Food, the new sex? Interesting.

An article by George Will I found interesting.

Food has become suspicious. At my daughters' school, we cannot bring homemade cupcakes for a birthday. They must be prepared commercially so that it can be assured that it is safe. Great debates rage over what should be served in the lunchroom and how to get the "junk" out of schools.

In Utah at least, sex as a topic of discussion is proscribed even more than food. It is essentially ignored. When I was teaching 9th graders about Africa and AIDS, I was always nervous when talking about various efforts to reduce the infection rate on that continent because such discussions necessitated information about condom distribution.

To the article itself:

What I found most interesting was the assertion that eating has a moral component. Perhaps because I participate in a religious society where sex outside of marriage is still considered a grievous sin, I myself have never been confronted by anyone making moral judgments about the contents of my plate. Also, said religious society has always had recommendations about diet. Perhaps I have moral judgments about both.

Should we think about food in the same moral way that we (used to) think about sex? Is a decrease in societal restriction on one side related to an increase of societal restriction on the other as the author asserts?