Fast Food Lawsuit

[WV_Woman]

**If Mcdonalds goes to trials and win wouldn’t the plaintiffs be obligued to pay all the cost of the process?

No, they would not.**

That depends.

This is going to sound vague but I believe in some states, there is a certain thing they do in lawsuits. Let’s say Plaintiff sues Defendant, and the Def wants to settle for oh, 20 million. Plaintiff says no way, we can get more if we go to trial, so they go to trial … and lose. If you’re in a state that has this certain provision, the Plaintiff would then have to pay for the Def’s legal fees.

I cannot for the life of me remember what they call it. I think it might vary from state to state but I know Florida has it.

Any lawyers that can explain it better?

[SuaSponte]

VW_Woman, that’s not the same thing. Offers by a Defendant to Compromise (i) have to be an offer - they have to give the plaintiff money. Therefore, they aren’t relevant where, as here, the plaintiffs are not entitled to a recovery. (ii) They only shift the legal fees that are incurred after the offer to compromise is made. The legal fees incurred before the offer remain with the parties.

Mandelstam, your quote from The Independent leads me to wonder if that (usually really good newspaper) bothered to send any reporters into the “heartland”

"There is certainly no problem in eating well in the cosmopolitan big cities [in the United States], where the health kick has long since brought in its wake organic vegetables, farmers’ markets, sun-dried tomatoes from Italy and home-made bread. But once you head inland from the coasts, away from the big population centers and the college towns, you find not only that the fancy olive oils and foreign specialty foods have vanished; and so, too, have most of the fruits and vegetables and, with them, the very notion of unprocessed fresh food. It’s a straightforward question of availability, giving the lie to food industry claims that consumers can exercise free choice in deciding what to put in their mouths: in the heartland, the chains and big supermarkets have, by and large, taken over, and the few remaining family-owned businesses tend to survive through imitation rather than by providing any significant alternative. Thinness and healthy eating are increasingly becoming the preserve of the wealthy and the educated living in privileged urban cocoons.

What hogwash. You point to Tennesee. Maybe Tennessee supermarkets don’t offer bok choy and kale, but they do offer unprocessed fruits and vegetables.

The Independent makes two unfounded leaps from the JAMA article you cite:

"A growing obesity epidemic is threatening the health of millions of Americans in the United States…

According to the findings, the obesity epidemic spread rapidly during the 1990s across all states, regions, and demographic groups in the United States. Obesity (defined as being over 30% above ideal body weight) in the population increased from 12% in 1991 to 17.9% in 1998. The highest increase occurred among the youngest ages (18- to 29-year-olds), people with some college education, and people of Hispanic ethnicity. By region, the largest increases were seen in the South, with a 67% increase in the number of obese people. Georgia had the largest increase ? 101%. The findings also show that a major contributor to obesity ? physical inactivity ? has not changed substantially between 1991 and 1998."

It (1) assumes that unprocessed foods were available in the “heartland” before 1991; and (2) that “organic vegetables” and “fancy olive oils” were available and regularly consumed in the elite cities before 1991.
I doubt either is true.

by dalmuti
What’s there to promote about good nutrition? Nutrition is data-based fact. There’s nothing to dispute. Teaching good nutrition, would simply be teaching facts (what’s healthy, and what’s not) and letting the learners make their own decisions.

No, there are nutritional theories. The only nutritional facts are:

1. Humans need a certain number of calories a day;
2. Excess calories will lead to weight gain;
3. Excessive weight gain is bad for you; and
4. humans need certain particular nutrients (vitamins and minerals).
   The rest - particularly how humans should get their calories - is hotly debated.

Sua

[the_great_dalmuti]

*Originally posted by Guinastasia *
**
I personally would like to see less money going to competitive sports and fancy equipment and to better nutrition and HEALTHY physical ed classes-meaning teaching how to exercise and stay fit, rather than how to toss a ball over a net.
**

I very much agree, Guinastasia.

It seems that these days athletes are fawned over not for their physical prowess, but by their wealth, endoresements, and the knack they seem to have of both getting arrested and returning to very quickly therefter. An professional athlete, who is (like it or not) a role model to children, should never be allowed to return to the game after getting arrested for drug use, domestic violence, illegal gun possesion, etc. But that’s another debate.

