Another Way Big Government Makes Americans Fat and Sick

It is our own personal responsibility to eat wisely and to avoid obesity, which is extremely bad for our health. Yet Big Government, which works day and night to undermine personal responsibility, has succeeded in making some of us fat and sick. This goes beyond the Federal promotion of unhealthy high-carb diets noted earlier. Via Moonbattery sponsor Ammo.com:

There is also a strong case to be made that farm subsidies are a major driver of the obesity and cancer epidemic in the United States.

Cancer and obesity are closely linked.

Like most statist moonbattery in America, farm subsidies got out of control under FDR and continue to this day. A major beneficiary of federal subsidies has been corn; Big Agri firms are paid to grow more of it than we can eat.

Some of the excess corn is wasted on inefficient ethanol. Possibly worse, much of it goes into high-fructose corn syrup. That is, Washington subsidizes junk food.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in August 2016, was able to document a connection between heavily subsidized food sources and obesity. The study found that those subsisting on a diet of heavily subsidized foods were 37 percent more likely to be obese than those who did not. Belly fat, abnormal cholesterol, and high blood sugar levels were likewise linked to a diet heavy in foods subsidized by the federal government.

Pressure to worsen our diet will be applied from the opposite end when liberals use Big Government to crack down on meat, which they oppose for ideological reasons.

We taxpayers will have to finance more than the subsidies:

As the federal government creeps more into healthcare, the more you and other taxpayers will be subsidizing (again) by paying for treatments for those who are clinically obese, diabetic, or otherwise unhealthy from the nutrient-poor foods promoted by the United States government through its subsidies. This creates a maniac cycle, whereby the federal government subsidizes foods that make people sick and fat, then subsidizes the healthcare of sick and fat people. In all likelihood, this will all be paid for disproportionately by people who are neither sick nor fat.

A comment from a Daily Bell reader in Houston describes what we are financing, thanks to farm subsidies, the welfare state, and government intrusion into healthcare:

One of the big issues with so many (poor) being fat is that EBT card. They load up the shopping cart with junk food because it is quick, satisfying, and FREE.

Nearly 15 years later, we still have a few “Katrina refugees” living in Section 8 housing nearby. Yeah, they have cars. Yes, they still have Louisiana plates on them. I’ve seen them shopping on many occasions, and one time stands out.

Mama is maybe 35, riding a scooter because she’s 5’4 and 400 pounds. One of her four kids is pushing the cart, and they’re all morbidly obese. The cart is loaded down with bags of chicken nuggets, Hungry Man dinners, Hot Pockets, and not a vegetable in site unless you include the bag of frozen french fries. Add to that the jumbo boxes of Captain Crunch and Cocoa Puffs, and don’t foget frozen waffles. To wash it all down, jugs of chocolate milk and soda.

Those are the denizens of Big Government utopia, bred into existence through bureaucratic social engineering. I wouldn’t sell life insurance to any of them that make it past age 50.

Trying to fine-tune the subsidy system so that the money goes to healthy food like fruits, vegetables, and meat instead of corn syrup is no answer, if only because inevitably subsidies end up going to those with pull. The answer, as always, is less government and more personal responsibility.

Read more detail on the history of farm subsidies and their deleterious effects at Ammo.com, and of course stock up on discount ammunition while you are there.

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