The United States has taken its share of lumps from Europeans who dislike various aspects of this country, yet freely partake of its cultural exports. Now they have decided to blame another thing on us. According to an article in Tuesday’s USA Today, Europeans are blaming Americans for making them fat.

The article focused on Italy, where “the classic regimen of fresh fish, fruits and vegetables, pasta and olive oil is losing out to American-style eating habits. The result: rapidly increasing levels of American-style obesity.”

Yes, not only are Americans not responsible when they eat vast amounts of fast and junk food, neither are Europeans.

News stories about the obesity “epidemic” have jumped in the past few years. This is in part due to a change in standards of “overweight” and “obese” in June 1998, which according to an article at cnn.com made 25 million Americans overweight overnight. However, the main concern is that Americans are not eating right — and, as the USA Today article shows, causing Europeans to do the same — and so “we,” that is, the government, must engage in actions to save people from themselves.

Europe already has some draconian ideas in hand. Sweden has voluntary restrictions on TV ads for soft drinks and junk food aimed at kids. The British Medical Association has called for a 17.5 percent “fat tax” on junk foods — more than a sixth of their total cost!

Calls for regulation abound, but on the list of things the government should not be regulating, what we eat should be pretty high up there. This is not alcohol or drugs we are talking about. In cases like that, regulation is justified. But this is food, in all its forms, that we’re talking about here, something necessary to continue existence. Whether the food is good for us, or at least should be, is irrelevant from a regulation standpoint.

The line between food and currently regulated items is easy to find. My consumption of a cheeseburger or a pack of M&Ms does not adversely affect the environment or health of the person sitting next to me. I am not more likely to run a red light and plow into someone’s car because I drank four Pepsis.

Regulating advertising, even among kids, is not the answer. In the 1960s and 1970s, even cereals were not afraid to trumpet the word “sugar” in their titles; Tony the Tiger once hawked Sugar Frosted Flakes. Those kids grew up just fine among sugary foods without regulation. Ban advertising of candy to kids? We might as well ban birthday cakes and trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Personal responsibility, the ability to discern what should be eaten in moderation, and good parenting are the elements lacking in these “solutions,” and as a result the mantra becomes “Please, government, save me — the food companies made me do it!”

Instead of banning things outright, common sense and creativity should be used. Schools are attacked for having pop and candy vending machines, but Nashua-Plainfield High School took a creative approach in offering alternatives. According to the Oct. 13 Waterloo Courier, the school installed a milk vending machine, which shares space with the pop and snacks.

Milk machines notwithstanding, students aren’t being dealt many favors when it comes to the other half of the health equation: physical activity. Some schools have cut recess out of elementary-school days. An editorial in Saturday’s Duluth News Tribune said the Minnesota State Legislature removed physical education as a requirement in high school, allowing districts to make it an elective. The News Tribune urged the Duluth district to keep P.E. a requirement, and that’s the right thing to do. Doesn’t anyone at the administrative level, either as administrators of schools or legislative districts, notice the irony of cutting out recess and P.E. from students’ schedules when those very things could help stave off dire predictions of obesity?

Another problem with regulation lies in who calls what junk. A Big Mac might be junk food, but what about a Subway sandwich touted as having very little fat? The door could even be opened for food extremists to slap regulations or taxes on everything from ice cream to red meat. Perhaps they will mandate a label like on cigarettes, saying “Warning: Eating food is hazardous to your health.”

If Europeans are complaining about American food ruining their lives, their point is only valid to an extent: It only got so bad because people aren’t making the right decisions. When it comes to food, heavy regulations and “Twinkie taxes” should be intolerable. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to finish my super-sized double cheeseburger extra value meal in peace.