Allow me to play devil's advocate. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be treated like a child and told what I should and shouldn't eat, lest I pay double. I'm a adult and don't need to be told how to live, even if it's for my own good.

My mother made me eat my vegetables and wouldn't let me leave the table until I finished everything on my plate--whether I liked it or not. She is no longer with us and I don't need another overbearing authority figure dictating to me what I must and mustn't put in my body. Bitman is advocating an enforced radical change in people's diets. If anything, changes should be gradual so people can get used to a new diet. Drastic dietary changes have been shown to cause digestive disturbances, including indigestion, the runs, etc., especially when changes happen to them in one fell swoop.

I see some double standards at work here. A lot of overprotective advocates of "fat taxes", along with their allies on DU, are willing to accept left-wing authoritarianism when it comes to lifestyle issues such as smoking, obesity, etc., but chafe at the authoritarianism from the right when sexual behavior is involved. Granted, right-wing authoritarianism proves to be more dangerous and violent, but shouldn't DUers be above looking down their noses at people because they smoke, are heavyset, or both? Think about it. My criticism of new lifestyle taxes comes not from the far right, but from deep center. For me, it's the principle; I personally have a problem with, and a tendency to revolt against, overbearing authority, no matter how well-intentioned it may be. To give an old saw new teeth: "The road to hell is paved with politicians with good intentions."