“Last year, Slate magazine outlined America’s slow march to diet despotism by describing activists’ strategy to wage war on ‘junk food’: ‘First, we should protect kids. Second, fat people are burdening the rest of us. Third, junk food isn’t really food.’ Since then, food cops have pressed for government regulations on children’s advertising and speculated on the economic burden of love handles. Now they’re reaching out to strip food of its sanctity. Food fulfills a basic human need and provides a great deal of pleasure. But the nutrition interventions concocted by food activists — aimed at living longer, not living better — suck the fun out of eating.” (08/31/07)