A new, pro-nanny state study says that if fast food advertising is banned there could be an 18% drop in the number of fat kids.

The researchers used a statistical test that presumes TV ads lead to obesity but made calculations to address other influences such as income and the number of nearby fast-food restaurants. They also took steps to account for the possibility that some children may already have been overweight and inactive regardless of their TV-watching habits.

The study is being published this month in the Journal of Law & Economics. The authors, funded by a federal grant, included Grossman and researchers from Lehigh University and Georgia State University.

Of course, the case is being made that nanny state food fascism is needed to prevent the obesity "disease." As with all other national emergencies, children are targeted because we are supposed to care more about children than adults, and thus bad things associated with "children" are supposed to tug at our heart strings. Besides, the state doesn't want to wait until we are adults to start running our lives. By then, the state's influence can be greatly diminished and it takes far more resources to deploy successful control and brainwashing tactics.