A Times Editorial

Junk food harms health

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 30, 2000

With the tobacco industry on the political and legal defensive, public health activists are taking aim at a new public health enemy -- junk food. Any day now expect to see trial lawyers circling over your nearest fast-food restaurant.

"Junk food kills as many Americans as tobacco," says a press release from the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. "It's incredible but true. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, unhealthy eating, together with a lack of exercise, causes about as many deaths as smoking. Up to half a million premature deaths each year are caused by diet-related disease, stroke, diabetes and cancers . . ."

The problem is real, and the solution lies beyond the power of government. However, there is one thing the government can do -- require better nutritional labeling on food and continue to remind Americans that too much good food, i.e., the high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar variety, has major health consequences.

In his Saturday radio address, President Clinton proposed that government require nutritional labeling on beef and poultry for the first time. But he acknowledged that the labels won't help unless Americans use the information to change their eating habits.

Perhaps Clinton should lead by example. As everyone knows, it's hard for him to jog past a McDonald's without stopping in for fries, and he has been known to devour back-to-back dinners in some of New York's best restaurants. At 218 pounds, the president can not only feel our pain; he can feel our (weight) gain.

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