Yesterday, The New York Times covered a study that demonstrated “worrying about weighing too much may be bad for you, no matter how much you actually weigh.” This report closely followed a London Times feature on a growing consensus of health experts that “the way some adults demonize certain foods is creating a generation obsessed with growing fat and increasingly guilty about eating.” In summary: Even though weight-related anxiety is bad for our health, nutrition activists continue to pile on the guilt.
Enter Michael Jacobson.
As Executive Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Jacobson acts as ringleader of the food-cop circus. His group goes after salt, caffeine, alcohol, pizza, and pretty much anything else that tastes good. During an interview with the Sacramento Bee, he admits: “I can’t eat anything without thinking about what’s in it.” And it’s that very obsession which Jacobson aims to force on everyone else in America.
Menu labeling is a central component of CSPI’s strategy to spread dietary shame. This measure aims to force restaurants to cover their menus with inescapable calorie counts in the hope that consumers will be too embarrassed by the numbers to order the meals they want. But there’s no evidence that this over-the-top approach would cause consumers to lose weight. In fact, mounting research speaks to the contrary, highlighting the dangers of adding guilt to our diet plans.
So what should you do? To respond to menu labeling and other Big Brother initiatives pushed by Jacobson and his grocery goons, it may be best to simply repeat the sentiment of one concerned mother: It’s not a good idea. “It’s state-sponsored bullying.”