Sorry to go off on a tangent. But, regardless, I think that more money definitley needs to be spent on teaching how to stay fit, and how to eat well. It can only help, there are no negative aspects of adding (or vastly improving) health classes in schools.

Eating is a daily thing, and much more applicable to daily life than history, math, art, music, etc. Don’t you think it deserves its own class? Granted parents should be the ones responsible for teaching their children, but the same could be said of anything.
Sua, have you ever been to or hung out in “the inner city?” There are a plethora of fast food joints, alcohol stores, and convienence stores, which vastly outnumber the groceries. This is not saying that these neighborhoods are completely devoid of plances to buy unprepared foods. But, there are less groceries than you would probably think there should be, to fulfill the neighborhood’s demand for food.

*Originally posted by SuaSponte *
** No, there are nutritional theories. The only nutritional facts are:

1. Humans need a certain number of calories a day;
2. Excess calories will lead to weight gain;
3. Excessive weight gain is bad for you; and
4. humans need certain particular nutrients (vitamins and minerals).
   The rest - particularly how humans should get their calories - is hotly debated. **

Okay. There are more nutritional facts than that. We know the exact amounts of fat, calories, cholesterol, fiber, sodium, vitamins, minerals, etc. of ALL raw foods. Those are facts, which could easily be used to supplement a nutritional theory, such as the USDA’s food pyramid. (Which I don’t like, but, if people actually followed it, it would be a vast improvement in most people’s eating habits.)

If people were taught these facts, from the time they were children, most people would grow up judging not just how a food tastes or “makes them feel”, but they would judge the food by weighing how the food tastes as well as the factual nutritional content of the food. You can’t possibly say that arming people with these completely objective, scientific facts is a bad thing.

Yes, I agree with you :eek: that the application of these nutritional facts, in the form of nutritional theory, is hotly debated in medical circles. (Though poorly debated on the SDMB.) It is also widely abused, a la The Zone and the Atkin’s Diet, to make money off of hopeful, susceptible, uninformed people who might have not needed to resort to such starvation techniques if they had been taught basic nutrition and health in school.

I went to a public school in Chicago, and my health class didn’t deal at all with nutrition. We dealt a little with exercise, though the majority of the class was devoted to sex ed. It was taught by a P.E. teacher, who could barely read, and treated the class as if it were a joke.

So, I might have just had bad luck, but it’s highly probable that there are worse teachers, in other schools, doing an even worse job than that guy. And my tax dollars are paying for this. And, to add insult to injury, the lack of nutrition is being complemented by having McDonalds and/or other piss-poor Grade-D (“for prisons and large institutions” as the boxes were marked) cafeteria food.

If anyone needs and deserves to eat as well as possible, it’s children.

Best,

TGD

[Patty_O_Furniture]

Sua, have you ever been to or hung out in “the inner city?” There are a plethora of fast food joints, alcohol stores, and convienence stores, which vastly outnumber the groceries. This is not saying that these neighborhoods are completely devoid of plances to buy unprepared foods. But, there are less groceries than you would probably think there should be, to fulfill the neighborhood’s demand for food.

I’m not sure what your point is here, but FTR I live in the part of DC the post office calls “Mid City” and there is:

• A Giant Foods grocery store 5 blocks away.
• A Safeway 4 blocks away.
• A Fresh Fields “Whole Foods” market 1 block away.
• Two dozen or so mom & pop markets that sell mainly unprepared foods & produce.

And you know what’s interesting? FF has even started invading the grocery stores. You can get all sorts of high fat/salt/cholesterol prepared convenience foods in the grocery stores now. Items like this line the store shelves, and don’t try telling me that things like Kraft Lunchables aren’t being agressively marketed to kids. And what is worse, this is where manufacturers have a captive consumer, not in the FF joints. Parents often find themselves dragging their kids through the supermarket as they do the weekly shopping. OTOH, parents don’t subject their children to FF enticements unless they willingly take them into the FF restaurant. You can’t say a product is being shoved down your throat if you willingly walk into an establishment that sells only that one product [line]. You might be able to make that case against a grocery store, however. Heck, now we have hot ready-to-serve chili right next to the salad bars in many grocery stores, right next to a cheeze-whiz dispenser.

