On Friday the Daily Caller posted a story highlighting a stimulus-funded anti-obesity program that has been going on under the auspices of a program under the $650 million Recovery Act called Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW).  The program has now given grants to thirty-one localities to fight obesity.  California has received $55.1 million to “reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and promote healthy eating” and “implement physical education policies in schools.”  Washington State received $25.5 million to fight obesity–that money went to the Seattle and King County Department of Public Health.  Some of the other recipients of money–Philadelphia, Chicago, Pima County in Arizona, San Antonio and Austin in Texas, and Boston.  Some of these cities rank as the fittest cities in America, but they received money to fight obesity.

Meanwhile, Pepsi Beverages Company stopped production at its Baltimore, Maryland, plant, partly as the result of a new two-cent beverage tax in Baltimore. 

Just as a side note, West Virginia and Arkansas both have a soda tax.  Those states have two of the highest obesity rates in the country.  A tax on soda does not always result in a slimmer population.

Obesity is a health problem in America, but as usual, the government has intruded too far into our lives using our tax money.  Good nutrition and health habits need to be taught in our schools.  Healthy eating needs to be encouraged, but at the end of the day, what we eat should be our own personal choice.  It really is not the job of the government to tell Americans what to eat.  The government has more important things to do.