Researchers in the United States have drafted a radical proposal: seizing severely obese children from their parents for the good of the child.
The idea isn't likely to win much official support, but it is founded on a painful fact: overfeeding children can be as dangerous as denying them the necessities of life.
More than half of all adults in this province are overweight, while one third of New Brunswick's children are obese. Public education is often touted as a solution, but how many people can there be who do not yet grasp that eating too much, or the wrong foods, can make you ill?
Obesity and overweight can have genetic components, but the vast majority of children and adults pack on extra pounds because the amount they eat is not balanced out by the amount they exercise. This is the result of choices - and by a variety of means, governments can improve the choices that are available to families.
Education ministers have taken steps to strengthen in-school fitness education and ban unhealthy foods from student menus. Educators and volunteers alike have worked hard to give youth better opportunities in sport and recreation. Municipal, provincial and federal governments have partnered in building new recreation facilities, and federal finance ministers have offered youth sports a boost in the form of tax credits for parents. These laudable measures have not been enough. It is time to consider dis-incentives, such as taxation.
So-called "sin taxes" have been used for decades to make smoking and drinking more expensive. These taxes also help pay for the increased health-care costs associated with these behaviours. So why not apply a health tax to junk food, and price salty, fatty, sugary snacks higher than healthy options?
Beer, donuts, pizza and smoking have an impact on the health-care system and taxpayers. This impact should be reflected in the taxes on the goods that are sold.
This proposal may seem nearly as radical as seizing children. But a combination of punitive taxes and financial incentives can change people's behaviour, by making healthy choices less expensive.
If obesity is the public health crisis of our time and the leading threat to our health, as many doctors say it is, isn't it time for government to get a little more aggressive?