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Mississippi May Ban Restaurant Sales to the Obese

Most porcine state mulls drastic measures

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 4, 2008

• CDC Launches Obesity Website • Modest Exercise Can Reduce Negative Effects of Belly Fat • Keep The Faith and Lose The Weight? • Families That Eat Together Means Kids Eating Better • New Factor in Teen Obesity: Parents • Possible Drug Target Found for Obesity Treatment • Weight Management Requires "Lifelong Commitment" • Obama Urged to Tackle Obesity • 5 Tips for Eating Right in 2009 • "All You Can Eat" A Ticket to Obesity • Sour Economy May Affect Eating Habits • Fast Food Has Fewer Calories Than Traditional Restaurant Meals • Gene May Make You Crave Fast Food • 'Western' Diet Increases Heart Attack Risk Globally • CSPI Raps Nickelodeon Food Ads • New Study Links Inactivity to Desire for More Food • Researchers Suppress "Hunger Hormone" • Parents Can Shape Childrens' Eating Habits • Overweight Doesn't Always Mean Unhealthy • Exercise in a Pill? • Study: 86 Percent of Americans Could Be Obese by 2030 • Americans Becoming Even More Obese, CDC Says • New Guide Lists Calories in Beer, Wine, Cocktails • Experts Fact-Check 'McDonald's Diet' Story • Dementia Linked To Obesity • Study Ties Obesity, Inflammation to Heart Failure • Doctor Offers Antidote To 'Super-Size Me' Diet • Eating Disorders Widespread Among U.S. Women, Survey Finds • Obesity A More Costly Workplace Health Issue Than Smoking • A 'Healthy Weight' May Not Be So Healthy • Skipping Breakfast May Lead to Obesity • Obesity Blamed for Rising Stroke Rate in Women • Spanish Language TV Linked To Latino Child Obesity • Fast Food+Sedentary Lifestyle=Liver Damage • Artificial Sweeteners Linked to Weight Gain • Mississippi May Ban Restaurant Sales to the Obese • Eat Less or Exercise More? • Researchers Find 'Fat-Burner' Compounds • Obesity Linked to Decreased Seatbelt Use • Low-Calorie Food Prices Surge • Italian Restaurants Serve Up the Fat • Viral Infections May Promote Obesity • Brits Find Obesity Deadlier Than Smoking • Healthy Restaurants May Bring Out Bad Eating Habits • 'Bad Carbs' Not the Enemy, Researcher Argues • New Pill May Make Weight Loss Safer --- • Weight Loss News • Childhood Obesity

Will hefty Mississippi consumers have to step onto the scales before being allowed to order a Big Mac and fries? Perhaps, if legislation introduced in the Mississippi House last week with three co-sponsors somehow gets passed into law.

While New York City proposes to force fast-food restaurants to post calorie information on their message boards, these three lawmakers have done the Big Apple one better – proposing to make it illegal for a Mississippi restaurant to serve anyone with a body mass index of 30 or more – the clinical threshold of obesity.

It's a logical extension, perhaps, of laws that ban bartenders from serving patrons who are already beyond the point of legal intoxication. Pundits suggested the next logical step would be to ban credit card sales to those who are already up to their eyeballs in debt.

On the other hand, statistics indicate there may well be a need for stringent measures in Mississippi.

Fattest state

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found a 61 percent increase in the number of Americans classified as obese between 1991 and 2000. It singled out Mississippi as having the highest rate.

An August 2007 study published by Trust for America's Health classified Mississippi as the heaviest state in the Union for the third year in a row, with 30 percent of its adult population obese.

Mississippi House Bill 282 is the work of Republicans W. T. Mayhall, Jr. and John Read, and Democrat Bobby Shows. It would aim to keep Whoppers and Big Macs out of the hands of fat people, by force of law.

"Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management," the bill states.

The measure would apply to any restaurant that holds a health department permit and has enclosed seating for five or more – a definition broad enough to cover almost every restaurant in the state, not just those that serve fast food. The bill does not spell out what penalties an eatery would face for violating the law.

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