A new study links too much sitting to diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancer. It has been said that "sitting is the new smoking."
So, if that's true, can we attack the sedentary lifestyle concerns the same way the government went after smoking the last few decades?
One big problem... there is no second hand sitting.
Government was able to shut down a lot of smoking in public because of the negative impacts second hand smoke has on people near smokers. Courts upheld laws to limit smokers' rights because their actions directly threatened the health of others.
The same tactic won't work for sitting. You are not directly threatening my health when you choose to sit around.
So, what - if anything - should government do to combat the sitting epidemic?
One person texted me at 870870 to insist the problem is sugar, not sitting. Well there is no second hand sugar either.
Another text insisted this is not government's problem.
"When did it become the government's or your job to protect me from my bad habits," the message asked.
The truth is that diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancer do cost tax dollars to treat patients at public hospitals, and costs taxpayers through Medicaid expenses.
So does that justify laws to crack down on sugar and sitting?
Some have suggested that parents be held responsible if they raise fat kids.