Obesity Rates Went Up AFTER Idiot Lawmakers In LA Limited Fast Food Restaurants

03.20.2015 | News | Jerome Hudson |

This is another profile in how liberals always fail when trying to socially engineer individuals’ lives to meet the left’s utopians dreams.

A much-celebrated ordinance restricting stand-alone fast-food restaurants in south Los Angeles didn’t cut obesity rates like it had intended to.

The ordinance was passed in 2008 in one of the poorest parts of south L.A. Seven years and one big healthy dose of reality later, a new study finds that the groundbreaking law was a total waste.

Researchers at Rand Corp. studied obesity rates in South Los Angeles, and noticed that they had continued to rise well after passage of the ordinance.

“It had no meaningful effect,” Rand senior economist Roland Sturm said. “There’s no evidence that diets have improved more in South LA. Obesity and overweight rates have not fallen.”

The law alone, no matter how much it made lawmakers feel good about themselves, simply couldn’t account for people who needed to exercise more and change their lifestyle and bad eating habits.

“It’s not just about limiting unhealthy food, but increasing access to healthy food,” said Alex Ortega, a professor of public health at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rand researchers found that permits were issued by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, but no licenses were granted for stand-alone fast-food restaurants. Instead, 17 new outlets in strip shopping centers in South Los Angeles from 2008 to 2012 did open up.

Nearly half of those food permits were for convenience stores that sell soda, chips, and Debbie cakes, Rand researchers found.

Rand researchers also compared obesity rates in South Los Angeles and other parts of the county using surveys that asked residents to report their weight and eating habits.

By comparing obesity rates in other parts of the county, Rand found that before the fast-food-limiting law, 63 percent of South Los Angeles residents were obese compared with 57 percent in other parts of the county. Three years after the ordinance, 75 percent of South Los Angeles residents reported being overweight compared with 58 percent in other parts of the same county.

People are actually more overweight years after the anti-business ordinance was implemented.

That’s the very definition of liberal idiocy.

Of course the supporters the ordinance thought it worked.

“We never said this ordinance was the silver bullet” to solving the obesity problem, said Gwen Flynn of the Community Health Councils. “As long as we can make sure people have more options, that’s the important thing.”

Edward Cox, a county resident who usually drives to another neighborhood just to dine out, lamented the lack of sidewalk cafes Yahoo reports.

“I want to sit down and eat, but there’s no place to sit down and eat,” said the retiree,

Jerome Hudson

Managing Editor

Jerome Hudson has written for numerous national outlets, including The Hill, National Review, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was recognized as one of Florida’s emerging stars, having been included in the list “25 Under 30: Florida’s Rising Young Political Class.” Hudson is a Savannah, Ga. native who currently resides in Florida.

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