New Nutrition Labels: Obviously, Obesity Is Due To Poor Eyesight!

Have you seen the Obama's newly mandated "Nutrition Facts" labels for all processed foods sold in America?  Well, here's the proposed modifications:

The most notable change is the that calorie counts and servings per container are a lot bigger and a lot bolder with much of the data remaining the same as before. According to Michelle Obama and the FDA, this change will "only" cost the "food industry" $2 billion but it will return between $20 billion and $30 billion in better health over 20 years.  Of course, the non-political truth is that you and I will ultimately pay for this with higher prices; not some fuzzy entity like the "food industry" as Michelle would have you believe.

So, really, all this time we could have solved the obesity problem in this country by assisting our weak-sighted population by making the calorie and servings numbers large enough so that you could read them from across the street. Well, I certainly would like to see the "science" behind that "fact".  Further,  I would especially like to see the science that said that the extra large type had to be of just this size and amount of boldness.  Apparently, a text that was half as large just wouldn't cut it.

And, what about all those savings in health expenses?  Certainly, $20 to $30 billion does sound like a lot of money. But, it's over 20 years and against a population of 317 million.  So, the math says that each of us will save between $63 and less than $100 in health expenses over those 20 years; assuming the population stays the same as today.  I just don't know how, in any way, that savings in health costs could even be quantified by merely changing the type size on a nutrition label.

To me, this is just another political stunt, in a political year, by the Obama's to make people think they are really going to cure obesity by forcing food companies to ante-up with billions in new costs.   The simple matter is that those people who are concerned enough about their health and food intake are going to read any nutrition label; no matter what the type size is.  Enlarging it is not going to deter the true over-eater who uses high calorie food as a source of comfort or enjoyment.

Reference:

Food labels to get first makeover in 20 years: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/food-labels-to-get-first-makeover-in-20-years-with-new-emphasis-on-calories-sugar/2014/02/26/c8feeb4c-9f08-11e3-9ba6-800d1192d08b_story.html