While more people might be overweight now, and it's true that people who are seriously overweight tend to have a higher risk of developing some illnesses, the government flip-flop suggests how difficult it is to determine what truly is overweight.

Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had to publicly concede in 2005 that its estimate a year earlier of "400,000 obesity-related deaths per year" should have been 112,000. But once prevented deaths are factored in, the figure is closer to 26,000 deaths per year — one-fifteenth its original estimate.

The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports has stated that what matters most, in terms of overall health, is whether a person is active. People who happen to be a few pounds overweight but who exercise regularly "have a lower morbidity and mortality than normal-weight individuals who are sedentary."

More important, is it government's role to help us reduce our rolls? Or is it a matter of personal responsibility?

We know that fries and cheeseburgers aren't healthy fare. And thanks in part to heightened concerns about obesity, we can now buy low-fat salads at just about every fast-food outlet in the country. The same supermarkets and convenience stores that sell popcorn and candy bars also sell healthful foods.

People make choices. And government should protect — not restrict — the freedom to make those choices so long as we're not harming others.

While we may not always like the choices others might make, it is essential that we all have the freedom to choose for ourselves. Once we accept the idea that the Nanny State should step in when it's "for our own good," we've taken a very big step down the road to something like the scene painted in George Orwell's "1984" — when citizens wake each day to mandatory exercise classes on the Telescreen.

Most of us would prefer to choose for ourselves whether to exercise or have an extra helping of apple pie. And if we gain an extra pound over the holidays — so what? That's why we have New Year's resolutions.

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Sally C. Pipes is president and chief executive of the Pacific Research Institute and the author of "Miracle Cure: How to Solve America's Health Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn't the Answer."