Optimal Weight

The rising prevalence of obesity in the US is often referred to as an epidemic. Concern over rising health care costs has predictably encouraged a growing number of government interventions aimed at reducing the prevalence of obesity. Examples of such interventions include restrictions on soda sales at public schools, special taxes imposed on sodas, disallowing soda sales for food stamp recipients, regulations requiring restaurants to post caloric content of menu items, bans on toys offered in children's meals with high levels of calories and salt, and restrictions on locations of new restaurants. Healthy People 2010, a federal program to promote healthy living that was started in 2000, set a goal of achieving a 15% obesity prevalence rate for all categories of adults and a 5% obesity rate for children by 2010. Placing identical goals for obesity rate reduction across all individuals also exerts excess burdens on those individuals who differ from government's mandated "ideal" weight.