Being the "Fooddude", I have strong opinions on the fat tax idea. It's horrible! Despite my desire to educate people on how eat healthy, and to bring the critically ill in my hospital back to life with nutrition, I was careful in my choice of words. It's my job to "E-D-U-C-A-T-E" people, not force them to eat healthy. That type of thing cannot be legislated. Well, it can, but in my opinion, wrongfully. It's a way to make (pardon the pun) the government fat ($$$). People should have the choice on what to eat. Quite frankly, if everyone was healthy, not obese and completely fit, my private practice would have to close. No people means no business! (actually less, because most of my business is medically or sports performance related, not obesity related, but I digrerss).

Fat Taxes and the like have been shown ineffective in their "stated" outcomes. People still smoke, gun laws have been ineffective in reducing the use of illegal handguns (it was rarely the legally obtained handgun involved in illegal activities (I am a licenced to own a handgun, but choose to not take ownership of one) and I'm sure there are dozens of other examples I cannot think of or even ever heard of.

The only thing that works is education. It is up to the individual to make a decision that affects their health. Only when someones decisions affect others should some sort of legislation be in place, and even then, it needs to be carefully done as to not take away the "offenders" rights to their unhealthy activities.

FAT TAX? Cheesburgers in Paradise will make Jimmy buffett even more wealthy!