Mississippi Legislature Introduces Bill that Would Ban Restaurants from Serving the Obese

This is a joke, right? There would be no way to enforce this. It is funny really. Um, and by the way, there are plenty of ways to eat healthy at a restaurant.

I think this is crazy... If a person wants to eat let them eat. There are too many other problems in this world than controlling fat people. I think it's discrimination not to serve someone who is overwieght. Get a life!!!!!!

I live in Mississippi! I personally have lost 40 lbs on my own,and do not eat at restaurant but possible once a month.So basically if my Husband wanted to take me out to dinner for my B-day or our wedding anniversary,we would be screwed. I am 60 lbs over weight and even though I understand the idea of this helping in some ways. It is discrimination and it shouldn't be allowed to happen.People need to make a choice for their own lives.

How embarrassing for us in Mississippi. To have legislators with nothing better to do during their workday except write ridiculous crap that has no way of becoming law. Are these legislators so non-creative that this is the best they can do???? Wake up fellow Mississippians - these clowns are wasting our money and our time. Educate the CHILDREN!!!!! This is the ONLY way to change the future of the health of ANY generation.

I hope everyone here is so outraged by this piece of garbage that they speak up ensure we are not saddled with these people as leaders next time around.

I understand we have a problem and this is a valid issue that needs to be addressed but please let us all be somewhat more realistic and productive in our actions.

If I presented something this ignorant to my boss I would be FIRED.

Do they really believe that this is going to stop people from eating???? Are they going to ban To Go orders, too? I suppose those people can't have a "thin" person go and pick up their food for them. But, you know what? On second thought, I would not be interested in ever going to those restaurants again.

Why don't we start with more education in the schools and better health care for children?

I think this is discrimination and I am apalled that this was ever brought to light. Shame on you, Mississippi. Start from the source. I guarantee if one of these restaurants refused to serve your spouse or one of your parents, you would think that was ok, right?

You know, we ALL should have seen this coming. With as villified as smoking has been over the last several years to the point now where "outdoor smoking" is being considered banned in many places, and it's already illegal in BARS...here in Maine, we all should have seen this coming. Legislation of Nanny laws like this one are becoming increasingly abundant in our society.

While I can see the argument made by the legistlative branches, last time I checked, I don't remember their role encompassing what we can or cannot do with our own bodies as that is the last vestage of free domain we actually have. But these laws, along with smoking laws, go as far as to prohibit specific acts.

Yes, I know smoking is bad for me...but I do it anyway, in part because I enjoy it. Yes, it increases my risk for certain types of disease. But then so does the entire granite ledge we live on up here in the Northeast due to radon emmisions...what's next? "Thou shalt not live on a granite shelf". I don't remember these same legislators being particularly concerned when they were spinning up nuclear power plants. I don't remember them being particularly concerned about major pollution causing corporations. But somewhere along the way, they've become concerned with what you eat and what I smoke.

Yes, I know this is about eating before someone says something...but I'm speaking to this problem in a larger scale, a scale that would cause these same politicians to believe it is within their right and duty to reach into our personal lives and say what we can and cannot do with our bodies, what we can eat, what we can drink, what we can say, do, where we go, etc.

Theirs is to govern law - that would mean that theirs is to protect us from forces OUTSIDE of our control that would harm us. Whether we want to do harm to ourselves, and even the question of whether we are or aren't in the face of all the other stimulie around us that lends itself to disease, influences that are FAR outside of our control, this isn't far and above anything that a legislator should be concerning themselves with.

This law, like that of smoking bans that have been going in affect throughout the country and indeed the world are just more examples of government intervention in life that should otherwise be ours to live.

I've found that people who try to force behaviour on others, such the nincompoop(s) who wrote this bill have a hidden (from themselves) motive. It is simply this: They are so incompetent at running their own lives well that they need to build their self esteem by running (or is that ruining) the lives of others.