In fact a brief YP search for DC (pop = 572,059, area = 68 sq. miles) turns up 150 businesses under the category Grocers - Retail*. That’s one retail grocer for every 3,814 people. I would probably agree that there is an abundance of fast food joints also, but what do you suggest is the proper ratio of FF joints:Grocers? 5:1? How about 10:1? And who’s fault is it if, on the way to the whole foods maket, I decide to stop off at the greasy spoon for a cholesterol burger? And who are we to even dictate such things? Grocers & FF joints exist because there is a demand for them. That is, I think, the underlying point behind all of this- not that grease & cholesterol et al. is bad for you when eaten in excess, but simply that we are responsible for what we put into our mouths.

Now we do legislate the maximum number of liquor stores, but that is because alcohol is a controled substance (controled in the sense that certain people can’t buy it, and nobody can buy it at certain times of the day or on certain days). Also there are civil & criminal penalties brought against businesses & consumers who abuse the ABC laws. Currently we have no FF abuse laws, but as soon as we do have them, then we can start holding business responsible for selling Big Macs to minors, and arresting people who are walking around with a high blood-cholesterol content :rolleyes:

[sub]*I suspect there are many more- search results max out at 150.[/sub]

[wring]

Fenris re: school lunches - well, they’re not just there for us parents who’d rather have youngster have hot lunch, but also for those who’s parents are poor enough that they get the ‘free lunch’ (ie there’s insufficient income at home to pack lunches).
In some cases, they have breakfasts, too. Kids don’t learn when they’re hungry and as a practical matter, schools have made strides to insure that children have access to food regardless of parental abilities. I’d agree that in the best world that wouldn’t be necessary. This ain’t the best world.

and re: kids/microwaves etc - IME, the kid’s generally have about 30 minutes to get their lunch, find a place to eat, eat, and dispose of their trash. Now, I’ll grant you that they seem quite adept at doing all that and getting into trouble (who, my son?) but adding in another 3 - 4 mintues to nuke the food at the start, and realizing that **all ** have to nuke the food at the start, well, that’d bring absolute chaos to the lunch room that doesn’t need incentive to acheive chaos.

[SuaSponte]

*Originally posted by the_great_dalmuti *
Sua, have you ever been to or hung out in “the inner city?” There are a plethora of fast food joints, alcohol stores, and convienence stores, which vastly outnumber the groceries. This is not saying that these neighborhoods are completely devoid of plances to buy unprepared foods. But, there are less groceries than you would probably think there should be, to fulfill the neighborhood’s demand for food.

Lived in South Philly, on a block with bricked up houses (so they couldn’t be used as crack houses. Lost two tires on my bike when they got popped by broken crack pipes on the street.
And there was a small grocery store (with an ample selection of fresh vegetables) three blocks away, and a massive Pathmark 7 blocks away.

Okay. There are more nutritional facts than that. We know the exact amounts of fat, calories, cholesterol, fiber, sodium, vitamins, minerals, etc. of ALL raw foods. Those are facts,

Nope. The amount of vitamins, minerals and calories all approach fact status. The rest don’t.

Yes, I agree with you :eek: that the application of these nutritional facts, in the form of nutritional theory, is hotly debated in medical circles. (Though poorly debated on the SDMB.) It is also widely abused, a la The Zone and the Atkin’s Diet, to make money off of hopeful, susceptible, uninformed people who might have not needed to resort to such starvation techniques if they had been taught basic nutrition and health in school.

Interesting. Those “abusive” low-carb diets are receiving ever-increasing acceptance in the medical community, even though they violate so many of the “facts” you listed above. The “facts” themselves are in dispute.

Sua

[Spiritual_Survivor]

It doesn’t matter if this story in particular is fact or fiction because the premise behind the story is very real. Yet allow me to go with it and please…humor me as I have humored myself. It’s just food for thought.

“The fast food industry has WRECKED my life.”

Interesting choice of words don’t you think? It simply screams VICTIM.

Oh to play the victim, to get my own way, to manipulate others into thinking they owe me. Ahhhh. The joy of irresponsibility. The wonders of persuasion and persuasive lawyers who really don’t give a crap about anyone or anything except themselves and their precious lifestyles because let’s face it unless there was money involved would Samuel Hirsch practice law?

“He believes millions of junk-food junkies are eligible.”
Oh. I see I have grabbed your attention. Perhaps something I said hit a core with you? You appear to be shaking your head as if in agreement with me. My only question is, who and what are you agreeing with? Do you really think you are any better than the lawyers or the Barbar’s of the world?

