Freedom to be fat

It's true that many Americans would make better choices about their health if they were more informed about preventive measures, however I think the majority of people would continue carrying on with their unhealthy ways.  Americans love feeling in control of their actions, something of a "I deserve everything I have" type of motto which can be positive in some aspects but also negative when you're looking at poor health choices.  No one likes being told what to do, myself included, however some people don't have the resources to make better decisions about their health.  I remember seeing on the news one day about a year ago that part of Japan's (one of the healthiest countries worldwide) health policy was to measure every single person's waist size to see if they were too fat according to some standard.  If a government agency came into my work and told me it was required to let them measure my waist line I would think they were crazy.  Even if the policy resulted in an eventual "greater good", I don't know if I would be comfortable with that kind of practice.  I love being able to gorge on a big mac or two at almost any time of the day, at any random corner of the universe, but if McDonald's somehow disappeared overnight I wouldn't cry for too long.  Some people just aren't going to, or can't, make good health choices for themselves which results in acute and chronic health conditions that we all end up paying for one way or another.  Unless we loosen the anti-socialist collars that the majority of Americans seem to own, we can't expect drastic changes to happen overnight.