Marni Jameson, “Fed up with fat and saying something about it,” Los Angeles Times, February 1, 2010

This article chronicles a growing movement among “normal weight folks” who have become “vocal, sometimes vehemently so, in their support for ‘sin taxes’ on junk foods and soda,” and who have “increasingly attacked, with words or actions, the overweight or obese.” Jameson quotes Douglas Metz, chief of health services for a San Diego-based company that offers wellness programs to employers, as saying: “Americans as a society are getting fed up with the matter of obesity. No doubt about it. Some pockets of society are taking positive action, and unfortunately others are taking negative action. That’s what happens when a society hasn’t figured out what the fix is.”

Jameson cites several examples, including the recent unsuccessful plan of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania that sought the body mass index of every enrolling student and required the obese to lose weight or take a fitness class before they could graduate and the attempt by Mississippi legislators to pass a bill allowing restaurants to prohibit obese people from dining. “Most efforts have ultimately met a quick demise or retraction, but not before leaving an impact,” she writes.

Jameson also notes that, according to health experts, if “still-slim” Americans, public health officials and employers channel their concerns properly, a positive outcome can result. “Not long ago, the thought of not allowing people in a building to smoke wasn’t realistic; now it’s common,” Mertz said. “Similarly, in some schools the thought of banning sugary drinks and junk food seems completely unrealistic, but that will change too. The changes will meet resistance, but over time, healthy ideas will gain acceptance.”