tryreading

All drive thru lanes should have a video camera that would show the car at the ordering microphone area. If the car is not level, that is, if its high on one side and on the other side the tires are scraping the fenders, the person/people on the 'low' side of the car would have to show themselves. That way the drive thru manager could determine whether he has to deny service because the person on the low side is obese, or whether there is just a mechanical issue with the car.

The problem of someone ordering for someone else shouldn't be addressed. Like if someone of age wants to buy whiskey at a liquor store, the clerk has to sell it to them. They may share it with the wrong people (in this case minors) later, but that's out of the store clerk's hands.

metreon

It is not as crazy as it sounds since they are referring to the medical definition of obesity, not your intuitive perjorative. Over eating is a hazard to people's health. People whose health is already in jeopardy from obesity often find themselves in that position because either they don't have the information to self-screen what they eat, or they lack the will. Many food establishments sell individual single-person food items that have more calories than a person should be eating in an entire day. The obese can still over eat at home, but at least no one is directly profiting from it or encouraging it through an exploitive relationship. We limit other harmful addictive substances, and for some people, food is not much different.

I have read research that shows many obese people self-report much less food consumption than they actually consume, basically they tend to be somewhat self-delusional about how much they actually eat. This behavior is not seen in people with a healthier weight. Anecdotally, when I went to MacDonald's the other day I saw an obese person come through the order line, so being curious, I waited to see what food items he eventually sat down and ate. When he sat down, I was surprised to see on his tray five (5) Big Macs, (2) large fries, (1) apple turnover, and (1) large shake. That is about 5000 calories. He ate it all. At his weight his maximum calorie intake for the entire day, much less one meal, should have been about 1000-1500 calories.

If you want to make health care less expensive in the US, getting rid of obesity is about the fastest way you can do it. That, and reducing the number of smokers. The only real problem with the proposal is that no one working in a restaurant, and even less a fast-food joint, is probably qualified to tell who is medically obese or in immediate danger from that obesity. And as mentioned prior, no one can control what happens outside the restaurant. I think posting of nutritional info on all food items in a restaurant is probably the better way to go. I personally find those calorie and ingredient listings on the walls of fast food restaurants very useful.

Basically, raising awareness, putting out more hoops out for the obese to jump through, is not discrimination, it is intervention.

tryreading

My two best friends are overweight. One of them has told me many times he doesn't eat that much. But you're right, he eats more than he thinks, and its the wrong foods. I try to raise his awareness, and he has listened to an extent.

Separately, to anybody I may have offended, I want to apologize for my stupid joke about obese people I made earlier in the thread.

metreon

I think a lot of people just think of weight control as a modern cultural fad, but it is mostly a health issue based on solid science. Moreover, even as a cultural issue it is quite ancient as well. Early Greek and Roman texts also recommend exercise and various types of diets as a means to lose weight. Julius Caesar in his letters describing the conquest of Gaul notes that the Celtic tribes valued a lean and trim physique and often teased, even ostracizied those who began to get overweight. The only real difference between then and now is that we know why it is unhealthy to be overweight today.