Do we need protection from ourselves?

Two stories in the paper today bring up a question:
Have we gotten so bad in our decision making process regarding health that we need the govt to regulate it for us?

Senate snuffs out smoking law
Nationwide deal could end soda sales in schools

I am a health educator. My conservative brain says the govt should not be telling us what to do when it comes to our personal choices...and I guess liberals should agree since they advocate abortion...

The health educator in me says that since American's keep making worse and worse decisions, and the consequences of all these choices are only starting to be seen, maybe someone needs to tell us what to do.

with more choices comes more responsibility, and obviously we are not up to the challenge.

People used to eat at home, maybe one soda a week...not enough money to buy chips and crap...

Now we make more money, have more time, more choices....and we chose to eat fast food, drink lots of soda, and we don't want to work out either...it is too hard...

So, what is the answer?
Just let people get fat and die? Increase the cost of health insurance?