This never works; look what Prohibition did to the United States. It gave us organized crime. It did not change the behaviour of people, except those who, like me, dislike their definitely not well-meaning interference and purposely do exactly what the insecure controllers try to prevent.

When is the stupidity of trying to legislate "morality" going to end?

I am curious about the industry reaction to this ... if I owned a restaurant, I sure would not want to ban 1/3 of the potential customers. For sure that would hurt business.

how about if you are Skinny food should be free, With 2 desserts

I think the worst part about this article (especially with the picture of the "Do NOT Feed the Fat People!" sign) is that it could make some overweight people who look at it feel like they really do need to become anorexic to be accepted.
That's what I thought when I saw it.

I think this says ALOT more about the kind of food these restuarants must be serving.

What if they wanted a change from sitting at home feeding their faces with chips & softdrink and have come for a healthy alternative ?

You should be helping/supporting these people - not reducing their options.

me and a friend used to laugh at the fat chicks who would come in to the pizza shop we worked in and order 2 family size pizzas with the lot and 2 bottles of diet coke - hmmmmmmmm

[quote]I think the worst part about this article (especially with the picture of the "Do NOT Feed the Fat People!" sign) is that it could make some overweight people who look at it feel like they really do need to become anorexic to be accepted.
That's what I thought when I saw it.[/quote]

what a pile of poop

they just have to hover below the tonne mark

people making these crap excuses for them is what encourages them

you have a third of the population is morbidly obese and at risk of every type of fat related early exit from this life there is

without playing down the bulimia/ anorexia thing - how many people in the state suffer from that? the other 2/3rds? i think not

chicks in womens magazines arent healthy - and arent what most men want

but that doesnt mean we have to go the other way - there is a heathy middle ground out there people

How would it help fat people from losing weight?
If someone can't go to a restaurant they will just go to another place for food.

If someone wants to eat you should just let them.

Do these idiots realize that many people are obese because of medical conditions and/or medications that they have to take? I can't believe these men would even be allowed to introduce such an assinine bill as this! I hope the residents of Mississippi will remember them at election time!

I think what they are doing is great. It is about time the obese were publicly helped. So what if it causes low self esteem or embarrassment, they should feel that cause they are fat and most likely have or will have health problems because of it. This will help motavate them to stop over eating.

I'm pretty sure they don't expect this bill to be passed but are using it as a starting point for a discussion about what can be done about the problem.
Problem is, most overweight people don't care about the problem or don't see it as a problem.

Fat people die sooner costing less to the country. Do you civic duty and get fat and die young. I am proud to be an American

This is a very funny bit of proposed legislature. I almost fell out of my chair.

From the illustration, it seems that more than one in four are considered obese. My D.O. told me I was in good condition but poor "tone". Bad for me, I suppose, but he also runs five miles per day. Good for him. Heck, I'm soon 46 and could barely walk seven years ago. Better now and 50 pounds lighter, too. I DID change my diet. And got a divorce. And was named in a $7M lawsuit. And lost my job! Did I mention I changed my diet??

"OMG", good for you - keep going.

Personally, I wouldn't mind being screwed on my birthday or anniversary... ... ...

It is all personal choice. You can't legislate this sort of thing. You can't.

Mark, in Phoenix 6'3"/195...

I'm fat and I love fried chicken and cheeseburgers. I'll be god damned if Popeyes and McDonald's would even try to ban me.

While I don't condone this completely, I'm not sure what to think. Offer the obese salads instead?

I live close to the MS line and have eaten there often. Yes, I am overweight. No, I don't want to be, but it is hard to lose and my will power is weak. Can you legally discriminate against me; help me if you want, but wouldn't your time and effort be better spent baning restaurants from serving oversized portions to anyone (SO THAT THE SKINNY PEOPLE DON'T BECOME OBESE), (OH MY, WHAT THEM). Please get real! Education and stopping it where it starts, usually at home, or with health or emotional issues, would be my suggestion......POWER OF SUGGESTION GOES A LONG WAY!