I for one would love to claim superiority and say I am not, but that would be a lie and of course I’ve proven to myself over and over again I can live with a lie and I do so love the feelings of superiority that come with deception and so it is so easy to do over and over again and we all know that something easy to do in repetition quickly becomes HABIT. Lying is so easy to do especially when we have such a wonderful legal system that caters to the fast-DECEIVE industry.

It’s just so easy to blame someone or something else.

My thinking brain intrigues me. I am so smart I should be labelled genius! I feel like a goddess. Better yet. I feel like a God. Hey maybe “I am GOD.” Gods can make others suffer, can’t they? Oh yes, let me misconstrue myself and others even more. I AM GOD. Bow down and serve me you snivelling, no-thinking, non-accountable pathetic human beings. You worthless, stupid, lazy idiots that care for nothing but yourselves!

If only I wasn’t constantly reminded by articles like this one that for all my brilliance my only real brilliance is in justifying my every inconsistency. Wow! I am a genius! I love the way I play with words. Lawyers are really good at this too. In fact, the entire legal system is based on ‘technicalities’ which is just another fancy way of saying, “they &#*# up by using the incorrect word.”

Oh how wonderful Smauel Hirsch is! Oh how glorious! How divine!

I think I’ll sue the car industry next! Imagine the big winfall I could have! It’s better than playing the lottery. The odds of winning are much greater.

Imagine it. The GOOD car that carried my lazy and thoughtless body to the fast-food industry to all that GOOD food was really EVIL in disguise (and you know how we all feel about things that are EVIL) but because I was conned, fooled and tricked THEY OWE ME BIG TIME!

Yet, wait a minute…hhmm. Something ‘feels’ wrong. If I’m such genius then how was I conned, fooled and tricked?

Oh Samuel Hirsch my King and God, please find a viable excuse for my temporary ungenius! I don’t want others to think I don’t care for myself and that I CONSCIOUSLY CHOSE to allow myself to become overweight, depressed and very ill. I’m desperate! Please help me! If anyone can do it you can. You are the master of deception. You are the God of lies and you do it so well I might add and with such a clear conscious. How do you sleep so well at night? I wonder.

I can’t help but wonder, if you weren’t getting paid would you still pursue your career of crime?

If the fast-food industry wasn’t earning money for selling their incredibly “GOOD” food, would they care at all about feeding people? If the automotive industry wasn’t earning money selling automobiles would they still care about transportation? If I couldn’t earn money working as a maintenance supervisor would I still care about keeping someone else’s property clean and in GOOD care? Finally, if I didn’t think with the help of my GOOD buddy Samuel Hirsch I could win the lottery by suing the fast-food industry would I continue looking for compensation and something or someone else to blame for my miserable and pathetic outlook on life?

-30-

Samuel Hirsch is not to blame. The legal system is not to blame. The fast-food industry is not to blame. The automobile industry is not to blame. Barbar is not to blame and yet if any one in particular is to blame then we are all to blame because we all share one thing in common.

None of us truly cares for himself or the other. We only care about the fulfillment of our greed.

CHOICE of GREED is the primary responsible factor here and whether we want to admit it or not we are all greedy.

Everything else is justification of inconsistency or bluntly put, self-deception and collective lies.

We are all in this together yet if you find yourself shaking your head from side to side and cursing me maybe you need to go to the bathroom and take a good long hard look at yourself. Look at yourself from the outside in and then look at yourself from the inside out.

We are all driven by greed.

Now go read revelations and focus on the part that not one was worthy to open the seal. NOT ONE. :smack:

[Spiritual_Survivor]

It doesn’t matter if this story in particular is fact or fiction because the premise behind the story is very real. Yet allow me to go with it and please…humor me as I have humored myself. It is just food for thought.

“The fast food industry has WRECKED my life.”

Interesting choice of words don’t you think? It simply screams VICTIM.

Oh to play the victim, to get my own way, to manipulate others into thinking they owe me. Ahhhh. The joy of irresponsibility. The wonders of persuasion and persuasive lawyers who really don’t give a crap about anyone or anything except themselves and their precious lifestyles because let’s face it unless there was money involved would Samuel Hirsch practice law?

“He believes millions of junk-food junkies are eligible.”
Oh. I see I have grabbed your attention. Perhaps something I said hit a core with you? You appear to be shaking your head as if in agreement with me. My only question is, who and what are you agreeing with? Do you really think you are any better than the lawyers or the Barbar’s of the world?

