Linda Gorman, director of the Indendence Institute’s Health Care Policy Center, writes:

Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban large sodas. The Institute of Medicine wants to tax unhealthy folks. As John Goodman showed in a previous post, it’s hard to justify any of this. Here are some additional considerations.

Population obesity seems to have plateaued. …

In 1997, the government made 35.4 million adults overweight overnight. …

Americans gained weight while following national dietary guidelines. …

National definitions of overweight are based on the BMI distribution of people aged 20-29 despite evidence suggesting that as people age, the lowest mortality occurs at progressively increasing weights. …

Absent identifiable pathogens, any regime to classify foods as good or bad based on current evidence will be arbitrary, encouraging crony capitalism and unproductive rent seeking. …

American taxpayers pay almost as much for government feeding programs as overweight and obesity generate in excess medical costs. …

Read the whole post for details on each of the above points: Things You May Not Know About Government and Obesity | John Goodman’s Health Policy Blog | NCPA.org.