I just finished reading an article in the Cleveland reader that states; there is a bill being proposed in Mississippi that would ban a restaurant from serving a person who is considered to be obese (a BMI or 30 or more). Being a Minnesota resident, and not being allowed to have a cigarette in my local drinking establishment, I am beginning to wonder what is going to be legislated next? I propose a bill that would ban legislators from proposing legislation that infringes on MY rights as an United States citizen. Back in the early 70’s, my older brother was sent home from school for wearing a T-shirt that had religious connotations on it. I think it was that time period when all these anti-Christian, tree hugging, neo-Nazi, extreme liberal idiots got the idea that their rights were more important than my rights. They feel that they have the right to go into a public place; i.e. a bar, and “breathe clean air”. Well what about my rights? In the early 70’s, they thought they had the right to not have to go to school and see a religious saying on a t-shirt, well what about my right TO see that? Why are the left-wing’s rights always coming first? Isn’t it about time that we took America back from the libs and turned it back into the free country that our FOREFATHER’S (not fore mothers) intended it to be?

Wow! Mississippi has a really great track record when it comes to civil liberites. First, they denied African-Americans the right to eat in a restaurant with white folks. They wouldn't let them sit in the same part of the bus as white people. Basically, they were treated as sub-human. That was all done away (supposedly) with many years ago. Fast forward to 2008 and now Mississippi is discriminating against fat people. Makes me proud!

I would like to know when being fat became equated with being unhealthy. I know many thin people who have heart disease, diabetes, cancer, strokes, bad knees, bad backs, etc. etc. etc. Meanwhile, I am so healthy it is sickening! I don't even get a cold! I have a regular check up every year. I walk on a regular basis and like my large grandparents I expect to live a very long life. They died in their 90's as did my father. For someone to try to dictate where I can and can't eat or how healthy I am based solely on my weight to height ratio is just plain ignorant.

It is no wonder our country is having so many problems. Instead of trying to finance health care so that everyone can have a yearly physical, our politicians are coming up with crap like this law. If everyone knew exactly where their health problems were from actual testing instead of stupid generalizations perhaps we would be a healthier nation over all. But with dieting being a multi-billion dollar industry I don't see any sanity coming any time soon.

And to the people who think this is no different than banning smoking, smoking isn't banned in an attempt to make you quit. It is banned so that I, a non-smoker, do not have to breath your carbons into my system. Second-hand smoke can only be controlled by not allowing it in public places. What you want to do in the privacy of your home or car is fine with me, but to subject me to something I can't control simply for your own pleasure is just plain rude. When I eat, I don't make you eat too. So don't try to make me smoke when you smoke!

Look, this law is incredibly stupid. People should be allowed to eat what they want, no matter who they are.

That said, being obese is NOT OK AT ALL, at least if you're not at all trying to help yourself or the people around you. This "fat empowerment" movement I've been seeing lately is horrible and damaging to the people it targets. There's people telling the obese to proclaim "I'm proud to be fat" and telling them not to give in to "thin society". Did these people not get the memo that obesity is unbelievably unhealthy?

This problem should be solved by rigorous education at an early age. Limiting the food freedoms of adults shouldn't happen, but how about creating healthier food menus for public school lunches? That, along with continuous and mandatory nutrition education starting in kindergarten or 1st grade, would provide a solution for the next generation. Most adults are too firm in their beliefs and won't change as easily, so screw them anyway.

Ok......so let's asume that whoever want's to pass a bill like this is really trying to HELP the obese people.....in which case why don't you think about offereing free YMCA membership to all obese people? .. that might do the trick. ;)

Anyone who's ever taken a health education course knows that even extremely obese people need to replenish some nutrients. A blanket ban on serving them any food whatsoever will lead to vitamin deficiencies. Not just government intrusion but STUPID government intrusion. Are they trying to kill people?