I for one would love to claim superiority and say I am not, but that would be a lie and of course I’ve proven to myself over and over again I can live with a lie and I do so love the feelings of superiority that come with deception and so it is so easy to do over and over again and we all know that something easy to do in repetition quickly becomes HABIT. Lying is so easy to do especially when we have such a wonderful legal system that caters to the fast-DECEIVE industry.

It’s just so easy to blame someone or something else.

My thinking brain intrigues me. I am so smart I should be labelled genius! I feel like a goddess. Better yet. I feel like a God. Hey maybe “I am GOD.” Gods can make others suffer, can’t they? Oh yes, let me misconstrue myself and others even more. I AM GOD. Bow down and serve me you snivelling, no-thinking, non-accountable pathetic human beings. You worthless, stupid, lazy idiots that care for nothing but yourselves!

If only I wasn’t constantly reminded by articles like this one that for all my brilliance my only real brilliance is in justifying my every inconsistency. Wow! I am a genius! I love the way I play with words. Lawyers are really good at this too. In fact, the entire legal system is based on ‘technicalities’ which is just another fancy way of saying, “they &#*# up by using the incorrect word.”

Oh how wonderful Samuel Hirsch is! Oh how glorious! How divine!

I think I’ll sue the car industry next! Imagine the big win-fall I could have! It’s better than playing the lottery. The odds of winning are much greater.

Imagine it. The GOOD car that carried my lazy and thoughtless body to the fast-food industry to all that GOOD food was really EVIL in disguise (and you know how we all feel about things that are EVIL) but because I was conned, fooled and tricked THEY OWE ME BIG TIME!

Yet, wait a minute…hhmm. Something ‘feels’ wrong. If I’m such genius then how was I conned, fooled and tricked?

Oh Samuel Hirsch my King and God, please find a viable excuse for my temporary ungenius! I don’t want others to think I don’t care for myself and that I CONSCIOUSLY CHOSE to allow myself to become overweight, depressed and very ill. I’m desperate! Please help me! If anyone can do it you can. You are the master of deception. You are the God of lies and you do it so well I might add and with such a clear conscious. How do you sleep so well at night? I wonder.

I can’t help but wonder, if you weren’t getting paid would you still pursue your career of crime?

If the fast-food industry wasn’t earning money for selling their incredibly “GOOD” food, would they care at all about feeding people? If the automotive industry wasn’t earning money selling automobiles would they still care about transportation? If I couldn’t earn money working as a maintenance supervisor would I still care about keeping someone else’s property clean and in GOOD care? Finally, if I didn’t think with the help of my GOOD buddy Samuel Hirsch I could win the lottery by suing the fast-food industry would I continue looking for compensation and something or someone else to blame for my miserable and pathetic outlook on life?

-30-

Samuel Hirsch is not to blame. The legal system is not to blame. The fast-food industry is not to blame. The automobile industry is not to blame. Barbar is not to blame and yet if any one in particular is to blame then we are all to blame because we all share one thing in common.

None of us truly cares for himself or the other. We only care about the fulfillment of our greed.

CHOICE of GREED is the primary responsible factor here and whether we want to admit it or not we are all greedy.

Everything else is justification of inconsistency or bluntly put, self-deception and collective lies.

We are all in this together yet if you find yourself shaking your head from side to side and cursing me maybe you need to go to the bathroom and take a good long hard look at yourself. Look at yourself from the outside in and then look at yourself from the inside out.

We are all driven by greed.

Now go read revelations and focus on the part that not one was worthy to open the seal. NOT ONE.

[g8rguy]

Who, a double post separated by two hours. Very impressive! Now, if only I had a clue what it was trying to say…

[SuaSponte]

[Responding to as much of Spiritual Survivor’s post as I can understand]

SS, first off, welcome to the Boards.
As for (at least one of) your point, of course I blame everyone else for my mistakes. How could I possibly make an error?
The difference is, I don’t sue anybody else to make them pay for my mistakes.

Sua

[Caffeine.addict]

Attrayant
quote:
I’m not sure what your point is here, but FTR I live in the part of DC the post office calls “Mid City” and there is:

• A Giant Foods grocery store 5 blocks away.
• A Safeway 4 blocks away.
• A Fresh Fields “Whole Foods” market 1 block away.
• Two dozen or so mom & pop markets that sell mainly unprepared foods & produce.

