highly vocal and educated population.

If the Government is genuinely interested in restoring health and effectively fighting obesity as well as the directly related plethora of illnesses they should think in terms of objective support of the people affected, as well as tax reductions and incentives for these people so that they indeed can afford to buy those (more expensive) healthy foods.

Another thing that absolutely should be enforced in every way possible is the effective education of NOT the obese but instead the medical profession and practitioners in the art of nutritional science.

Instead of cranking out more and more of these politically correct, shortsighted, basically uneducated and misinformed nutritionists and dietitians these educational institutes, educators and students should be certified by completely independent, objective and unbiased scientific bodies. No certification, no permission to spout any dietary or nutritional advice to anyone, period. Those that do not obey would be procesuted to the extend of the law, severely fined, and stripped of all medical titles and possibility of further practicing the medical profession.

That (perhaps draconian, yes) measure alone, if implemented rigourously, would dramatically improve the quality, effectiveness and impartiality of all practitioners in the medical field. I am afraid that only draconian measures are all what can save us, and the future of our children, at this point in time.

Within 10 years, and possibly sooner, it will be too late to turn the tide. The costs will become even more astronomical and spiral completely out of control – most likely resulting in severe economic impact.

The result may very well be much worse even than the current witch-hunt on smokers. A few comparable scenarios, you say? How about this:

Ah, so you are obese? No, no, no protest! My little red BOO (Book Of Ornish) book says so!

- Oh, see here: Ornish’ Law says it’s all your own fault!
- No job for you! You are a risk to the company, the economy and yourself!
- No health care coverage for you, you are a risk!
- Mandated calorie restriction, no meal in a restaurant for you if your coupon (or biochip) says you already had your 1200 low-fat calories today
- Consuming anything must be done out of public sight
- Snacks and anything containing dietary fat no longer served in pubs
- Stores mandated (and fined for non-compliance) to display low-fat foods prominently
- Colossal warning stickers on anything containing any form of fat
- A tax on every fat-containing food.
- Constant daily barrage of Gov’t mandated anti-fat propaganda trough all media
- Taxes and premiums on large size clothes.
- No access to public buildings for obese people
- No Emergency Aid to obese people (it’s self-inflicted, after all…)
- Mandatory attendance to the GWW (Government Weight Watchers) program of especially formulated ultra-low-fat diets for obese persons
- Public book burning of all Atkins’ publications and, on Sundays, mandated worshipping of the colossal statue of Dr. Dean Ornish – our Savior, our Great Leader In Health.
- A little red book with low-fat tips (by Ornish, of course) would have to be carried on the person at all times. Non-compliance fined.
- Cookbooks are evaluated by the BBDCC (Big Brother Dietary Consensus Commission), presided by Prof. dr. dr. Jody Gorran, RN, MD, RCS, DSO, DSM, etc. etc.