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Does the obesity epidemic require radical countermeasures? Contrary to the obesity crusaders' belief, Diet Nation argues that we cannot overcome the obesity problem through legislation. The crusaders' solutions are blunt, heavy-handed and coercive policy instruments that punish both the producers and the consumers of foods and beverages - the obese, the fat, the slim and the thin - in the unscientific and unethical quest for the poisoned chalice of an obesity-free society. There is a significant cost to the current course of treatment for an illusory disease. But the cost is not merely monetary. The greatest cost will consist in the sacrifice of so many of our hard-won economic and political liberties on the altar of a misguided, unwinnable crusade.