The May 14, 1909 NYT reports on a paper presented by on Dr. Marcel Labbe at the Society of Internal Medicine in Paris. The paper focused on the treatment of obesity:

"[T]here is only one method of treatment: we must decrease the alimentary income and increase the expenditure of energy."

"Among the foods that must be reduced and even suppressed are, first of all, the fats, breads, pastries, and sweets; salt ought to be lessened as much as possible. The number of meals matters little; it is better to eat little and often, so as to calm the pangs of hunger, than much and infrequently."

"In reduction by means of exercise, the latter should be dosed like a medicine; walking is especially to be recommended, whether on level ground or up-hill. It has a double advantage, for while it lessens the fat it increases the muscular tissue through active function.

"The treatment of obesity by medicine should be absolutely given up, for it is injurious."

How naive of the good doctor. It is obvious that the cure to obesity is for government to tax and/or ban the fats, breads, pastries, and sweets.

Our post-modern society has discovered that such remedies for obesity are not necessary and, in fact, might be harmful to the overall macroeconomy.

The good doctor ignored the following "truths" as we see them today:

1. Obesity is a disease, most often self-diagnosed as "glandular" and therefore not necessarily a condition that should or must be "treated." Rather, the condition should be tolerated and perhaps rewarded by others.

2. The politicians seek to tap into incredible revenue streams by taxing the fats, breads, pastries and sweets.

3. The politicians recognize that threats to ban certain food products provide incentives for industry representatives and trade groups to lobby (read contribute) the politicians for favorable treatment.

4. The pharmaceutical industry argues against the good doctor's claims of injurious medicinal treatments and spends millions of dollars in direct advertising as proof.

5. The good doctor's advice, while perhaps sound, ignores the well-being of self-help authors and an entire segment of the magazine market that provides monthly (if not weekly) alternative means for losing weight.

6. The good doctor, through no fault of his own, also failed to account for the economic damage his advice would cause in the elevator and escalator industries. Those damages would be made whole, of course, by a re-investment act.