Surely by now you've heard of the proposed Mississippi bill to allow restaurants to refuse service to obese diners. Although the bill will die, it's sparked some colorful conversation about a restaurant's rights to refuse service in general. We are what we eat, and from movies and books like Fast Food Nation, we know that fast food is just not good for you. On April 1, New York law will mandate all chain restaurants to post nutritional information. Tom Barlow of WalletPop comments on this measure:

...the National Restaurant Association and other restaurant representatives are coalescing opposition to such measures. I suspect they rightly fear that customers might reduce their consumption of high fat, high sugar, high profit, selections such as sodas and French fries if they knew their health cost.

But what about non-chain restaurants? Many Americans eat at non-chain restaurants more frequently than chains. From weight loss surgeon Dr. Neal Gorrin's blog: 

Eating in restaurants has greatly increased over the past three decades. The restaurant industry will take in an estimated 558 billion dollars in 2008 as compared to 42 billion in 1970. In 1955, Americans spent 25% of their food budget away from home and today that rate stands at 48%. The Center for Science in the Public Interest found that restaurant food is much higher in fat, saturated fat, and salt than food prepared at home. We used to get only 19% of our calories away from home in 1977, in 1995 that rate was 35%, and I bet you now that rate is over 40%.

Obviously. Fat and calorie laden food tastes good. Try a taste-off at home with eggs fried in butter and eggs fried in cooking spray. Which tastes better, salty hot French fries or a crudite platter sprinkled in lemon juice? Restaurants have to serve salads to look like they care, but inside thick, creamy dressings—and even some vinaigrettes—and toppings are hidden calories that turn your appetizer salad into an entree. This is misleading and wrong.

There isn't an 'answer' to obesity. No one can pass a law and solve the puzzle. Restaurants and the American public have to take the blame together. Restaurants can change their menus, cooking practices and business models to make healthy food more affordable than rich food, fast food restaurants can become healthy, but it's not going to force us to work out. Stopping an obese person from entering a restaurant isn't going to make that person go home and say, "I should make a salad and a plain piece of chicken for dinner now." And a restaurant thinking that they have that kind of power over someone's life is, frankly, a bit exaggerated.

This is the exact kind of 'social responsibility' I hate about our 'modern, advanced' society. Centuries ago, when people died off because of disease and the plague, it was terrible. But not everyone died. During Ancient Greece, the Athenian plague during the Peloponnesian War killed tens of thousands, but there were survivors. In both plagues, doctors hesitated to treat the infected for fear of being infected themselves. Modern medicine has caught up with most of the ills to the human body. Does this allow us to 'play God' and save those who in previous centuries would have died under similar circumstances? Is modern medicine thwarting evolution?

I do not think that vegans will take over the world—at least, I hope not. But we've all gotten warnings about our diets from doctors, parents and other trusted individuals many times over. Isn't seeing a loved one suffer from obesity ills enough to implement an exercise routine? We can't keep passing the obesity buck around until the blame finally sticks on someone else—restaurants, fast food, the economy, television. That's not the attitude of someone in control of their life. You are what you eat. Get in the driver's seat and drive.