Calories for the Eating Impaired

This is supposed to make people eat less?

Every First Lady has to have a cause. Michelle Obama has made hers healthy eating and obesity. I get that. It’s a good cause.

But now along with the FDA she’s proposing new guidelines for food labeling, increasing the font size of the calorie count.

Mrs. Obama said, “We’re overhauling these labels to make them easier to read and understand. You as a parent and a consumer should be able to walk into a grocery story, pick an item off the shelf and determine if this product is good for your family.” [Mashable]

If Mrs. Obama and the FDA really understood anything about people with weight and food issues, they’d know that, above all, we don’t like to be nagged.

I don’t need some fancy new labeling that even the Obama Administration estimates will cost the food industry some $2 billion. Sure they estimate that and more will be made up in savings. You and I both know where the money will come from in the meantime.

We also know how good the government is when it comes to estimating monetary figures when it comes to our health.

Look, if I want to count calories, and sometimes I do, I can already read the labels. This expensive, nanny-state, redesign is a waste of time and money.

It won’t change eating habits. Trust me.

The design isn’t final. It has to go through a 90 day comment period. Then they can waste the money. And pass the savings on to us.

It’s just another example of how something that seems to be helpful doesn’t always have the desired result. Sometimes it’s just silly.

I understand that the federal government, and this Administration in particular, thinks that it’s their duty to save us from ourselves.

I’d rather they just spare us.

————————————————–

Follow The Write Side of My Brain on Facebook and Google+.