Smack of Reality: Is Healthy Eating an Individual Choice or Government Responsibility?

I believe that healthy eating should be an individual choice and not the government's responsibility in most cases.

For most people, we are healthy eaters and do make the proper decisions. A lot of people are not healthy eaters that do not get health problems from the way they eat. Both of these groups of people do not need government help and so, they should not be a part of this argument.

I believe that the subject of eating healthy should only become the governor's responsibility when the person becomes a burden to society due to their lack of healthy eating habits. The problem of not eating healthy for the individual becomes a problem to society when the individual becomes no longer capable of supporting themselves financially or medically.

When a person is no longer able to support themselves financially with the job due to a medical condition such as obesity, then I think that it becomes the government's responsibility. It does become the responsibility for the government when it must pay disability payments to individuals, making it a burden on all taxpayers. In cases such as this, where obesity really controls the individual, I think that it is the government's duty to step in and help.

I don't think that the government paying disability payments to obese people while not trying to medically help them is the right thing to do. I think that once obese people reach this level, the government should pay them disability but, at the same time, it also needs to try to help the person medically. It might just be a simple dietary issue or it might be something worse. Just paying obese people because they cannot work is not really solving the problem of obesity.

Society and the government need to take a proactive approach to the subject of obesity. Obese people should be taught how to eat healthier if their diet is the main reason for their obesity.

On the other hand, if, after testing, it is found that the person's obesity is not due to diet but, rather, due to metabolism or some other reason beyond the individuals' control, then the government can help the obese person another way. The point is that we do not know the reason for the individual's obesity unless we actually test them, which will not occur if we only pay them disability income.

Yes, the government does test obese people before determining whether they should receive disability payments or not. They usually help pay for the treatment of the symptoms caused by obesity but do not do much for the obesity itself. So, basically, we have a lot of obese people receiving disability income just because they are obese, which, in many cases, it is a simple problem of diet.

A simple problem of dieting should be able to be resolved with ease. A few simple visits with a dietitian should fix most cases of obesity within a few months. Instead, what does the government do? It takes a long way around and avoids the problem of obesity by ignoring the problem by trying to pay obese people off.

In this country, we have an extreme number of freedoms. Many of these freedoms are good and should be preserved but I think that there are always exceptions. When people lose their productivity because of their freedom, they become a liability to society. Once they become a liability to society for a simple reason, like eating too much, then they should lose some of their rights and be forced to accept government aid with the purpose of trying to fix their condition using medical or dietary techniques.

If obese people want government disability, then they should have a real disability that is not curable by simple things like diets. I do not believe that a majority of obese people are incurable. Some are, but I really do think that some of it is caused by uninformed or lazy people, who know how to eat healthier and do not.

The government should help these people learn how to eat but, unless totally unnecessary, not just give them disability payments without trying to fix the problem. This only makes the problem worse.