[kattracks]

...ensuring that lawyers "will continue to target the deep pockets of the food industry."

Which, ultimately, this is all about.

[goldstategop]

If people don't watch their eating habits and get exercise, all the lawsuits in the world won't help them shed the pounds and bolster their self-esteem. It'll just make the lawyers fatter and add to people's cynicism about the justice system spending time and energy on issues that won't make a single person healthier.

[Fearless Flyers]

I suffer from bulimia every time I here about these bottom feeding trial lawyers scamming the public on the behalf of these irresponsible fat pigs I throw up. Can I start litigation against the lawyers?

The fat people want us to pity their obesity and think that it causes no harm to anyone but the corporations, when in fact it causes the corporations to stop supplying us the foods we enjoy and when they do supply them for our enjoyment the cost becomes prohibitive.

[Falcon4.0]

I wonder why nobody does a study on how much unfettered sex costs society? After all pornography is the #1 money maker on the internet bar none!

[alrea]

america is the only country/society in world history where the poorest individuals are the most overweight.

[NittanyLion]

She said government is encouraging obesity by failing to implement any "credible" anti-obesity campaign, noting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spend much more money on anti-tobacco campaigns than on programs that help people control their weight.

Tommy Thompson continues to do his best to combat this notion, by issuing ridiculous directives to the fast food industry. As though I go to McDonald's and regret the lack of salad choices.

[libertylover]

I'm fat and I know EXACTLY who to blame. Me!

[metesky]

According to Brownlee, the rate of obesity among Americans has risen from 15 percent to 27 percent since 1970, making one-third of the population obese (100 pounds over a person's optimum body mass index).

Hey Kat, when did 27% turn into 1/3? I must have attended the wrong schools.

[chilepepper]

These clowns can't see the forest for the trees.

What is needed is a real, serious forensic analysis of why the obesity rate has gone up, and IMHO the "lo-fat" mantra, along with the infamous FDA food pyramid, will be seen to be the ultimate causal factor.

It is hard to get outside your head when "society" repeats things so much that those "things" become undisputed fact.

There are *NO* undisputed facts in this world, just beliefs and tentative assumptions which we painfully eke out from experience.

I've been fat all my life and my experience tells me that ATKINS was pretty much on the mark, but the cow-mind, pushed along by the food-grain interests, keep the lo-carb theory from public popular acceptance...

[Jack of all Trades]

Suing the food industry under the claim that the food we eat causes a slow debilitating death is like suing the National Institute of Standards claiming that the passage of time causes the same effect. If NIST would just slow down those atomic clocks, we could all live longer.

[Dan from Michigan]

First off, the lawyers are at it again. Time for more tort reform.

The BMI stats are BS.

According to the govt scales, I was "overweight" at 175lbs during high school. 175 pounders are defensive backs on the football team.

I filled out to 190 and I'm 1/2 way up the 'overweight' chart according to that. The CDC would consider Ahnold or The Rock obese.

[Young Werther]

Marketing 101. In order to sell more product you either need to entice more customers to consume your product OR increase the portion sold per customer.

You only have to look at the size of a soft drink glass to "get it". The 8oz coke fountain glass of the '50s is now replaced by the 32oz Super Big Gulp, (with the vanilla, cherry, or other flavor Squirts to enhance your drinking experience).

Of course the same is true of all food portions. I remember when the White Castle burger which was about the size of a Silver Dollar. Compare that to the WHOPPER, DOUBLE WHOPPEER, etc and Super Size it please and you can see where the amount of ounces/pounds of intake have increased significantly.

It's not the Food or Beverage Industry! It's Madison Avenue!!!

It's the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit! Hang em all!!

[pttttt]

"In a society in which nothing is your own fault, we seek scapegoats," Glassman said. "Even more than in the case of smoking, obesity shines a huge spotlight on the importance of personal responsibility."

Sorry, Mr. Glassman. Anybody who has been fat as a kid or has known someone like that doesn't need you to preach to them about "huge spotlights" (ha-ha) or scapegoating. They will already know plenty about both.

Sure enough, personal responsibility is the key in the present state of medical art. But not because it's costing society some irresponsible amount of resources. A study done for Philip Morris showed that smokers save the taxpayers money, by dying sooner and not making claims for old age pensions.

The same should hold true for fat people. So fat people are probably actually saving society money, by dying sooner. Social Security should be handing out cigarettes and Big Mac coupons, and making sure there are no sidewalks for people to walk to where they're going. Oh, wait a second, local zoning boards and developers already do that. Anyway, there are plenty of reasons for fat people to lose the fat - for their own benefit, period.

I'm more interested in why a significant number of people get so gratuitously abusive and psychotic about fat people, in a way that can't possibly be explained by direct or indirect impact on their own lives, especially when compared with everything else that goes on. It's like they're reliving a wet dream from the grade school playground.

And of course the liberals love it because it's another villain class, like smokers, that it's safe to blame.