Quote:
Originally posted by gardener:
The recent suits by obese youngsters against McDonald's may sound laughable, because no one forced the youngsters to eat that fattening fare. But the negative publicity that the suits attract to the company's high-calorie offerings may help others stop eating them before they, too, balloon into obesity. Look what citizens' suits against tobacco companies have wrought.
An end result may be legislation that requires food companies to advertise healthy eating plans. Currently, Mr. Critser points out, "the soft drink industry alone spends upward of $600 million annually to promote its trash, compared with the National Cancer Institute's paltry $1 million budget for promoting fruit and vegetable consumption."
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This is crazy... the corporate entities cash in on selling and promoting products that cause health problems and then the lawyers cash in on suing the corporations for selling and promoting those products... while the medical and pharmaceutical industries cash in on treating those same health problems. In the middle are the over-weight Americans happily feeding their faces while sitting on their sedentary butts. Why would anyone want to mess with a set up that feeds our economy so well???
Late in 2001, I wrote Walter Willet - author of
Eat, Drink and Be Healthy and chair of the Dept of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health - specifically about the FDA dragging its feet on labeling of the trans-fats. His response was:
"The FDA should have anounced the food labeling by now, but I am told that some elements of the food industy have blocked it on technicalities. It may take law suits to create action, so I would encourage any lawyer who wants to take this on."
I also brought up the topic of salt content of processe foods. His response was:
"Yes, the salt in processed food is mainly a matter of taste, and the industry has created the expectation of highly salty foods. I fully agree with your taste assessment; somehow we need to have an industry-wide committment to lower the amounts added to foods. This is unlikely to happen without strong government leadership, and I don't see this on the horizon."
I would say that education seems to be the only solution because there's too much at stake financially for things to change much otherwise. However, since I work on a college campus, I doubt that even this will be effective because I see kids smoking all the time despite all we know about the harmful health effects of tobacco, despite the extensive legal actions against the tobacco industry and despite the high taxation on the product.