When First Lady Michelle Obama decided to make the fight against obesity her pet cause, it sounded to many like a benign and reasonable way for a woman and mother in her position to draw attention to an important issue. But like most things Obama, it raised an alarm with others that the federal government would attempt to use the issue to grab more control over American lives. That second group got an I-told-you-so opportunity today as a new White House report calls childhood obesity in America "a national health crisis" and proposes plenty of restrictive ideas.

Continued...

The report emphasizes the importance of better nutrition and more physical exercise but mixed in with the common sense suggestions to which few would object are calls for new and dramatic controls on the marketing of unhealthy foods. The task force that authored the report wants junk food makers and marketers to only use media characters to promote healthy products and if those companies refuse to limit marketing of less healthy products to young viewers, they suggest the FCC consider new rules on commercials in children's programming. It also suggests food retailers should stop using in-store displays to sell unhealthy food items to children and that restaurants should re-evaluate portion sizes, improve kids' menus and list more healthy food choices.

Of course since this Task Force on Childhood Obesity was created by President Barack Obama, their report threatens a tax increase; specifically analyzing the effect of imposing state and local sales taxes on less healthy products. (source)

As with health care in general, there is plenty of room for improvement in the diets of most Americans and especially American children (the report found one out of every three children is overweight or obese) . Government can certainly play a role in encouraging those improvements via nutritional education, better quality food and more physical activity in public schools, etc. But, just like the health care reform bill, many of the ideas in the Obama administration's new report would put government in charge of what should be business and personal decisions.