Letters: Government and obesity

Re “Keep the state off my plate,” Opinion, Nov. 29

Out of all potential Op-Ed pieces, why The Times chose to public Julie Gunlock’s piece is puzzling. Her contention is that the government is telling us what to eat. Been there, heard that.

Gunlock need only review the work of Robert Lustig at UC San Francisco to realize that sugar, like alcohol and tobacco, has made us sick. The data do not lie. Although Gunlock is all for healthy choices, the majority of Americans are not. Government intervention is but one piece of the puzzle.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s effort to limit soda size, knowing full well that one can still order two sodas, began a conversation about soft drinks’ impact on health. Increasing awareness of sugar’s impact on obesity should not be vilified. What is wrong with information?

In one way or another, we are all paying for this health crisis of obesity.

Melissa Wogahn

Carlsbad

Fat — the final frontier for bureaucrats with nothing better to do than peer over the shoulders of their fellow citizens.

There was a time when it was understood that the government’s job was to collect taxes, defend our borders and deliver the mail; what the people chose to eat or with whom they chose to sleep were private affairs. The growth of the nanny state should terrify people, especially in today’s sagging economy, when every public dollar needs to be spent on things that count: infrastructure, defense and education. Those dollars should not be wasted on intrusions on the lives of the people who supply them.

Kudos to Gunlock, who offers us a whopping portion of common sense. May I have some more?

Carol Gwenn

Los Angeles

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