I suspect that Dalmuti was refering more to neighborhoods that are located in places like S.E. Washington.
There was an article in the Washington Post written by Kevin Merida about the lack of supermarkets in Ward 8.

[gazpacho]

*Originally posted by brujo *
**

I suspect that Dalmuti was referring more to neighborhoods that are located in places like S.E. Washington.
There was an article in the Washington Post written by Kevin Merida about the lack of supermarkets in Ward 8. **

So the fast food places are bad for providing their services to places that other people decide not to service?

[gazpacho]

*Originally posted by brujo *
**

I suspect that Dalmuti was referring more to neighborhoods that are located in places like S.E. Washington.
There was an article in the Washington Post written by Kevin Merida about the lack of supermarkets in Ward 8. **

So the fast food places are bad for providing their services to places that other people decide not to service?

[the_great_dalmuti]

*Originally posted by SuaSponte * **

Lived in South Philly, on a block with bricked up houses (so they couldn’t be used as crack houses. Lost two tires on my bike when they got popped by broken crack pipes on the street.
And there was a small grocery store (with an ample selection of fresh vegetables) three blocks away, and a massive Pathmark 7 blocks away.**

Were there a lot of fast food places there, as well? What about liquor stores?

*Originally posted by SuaSponte * **
Nope. The amount of vitamins, minerals and calories all approach fact status. The rest don’t. **

Please explain. I don’t know why you think “the rest don’t.” Regardless, don’t you think that the amount of vitamin, minerals, and calories (which you agree are facts) is good data and should ultimately be taught in health/nutrition classes?

Sure, there’s the RDA box on everything, but it’s not enough. Condoms come with instructions, but many schools still teach how to use them. Why? Because it’s THAT important. Do you not think that nutrition and health are as important as proper birth control utilization?

Originally posted by SuaSponte * **
Interesting. Those “abusive” low-carb diets are receiving ever-increasing acceptance in the medical community, even though they violate so many of the “facts” you listed above. The “facts” themselves are in dispute.*

Where is this ever-incresing acceptance coming from? Sorry to ask, but you could please provide a link. I seriously, seriously any intelligent physician would advocate one of these fad diets.

Any doctors in here? What are your (brief) feelings on fad diets such as the The Zone and ketosis-based Atkins diet?

Best,

TGD

[Caffeine.addict]

Gazpacho said

So the fast food places are bad for providing their services to places that other people decide not to service?

No, I am not saying anything of that nature. I was merely pointing out that when Attrayant was refuting Dalmuti’s point on there not being very many places in the “inner city” to buy groceries by pointing out that his urban neighborhood had several grocery stores that Dalmuti may have been referring to lower income neighborhoods.

I think that if McDonald and other fast food places can make money in those places they should be there.

[SuaSponte]

The New York Times magazine had a lengthy article on July 7, 2002, addressing the increasing acceptance the Atkins and other low-carb diets are receiving. It was fascinating reading, particularly the review of the development of the current leading theory - that carbs are good and fat is bad - and how there really isn’t any hard science backing it up.
A link to the opening paragraphs is here. The article itself is a pay one. http://query.nytimes.com/search/abstract?res=F00E13F7345A0C748CDDAE0894DA404482

As for my old neighborhood, the closest fast food joints (there were two of them) were around 6 blocks away. I don’t recall any liquor stores in the vicinity - though there were several of that old Philly tradition of corner bars within a few block radius.

Sua

[SuaSponte]

BTW, dalmuti, what is the relevance of how many fast food joints or liquor stores were in my old neighborhood? There could have been a thousand of them - it doesn’t change the fact that the two supermarkets within 1/2 mile provided the residents of my neighborhood all the choice they needed for healthy eating.

Sua

[Fenris]

*Originally posted by SuaSponte *
BTW, dalmuti, what is the relevance of how many fast food joints or liquor stores were in my old neighborhood

Sua: I thought we’d discussed this. The scent of meat cooking softens one’s brain and makes one vulnerable to the orbital mind-control lasers. Ergo, if the Beef Council sets up burger joints on every street corner, the smell of cooking meat and fat dripping on charcoal…[sub]mmmmmm…fat dripping on charcoal…mmmmmmMMmm.[/sub] will weaken the people in the neighborhood’s minds enough that the orbital mind-control lasers will be able to FORCE them to eat the dreaded McWhoppers!

