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A Merry Life

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Mississippi Wants to Refuse Obese Customers at Restaurants

February 1, 2008 by Mary

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for details.

My southern neighbors are crazy, it is official.

Three legislators in Mississippi want to make it illegal for restaurants to serve obese customers in Mississippi.

House Bill No. 282, which was introduced this month, says:

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 established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.

The proposal would allow health inspectors to yank the permit from any restaurant that “repeatedly” feeds extremely overweight customers.

The bill, written by GOP Rep. W. T. Mayhall Jr., was referred to the Judiciary and Public Health committees, but is not expected to garner much support. Hopefully it will be turned down and a REAL solution to the state’s obesity problem.

More than 30 percent of Mississippi’s population is considered obese, so this bill will affect the entire state negatively. Overall 66.7% of the state’s population is considered overweight or obese (compared to Tenessee’s 65.3% haha). Discrimination against the obese will continue to negatively affect Mississippi residents.

Honestly, I just don’t understand this bill. It is NOT HELPFUL at all! It will cause the state’s restaurants to lose tons of money. It doesn’t encourage obese people to lose weight, it just punishes them for being overweight to begin with. Ridiculous! I always thought everyone in Mississippi thought backwards, and now I know they do.

A few other bloggers, here and here, have already weighed in on the subject. I am interested in hearing what everyone else thinks of this proposed law. Let me know!

Filed Under: Food, Healthy Living Tagged With: fat, fat acceptance, Health News, Obesity


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Comments

  1. Heather says

    February 1, 2008 at 10:35 pm

    wow that is crazy! I am all for restaurants and states trying to push for healthier foods, but come on! not all fat people are fat because they overeat. we are all adults and can make our own choices. If I am going into a restaurant, that is my choice to eat what I order, not the restaurants. they are just providing food, not judgement or discrimination.

  2. hanlie says

    February 2, 2008 at 7:18 am

    I’m appalled! Instead of victimizing the individual, they should legislate what restaurants are allowed to serve. Are they saying that obese people are not allowed to eat? So if I, a morbidly obese person, were to visit Mississippi, I would not be able to eat? And as for criteria to identify obese people – this will surely be up for interpretation by the restaurant employee, who is not a doctor, but a waiter! This smacks of Nazism and persecution!

  3. Lora says

    February 2, 2008 at 1:31 pm

    Absolutely unbelievable! I can’t believe someone even came up with this idea!

  4. Cammy says

    February 3, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    Here I am, two miles from the state line, and I had no idea. It’s ludicrous, to say the least. If they want to help, why not limit the number of fast food licenses issued per capita, or give tax credits to restaurants that offer a predominantly low-fat menu, or anything preventative rather than punitive. Next thing you know they’ll be requiring driver weigh-ins while waiting for their cars to pass inspection.

  5. ava says

    February 4, 2008 at 12:40 pm

    I live in MS. I do not agree with this at all. I too need to loose some weight. I think a better way to go is pass a law that outlaws super sized foods, reduce the price on healthy foods and raise the price on non healthy foods. This is the real reason we are over weight. I pay $8.oo for 2lbs of extra lean beef, or i could pay $2.00 for the ground beef. I pay $4.00 for juice, or I can buy a 2 leter for $1.50. WHO EVER MANDATES THE PRICES OF OUR FOODS AND THE PRODUCTS THAT GO INTO MAKING THEM DONT CARE IF WE ARE FAT OR NOT, JUST AS LONG AS WE PUT MONEY INTO THEIR POCKETS.

  6. McQty says

    February 5, 2008 at 12:38 am

    That’s so NUTS… damn politicians !!! I didn’t know how to link to your posting so I made a link out of your whole website when I posted my rantings on the issue… hope you don’t mind. Thanks for voicing your opinion, I totally agree !

  7. anonymous says

    February 8, 2008 at 3:23 am

    This is really absurd, telling us what we can eat, and what restaurant not allowed to eat at!

  8. Joe says

    February 11, 2008 at 1:04 am

    It is about time that this started to happen. With all of the talk of cigarettes and health care, did anyone ever think about the consequences of overweight people and health care? Maybe people should mind their own business and stop rationalizing their Nazi style of behavior modification.

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