Japan -
health officials check the waistlines of citizens over 40,
and those considered too fat undergo diet counseling.
failure to slim down can lead to fines

new zealand -
has rules barring people it deems too fat
from immigrating to the country

great britain -
residents of some cities are being recruited
to wear electronic tracking tags to calculate
how much they move each day and how many calories they burn.
daily exercisers will be rewarded with store coupons
and days off from work.
NHS is paying 30000 people to take weight loss classes.

Personally I believe that the one and only thing that will bring an end to the obesity epidemic is when food gets too expensive.

I mean when the government stops subsidizing the poisons (grain feed animals and their products, corn products, white flour, processed vegetable oils) that get processed and sold at unbelievably cheap prices as fast foods and the like, the retailers will no longer be able to sell double cheezeburgers for $0.99, they will cost more like $8.99 and then people will stay at home and have beans with tortillas and the veggies they grew in their backyards or bartered from their neighbors.

But by then they will be riding their bicycles, too, and getting some exercise.

I think in a decade or two it will be more like Cuba.

I think high frutose corn syrup has a role to play in obesity. People are looking for nutrients and not getting it from micky d's. I have heard that europe does not allow high frutose corn syrup in their food. I wonder if that is true.

Must admit I'd never heard of corn syrup until went on international raw forums (I'm UK).

at first it seemed cruel
that japan would give fines for those who fail to slim down
like some sort of discrimination fee

but then again
if u think about it
the public as a whole has to pay out of their pockets ( its called 'taxes" but its still money that comes out of our pockets)
for people who get diseases that are directly related to obesity
and that is like OTHER people having to pay a fine for OTHER people's health responsibilities

so maybe its fair
after all

Arugula - Id like to think you were right but cigarettes at £5 or more for a packet of 20 doesn't deter anybody especially the teenagers who supposedly have no money. In my experience people cut back on everything but the things they really want or are addicted to.

What I got out of this was the horror of knowing that the Japanese are getting fat--the Japanese! American phood imperialism must be stopped . . . .

you never know, they might start fining people for being too thin...!

Maybe the taxpayer should be charged by how much weight the earth has to support for the individual to stand on it.

[Maybe the taxpayer should be charged by how much weight the earth has to support for the individual to stand on it.]

The idea of a carbon tax is a good one but I think it should be broadened. The more your environmental impact, the more you should pay. This should include:

-what you eat (different foods, wildly different impacts)
-how much you eat (more is worse of course)
-goods you purchase
-solid waste you produce
-water you consume
-wastewater you produce
-home energy use
-transportation energy use
-land ownership and type of use
-services you purchase, this includes postal, all types of insurance, education, etc., all these things require huge infrastructure and energy investments to maintain

And the tax rate should be directly proportional to the damage. Maybe then those of us in Westernized areas would be even more likely to scale back as far as the planet needs to stay healthy.