Jon Ham’s post on school lunches brings us back to the problem of diets and obesity. Consider these points from the article he found.

Researchers concluded that pupils whose school lunches offered 25
percent fat (compared with 31 percent in the control group) were
compensating for the reduction by eating higher-fat foods at home.

Big
surprise. Anyone who’s dieted for a day, a week, a month and then
overeaten to compensate is familiar with the
deprivation-binge-deprivation cycle ? and with the weight gain that
often accompanies it. One Harvard
study showed that 39 percent of nurses who lost weight through dieting
regained it, and in fact wound up 10 pounds heavier on average than
those who didn’t lose weight.

So if obesity is a problem, dieting is not the answer. But overweight and obesity aren’t really a problem for most people:

[Abigail C. Saguy, a sociologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said] new research shows no significant difference in death rates between
“normal” and overweight Americans; mortality rates rise only for those
with a B.M.I. exceeding 35 ? only 8 percent of the country.

Now, can we stop making public policy to deal with non-existent threats?