istara, nobody held a fucking gun to the heads of people forcing them to eat Oreos. Never did Kraft, the maker of Oreos, lie about the ingredients. Did they add extra trans-fat to make them deadly? Christ, a judge threw out the McDonalds lawsuit and this one should go too.
This is America. If you feel the product is bad, DON’T FUCKING EAT IT. If you can’t read, LEARN TO FUCKING READ. Children don’t understand labels but parents do. Who is rasing the children, the parents or the government? Who is buying the food? If you don’t like the ingredients in food products, DON’T FUCKING BUY THEM - buy substitutes with natural ingredients. Oh, they cost more. Well, do a cost/benefit analysis and choose. Or wait, should the government regulate food costs?
In that case, istara, an informational campaign would, I believe, be the most valid method of recourse. A lawsuit and a demand to ban a particular food is frivolous and infringing upon the rights of those who know that transfats are bad.
Additionally, if a child is eating enough Oreos to suffer a problem from it, then that’s a problem that needs to be dealt with by the parents, not by Mr. Joseph.
I think the tickly feeling is probably more due to the use of corn syrup in soft drinks these days as opposed to the sugar that was once used. I don’t remember the coke of my youth producing the tickle, nor do I notice it in the increasingly rare soft drinks which still use regular sugar.
Istara, others beat me too it but–once again–the consumer is not forced to buy, or consume, these products. And there isn’t even a “won’t someone think of the poor who can’t afford fresh foods!” angle here, because Oreos are damn expensive. I know they’re a rare treat in my house for just that reason.
Personally, I’ve always told myself that by dipping them in milk until they reach a perfectly softened mushiness, I am actually ridding them of at least 50% of their fat. Will the wonders of science never cease?!
By golly, you’re right! We should demand that Nabisco take all the partially hydrogenated oils out of Oreos, and replace them with good old-fashioned LARD! Lard is all natural, and has hardly any trans fat, so it must be good for you.
E-numbers? You mean, there have been E-numbers available in food products all this time, and we didn’t know it?!
Stand up and demand your daily allowance of E-numbers!!
I am not saying the defendant should be found guilty.
Just that I quite appreciate lawsuits like this. If nothing else, the media furore surrounding the case is quite an effective informational campaign. I totally agreed with McCrap winning/not losing that fatkids lawsuit. I still thought there was great benefit from the public awareness it raised.
And perhaps not just about the product being unhealthy: but of the crap some parents feed their kids - or the lack of supervision they have over their diets - and the damage it is doing to them.
meara, it’s already on the label. Right there in the ingredients list, where it says hydrogenated or partially hydrogenatedinsert your favorite fat or oil here.
This reminds me of when I was working on a large university campus. Some gal decided aspartame gave her a headache so she embarked upon a campaign to ban aspartame entirely from the campus. Fuck the fact that she had a choice whether or not to use it and fuck the fact that if she were successful none of us would have a choice. Fuck the fact that us diabetics and dieters considered aspartame a godsend, and fuck the fact that a few students with PKU said they had no problem with the Diet Coke in the vending machines, they simply chose regular Coke.
Some people thrive on victimization, and go so far as to try to convince everyone else that they are victims, too. I guess they think it validates their victimness. And of course, their day in the spotlight is an extra-special added bonus. Since vicitmization, is, after all, just another case of “me-me-me-me” anyway.
tracer, actually, lard [IS better than hydrogenated oils. All hyrogenation is is making a saturated fat out of an unsaturated or partially-saturated fat. So, already, you have made them even. Then add the trans-fats and you have made the formally “healthy” fat worse than the lard.
But, of course, Nabisco et al will never use lard, because the hydrogenated fats have a far longer shelf life and are much more stable. The lard would go rancid in a few days. That is, if it didn’t melt.
Ahem, then why don’t the parents of these poor widdle children read the labels before they buy it? No 5 year old I know holds a job and earns his own money.
I guess I see this sort of lawsuit or campaign in the same vein as those political “wackos” that stand as an independent parliamentary candidate at general election, usually over some bizarre or extreme issue. You know they’re not going to win. They probably know they’re not going to win.
But often - despite the time and money wasting - an important issue does get a bit of lights. Whether it’s a road being built through the last remaining habitat of the Patagonian slug, or whether the Imperial goverment’s decision to lower the pay of goverment cleaners was constitutionally unjust by some clause dating back to Magna Carta, at least it makes us notice, and it may make us think.
And be honest - all of us who’ve read about this lawsuit - have we found ourselves wondering just a little about the trans fat in some of the other stuff we’re eating? I have. Maybe I’m the only one.