The food police are coming

Here is a frightening prospect:

"To have any chance of release from obesity's ever-tightening grip, the NATION will REQUIRE broad based efforts in every corner of society: homes, schools, community organizations, all levels of GOVERNMENT, urban design, transportation, agriculture, the food industry, the media, medical practice, and, without question, biomedical research."

JAMA Sept. 19, 2012 p. 1095

Any chart of the growth of the restaurant industry can show you the relationship between the modern women/feminist movement and obesity.   So maybe it’s up to moms to rein in the eating out, to spend a bit more time in the kitchen preparing food instead of opening packages, and stop driving the kids everywhere.  Actually, the childhood "obesity epidemic” stalled over a decade ago, but that hasn’t stopped the government intrusion in our lives.

The researchers can glamorize or sympathize, but the fact remains, a woman employed outside the home whose time is valuable, turns to restaurants/fast food outlets to feed her family.  Many women know nothing of the time short cuts or economic savings women of my generation learned from our mothers.

“The researchers acknowledge that food prepared in the home is nominally cheaper than purchasing food in restaurants. But in view of the value of time that must be devoted to shopping and cooking, as compared to the high-calorie, low-cost, mass-production meals available at ever-increasingly convenient locations (with ever diminishing travel and waiting time), the fast-food option appears to make good economic, if not health, sense.”

http://www.nber.org/digest/feb03/w9247.html