New Jersey Tax Dollars at Work

Even though New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine can't be bothered to put his seat belt on, he can find time to create a government agency to combat obesity:

New Jersey's health department is escalating the battle against the bulge by starting an Office of Nutrition and Fitness to better coordinate programs aimed at preventing obesity.
New Jersey may be the first state to create such a government body. The agency is particularly needed there.

The Garden State has the highest percentage of overweight and obese children under age 5, at 17.7 percent, according to a 2004 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New Jersey also has many black and Latino youths, who are more likely to be overweight than white youngsters.

Fred M. Jacobs, commissioner of the state Department of Health and Senior Services, said young people are a crucial target for the new agency because it is easier to instill good diet and exercise habits to prevent obesity in young people than it is to reverse weight problems in adults. Adults almost always gain back any weight they lose - and then some.

Actually, you won't reduce obesity in children if you don't change the habits of their parents. Kids will do what they see their parents doing. If the parents are exercising and eating right, nothing the state can do will make the kids do any differently.

Of course, there may be exceptions to that rule, but the exceptions are just that--exceptions.

The story continues:

Fred M. Jacobs, commissioner of the state Department of Health and Senior Services, said young people are a crucial target for the new agency because it is easier to instill good diet and exercise habits to prevent obesity in young people than it is to reverse weight problems in adults. Adults almost always gain back any weight they lose - and then some.

Jacobs says he wants to tackle the obesity problem through education, support groups and encouraging physical activity, rather than by banning particular foods. One goal is to "de-normalize" the massive portions served in restaurants.

"I want to do that without creating a further stigma on individual people," Jacobs said. "It's bad enough when you're fat that people think less of you. I don't want the government piling on."

He is mulling the idea of having schools notify parents, via report cards, of children with weight problems.

This last one is of particular concern. The notification is predicated upon two things. First, that the school knows whether child has a real weight problem--which I grant it may--but how does it determine the problem. Second, this notice system assumes parents will read the report card AND act upon the notice. The later premise is shaky at best.

With 60 percent of the New Jersey population obese or overweight, one has to wonder how the state is going to combat the obesity problem.