If only the Secret Council of the Carrot had the budget to put it’s OWN orbital mind-control lasers up. Then they could FORCE people into the grocery stores where they could stock up on good, healthy veggies. And what a happier world we’d be!

Fenris

[the_great_dalmuti]

Sua, thanks for the link, but I’m not a huge fan of paying for single articles. If you’ve read it, could you please summarize, or share some of the more interesting points/facts?

On a side note, I’m not a big fan of carbs. I tend not to eat much rice, bread, pasta, etc. but rather just vegetables, legumes, and nuts. In case you were curious. Still, the Atkins diet provides essentially no fiber, and you can look at any study out there to see that a regular intake of fiber dramatically decreases one’s likelyhood of getting cancer. But, we’re way off topic now, so I’ll fight the urge to go off on a tangent.

As for the fast food joints in your old neighborhood, I was just curious. So, people essentially had a 50/50 choice where they could go for food: restaurants or groceries. They had the choice to eat healthy, but they didn’t. Okay. So, one gets really obese and decided to file a lawsuit against the suspected culprit: McDonalds. Why? You know, I would like to see the exact working of the lawsuit. Is it for merely serving unhealthy food? For misadvertisement? Regardless, I still hope they win.

But, even if the lawsuit is bunk, it doesn’t take away from the fact that the population, as a whole, is out of shape. The case may provoke people to take a look at their health, and their diets, or those of their children, in a critical way. This cannot possibly be a bad thing. Sucks that it took a silly court case to do it, but might as well look at the bright side of it.

There’s also still no excuse why I have to pay tax dollars for people who don’t know how to eat correctly to get triple-bypasses, while public schools have to prostitute themselves to fast food corporations to raise money for new books. Allthewhile these schools are not teaching anything about nutrition, therefore providing no means whatsoever to break the greasy, fat-filled cycle. This is unacceptable.

Also, please explain what you meant when you said “Nope. The amount of vitamins, minerals and calories all approach fact status. The rest don’t.” I still don’t get it. Thanks.

Now Fenris, as humorous as you are, you failed to address both points I posed to you a few posts ago. About both the arming of students with nutritional facts, and the tax money/health care issue.

Once again, mocking me simply has no effect. It’s not a very good debate tactic, either. If you wish to comment specifically about something I said, fine. But just stirring up nonsense because you don’t have anything productive to add to the debate wastes everyone’s time. Unless you’re like 16. In that case, it’s fine, and to be expected.
Best,

TGD

[SuaSponte]

*Originally posted by the_great_dalmuti *
Sua, thanks for the link, but I’m not a huge fan of paying for single articles. If you’ve read it, could you please summarize, or share some of the more interesting points/facts?

The basic points were as follows:

1. The dietary movement, culminating in the Food Pyramid, was based upon really only one premise - that fats and cholesterol are bad for you. Therefore, foods with fats and cholesterol in them were deemed bad for you.
   This ignored the possibility that foods without fat and cholesterol could be bad for you, too - particularly if eaten in excess. The body creates fats and ;
2. Carbohydrates tend to be eaten in excess. This is primarily due to the action of insulin;
3. The NIH and other scientific funding institutes have refused to fund comparative studies of low-carb diets, despite indications from smaller studies that it really works;
4. Etc.

As for the fast food joints in your old neighborhood, I was just curious. So, people essentially had a 50/50 choice where they could go for food: restaurants or groceries. They had the choice to eat healthy, but they didn’t.

Whoa, Nellie. What makes you think that people in my old neighborhood went to the fast food restaurants instead of the grocery store? I never said such a thing - if you are saying, as you are, that poor black people are so stupid that they will reject healthy food options that are available to them, you are a bigot and a horrible person.

But, even if the lawsuit is bunk, it doesn’t take away from the fact that the population, as a whole, is out of shape. The case may provoke people to take a look at their health, and their diets, or those of their children, in a critical way. This cannot possibly be a bad thing. Sucks that it took a silly court case to do it, but might as well look at the bright side of it.

Why do you think that a lawsuit has this magical power? Your tobacco analogy didn’t work - tobacco use has decreased by 1% in the course of the tobacco litigation, while decreasing around 24% in the preceding decades without the benefit of litigation.
Why won’t education initiatives work better than a lawsuit?

Sua