I think it's about time we started "treating French fries like cigarettes or liquor" since that's exactly what they are in substance. They are not food since they give very little in the way of nutrition. They are more harmful than helpful. And they cause health problems. They are, in brief, not food.

We regulate substances which are dangerous. The less nutrition a food provides and the more harm it threatens, the more it should be regulated.

We get all teary-eyed over the notion of "choice" when it comes to stuffing blatently unhealthy things into our bloated faces, but the fact is, we are not, on the face of things, ever enjoined openly to poison ourselves. And yet that's what we are doing when we eat "burgers" that are stamped out of sheets of gristle, fat, sugar, and cattle-fed beef.

It's pretty clear to me that the sale of such items is not sacred and that, no, you should not have a "choice" about whether or not to put it into your mouth, much less your child's mouth.

Finally, as to "treating the poor like children": I believe the intention is to make poor neighborhoods have the same sorts of choices that the wealthy ones have: i.e. there should be more than a sneeze-bar nearby -- there should be a variety of clean healthy choices.