For all the talk of an obesity “epidemic,” obesity rates in the United States no longer are rising, but have remained constant during the last five years for men, and for nearly 10 years for women and children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Perhaps the most erroneous notion among adipose alarmists is that regulation will remedy the problem.

In reality, government has been a major cause of the country’s bigger caloric footprint. Researchers have documented higher rates of obesity among recipients of food stamps, even after controlling for socioeconomic status. And the longer recipients remained in the program, the heavier they became.

SentinelSource.com |Here, eat this, don’t eat that, by Diane Katz of the Heritage Foundation