Posted on 02/03/2006 7:03:12 AM PST by ZGuy
GET READY for the next mass-tort crusade: protecting our kids from the ravages of Big Cola. According to reports, a group of lawyers is gearing up to file lawsuits that will seek to blame Coke, Pepsi and others for obesity, tooth decay and other childhood health ailments. An article in the Boston Globe Magazine has called it part of a "national legal movement to make soft drinks the next tobacco." Instead of tar and nicotine, we'll be hearing about corn sweeteners and caffeine; maybe Dr. Pepper can stand in as the new Joe Camel.
Ridiculous? More like inevitable. For some time, a noisy campaign has been underway to portray the food and beverage industry as the villain in the nation's ongoing battle with the waistline. Without the snack hucksters' machinations, it seems, we'd all eat raw bell peppers and be reed thin.
Backed by "progressive" foundations, nutrition advocates are demanding a national obesity policy aimed at changing our collective diet, by force of law if necessary — or quite possibly by force of litigation. As one advocate, Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, put it: "If someone is saying that a 64-ounce soda at 7-Eleven contributed to obesity, that person should have his day in court."
That brings us to Northeastern University law professor and associate dean Richard Daynard, point man in the forthcoming courtroom onslaught against fizzy drinks. Long quoted in the media as a cheerleader for tobacco lawsuits, Daynard has now set out to assemble a legal strike force to file obesity actions. He wants to duplicate the success of the tobacco campaign, whose strategies included invoking "the children" and launching scores of suits on novel legal theories in hopes that one would stick.
WALTER OLSON is senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Yeah. I can't even get the corn-syrup kind here. We can get Cokes and Pepsis and some of their products like Sprite and that's about it.
Thank you for your kind offer. It would be a hassle to mail something like that to an APO, though. I make sure I drink some every time I come home and I always get my Tex-Mex fix shortly after arriving home, too.
And if I had a silver dollar for every time I got a whuppin' for climbing riverbanks, I'd make the Hunt Brothers' little 'silver thing' a few years back look like a couple of guys trading baseball cards....
"The only "choices" that causes these diseases are the ones of the patrons who decide to make eating an lifestyle, not just an occasional meal."
One problem is that in this day and age too often both parents have to work to make ends meat and cooking meals everyday is becoming less practical. Instead we find ourselves having to just run out and get something quick to feed the family and the cheap quick places for the most part all serve nothing but unhealthy crap. People are ultimately making the choice to buy the crap they eat though. They don't have to live off pizza, burgers, fries, and carbonated sugar water. Fast food restaurants and junk food purveyors shouldn't be held responsible for selling unhealthy junk people buy knowing it is unhealthy junk. People should make better choices. It sure would be easier though if it was such that most families could make it fine just on the man's income alone though. That seems to be becoming harder and harder to do.
I didn't mind my daughter having the fries with her Happy Meal at age 5, she just liked salad too - thanks for the info but she's kind of outgrown McDonalds now that she is almost 20.....
The ONLY place I would think we should BAN this stuff is in schools.....where the Parents cannot oversee their children's choices. But, that would mean banning a whole lot of other things, too that are unnecessary in a public school...
They also let you substitute a baked potato, and for the drink get low-fat milk instead of a soda.
Wendy's has become my "fast-food" choice. I usually order from the dollar menu...a baked potato, chili, and a salad. $3 and I usually end up bringing the salad home, it's so much food.
Of course. His and hers Bentley GT's aren't exactly cheap, and how will the yacht crew get paid?;)
Ummm. Sony.. deep pockets. I smell class action chum. ;-)
Hope you're not a cola drinker...
What I'd envision would still include soda, fries, etc., as choices. I guess that makes me a "do your own thing", just skip the stupid lawsuits kind of person. <^..^>
There's a place down the road full of salad fixins and milk. It's called the grocery store.
I am hooked on Dublin Dr. Pepper (made with real Imperial Cane Sugar). It tastes way better than the corn syrup chemical tasting Dr. Pepper.
They better stay away from my DP.
Just got back from the annual deer hunt down in Real County. Stopped by the Dublin store on the way back and picked up a couple of cases to bring back to Dallas.
Let's be honest though, there are plenty of fat adults walking around in America who grew up before home video games.
I hope and pray the day I die, I have in my right hand a big cigar, and in the left an ice-cold Coke.
People are not overweight because of the food companies.
fixing the illegal immigration problem will help solve America's fat problem.
Remember: bigger calibers, more stopping power...
Actually, it is: I read something on FR a couple of months ago saying that HRCS works differently in the body from sugar -- more likely to turn to fat on the same number of calories. I believe the turn to HFCS, though, came about as a result of US protectionist policies against foreign sugar, keeping the price of sugar high enough to make HFCS attractive to manufacturers.
Sung to the tune of "Gag me a maggot."
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