FAST FOOD FALLACY

New York Post ^ | 6/30/03 | ELIZABETH M. WHELAN

[kattracks]

June 30, 2003 -- THIS month, attorney John Banzhaf, who for years has litigated against tobacco, purportedly in an effort to protect public health, announced his intention to solve another public-health problem - obesity - by suing fast-food restaurants.

Banzhaf declared that cigarettes were not, after all, the only legally available product that is both addictive and hazardous when used as intended, and that cigarette manufacturers were not the only ones who covered up the hazards of their product.

[kattracks]

In some cases, the advocates, cloaked in the garb of public health, may actually be seeking to extract a portion of those profits for themselves.

Jesse Jackonism.

[visualops]

In some cases, the advocates, cloaked in the garb of public health, may actually be seeking to extract a portion of those profits for themselves.

Gee, ya think?

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

The third word of the article is all you need to know. The word is "attorney." Attorneys have created their own winning lottery tickets by such absolute nonsense. We need to change the law so that being a practicing attorney in civil law is a felony.

[TomGuy]

Banzhaf declared that cigarettes were not, after all, the only legally available product that is both addictive and hazardous when used as intended

It seems attorneys like Banzhaf find frivalous lawsuits=money to be both addictive and hazardous when used as intended. The Banzhafs of the world can always seem to find something, some industry to sue for any reason. Its the money; it has nothing to do with "the betterment of mankind."

They compete with bottom-feeding mudsucker catfish on the evolutionary scale.

[tdadams]

In some cases, the advocates, cloaked in the garb of public health, may actually be seeking to extract a portion of those profits for themselves.

We have a call on the line for Mr. Obvious...

People are going to get seriously tired of these specious shenanigans and won't entertain this folly much longer. Fool me once...

[PogySailor]

Now Banzhaf's willingness to apply the same legal tactics against food that he used on companies selling life-threatening cigarettes suggests that his agenda is mainly fueled not by health concerns but by a general contempt for profit-making enterprises, regardless of whether the product is hazardous or not.

Wrong. His motivation is $$$$$. Nothing more.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Big Tobacco should never have caved in to these bastards.

[aruanan]

Food supports life and only contributes to obesity when it is overused, that is, when we consume more calories (regardless of the source) than are expended in exercise.

Thanks, Elizabeth Whelan, for saying what other scientists have been saying on FR for a long time. Too bad your words are as unlikely to help those who need it most, given the latters' penchant to believe in cause and effect only when the effect promised has a cause that requires no more effort from them than that required to lift yet another supersized rack of baby back ribs to their obese lips.

[joanil]

Agreed, they are running out of blocks (of private citizens) to suck money from.

Remember how easy life and all its libations were 25 years ago, before every measly attorney and congressman tried to suck us dry?

HEY, here I am, alive and well 25 years after all your governmental bungling.............

Give me back the life I used to have! Geeezz.

[Jonathon Spectre]

Welcome to the War on (Some) Drugs v3.0. You will do what I say when I say or you will be harshly punished. That boot on your neck is health and safety. The harder it shoves your face into the ground, the better off you are. Don't worry about all those agonizing "decisions" and "choices." Once the boot is on your neck you merely need to exist to fulfill our... of course, I mean your... dreams.

[Loyal Buckeye]

Time for grassroots state-wide initiatives to end this type of nonsense.

[Kenny Bunk]

Do not knock Jesse Jackson until after he writes me a check underwriting my all-black NASCAR entry, please.

[IrishBrigade]

Having read your entry on the link you provided, I can only say, well done, and thanks for providing me with some ammunition for use against a completely tiresome individual at the parties I attend who tells me I am killing myself by eating baked potatoes and pasta (as well as that I am poisoning the general populace by working for a pharmaceutical giant.) I suppose I should just ask him "So exactly how is it that if you run 25-30 miles a week as I attempt to do and eat carbs along the way you're still going to get fat?" As I doubt he could run 25-30 yards at a time, I'll get some spin-off for an answer.

[mewzilla]

Congress is probably going to immunize the fast food industry anyway. Then they shysters will really be SOL.

[aruanan]

You're welcome. There were several entries in that thread, I think, above the one I linked to. Did you read this:

You can talk about the alphathiozentaur enzyme and its interelation with the zetazentaur enzyme all you want, but it comes down to one point. Your liver is either metabolyzing dietary carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into body fat or it is turning body fat into glycogen. There is one MAIN factor that determines whether this is occuring. It is your insulin/glucagon level. Your insulin level is dependent upon your carbohydrate (and to a lesser extent protein) intake. If your body is exhibiting a significant insulin response, it is simply impossible to metabolyze body fat until your blood sugar and insulin levels fall. That can be done by starving yourself (as is the current wisdom) exercising (common sense) or by limiting your carb intake to a level that does not cause a significant insulin response. I choose a combination of the latter two and I assure you that my supposed caloric intake VASTLY exceeds my caloric output and that my weight is very stable. I maintain a low level of dietary ketosis in myself and rarely feel hunger, I have a very stable mood, and I feel great.

I just have an MSME and am no expert in nutrition, but I know what makes sense to me.

The guy very accurately identified his problem: the fallacy of thinking that what seems to make sense to oneself must, therefore, be inherently sensible. As a result, he believes things that are simply not true because they conflict with what he wants to be true. Carbohydrates are not turned into fat and humans make relatively little de novo fat--certainly not to any degree that can account for obesity. Fats are not turned into glycogen, at all. A caloric intake that exceeds caloric output in the absence of diseases of absorption and physical growth (look at adolescents) results in weight gain to the degree that the intake exceeds the output.

The poor dope doesn't realize that the physiological state he describes as having low insulin and elevated ketone levels is characteristic of starvation:

Starvation is characterized by very low levels of insulin, elevated concentrations of glucagon, and very high concentration of circulating free fatty acids and ketones.
--Encyclopedia Britannanica