Regulating Fast-Food (?)

Great Debates
1

Hey Dopers…

So, without a dount one major concern to the American public today is the out of control obesity facing today’s youth. The fast food explosion of the past 25 years has got to be attributed as one of the factors for the health issues. Yet, fast food companies still overwhelm advertising space with ads geared towards everyone (not just kids), but today’s youth may be a good representation of the end result (obesity, diabetes, heart disease at a younger age).

The American public has seen this before with Tobacco companies and tok action. Apparently, regulation of tobacco products and advertising has reduced youth smoking.

Should there be some sort of regulation of fast-food businesses or fast-food advertising, perhaps some sort of health warning (like the warnings on cigarette boxes)?

Discuss away while you munch on that cheeseburger…

2

What I think has contributed more to reduction in smoking is the regulation of purchasing tobacco products is more stringent.

I’m all for advertising as I think people are generally smart enough to know what’s good for them and what’s not.

The big problem I see is that “real” food costs more than “fast” food, and, that’s probably why you see more lower income people eating more of it. I’ll just bet that as income levels and educations levels increase, the consumption of unhealthy foods decreases.

3

An analogy between fast food and cigarettes? Well, fast food isn’t addictive, and you can walk into any McDonald’s and get a pamphlet that says exactly how much fat and cholesterol is in that Big Mac.

Cigarettes are also a health risk unto themselves. Obesity (when caused by overeating, not disease) is not caused by a single food like cheeseburgers, or Twinkies, or pizza, or even a single category like “fast food”, but by a habit of eating more than you can burn off by working or exercising. If you want to become a man-mountain, you can do it with a diet of cheeseburgers, or with a diet of salad and fish… one will just take longer than the other.

4

No - though I know in some places schools ban soda and junk food (Singapore, IIRC).

Our bodies were designed to exist off water, fresh fruit, veg and limited amounts of fat. You can abuse it a fair bit, but people who eat donuts, burgers, soda instead of a proper diet stand a much higher chance of dying of colon cancer, obesity-related problems, etc.

Road Warrior probably has a point about the incomes/diet connection. Some poor people like eating crap (ever come across the “deep fried pizza” and “deep fried Mars bars” of Glasgow, Scotland?) But I don’t believe it’s financial. Anyone can buy healthy food for the same cost as fast food. Might take a couple of minutes longer and - horror of horrors - the slobs might actually have to get out of their pick-up and walk into a store.

There may be a role for government to ensure that people are aware of the risks. Otherwise, it’s everyone’s individual choice. Natural selection. Stupid people die sooner, and the human gene pool benefits.

Or (to show I’m even-handed) - do people think they should put health warnings on all soda and junk food. “Warning: this product is full of sugar/fat and is bad for your health. You need to include fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet”

5

And meat. We’re ominvores by design.

6

Ok, but cigarettes are legal and contain a explicit warning. People that use them know they are bad and addictive, and choose to use them anyway. Yet some people are able to sue the manufacturers when they get addicted and sick.

If I am eating "ultimate bacon cheeseburgers from Jack in the Box every day, with the 4 slices of cheese and 8 slices of bacon, aren’t I arguably inflicting similar damage to my body as smoking, long-term? If I develop high cholesterol or have a heart attack, can I sue them? Like the first paragraph, I know it is bad but do it anyway.

Or is addiction the key word here? Am I somehow less acountable because I am addicted to one and not the other?

7

Indeed - and don’t forget all those wonderful enzymes and oils in fish.

My point is that there are a lot of people who largely omit plain H2O, fresh fruit and fresh veg from their diets. Sugar-laden liquid, meat, refined starch and fatty dairy products account for 80-90% of their intake. They’re not omnivores.

8

Idealy maybe- but in the mean time they drag down the Health Care system. and they’re still squirting out babies, so their genes are still proliferating. I don’t have any sites, but I would guess that stupid people have more babies, and are more likely to rely on public assistance.

[/end digression of OP]

9

or cites.

10

Excuse this nitpick, but the deep fried Mars bar comes from Stonehaven, not Glasgow. They’re rather proud about it too.

11

I’m thinking you’re wrong here - but I’ll look for cites. My feeling comes from noticing that in a big city, you can walk through the poorer neighborhoods and come across five McTacoKings-in-the-Box before you hit a real grocery store. Poor people often aren’t mobile enough (read: no car) to travel very far for groceries; what’s more, they don’t have the relatively large amount of cash available to buy enough food at once to make it cheaper than fast food.

And even if they do head to the grocery store - 69 cents will buy a box of mac & cheese that’s heavily processed but can fill a few stomachs, but how much fresh vegetables or chicken can it buy?

Here’s a cite, from http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-vpste172627910mar17.story?coll=ny%2:

And from http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=274:

12

This is a subject that troubles me quite a bit.

I’m fighting a weight problem that I’ve had since about puberty. Right now I’m at my goal weight, trying to keep off the weight I’ve lost. Because of this, I believe I’m pretty keyed into how much emphasis there is out there on food, especially fast food & other high calorie, high fat options.

It troubles me that from an early age children can easily identify the Golden Arches™ or Ronald McDonald. It also bothers me that when I flip through the coupons in the Sunday paper, that most items on sale are cookies, chips, snack foods and other high calorie fare.

It is clearly easier to eat with abandon than it is to eat healthy in the United States, at least in my experience.

Having said that, I’m not sure that regulation is the way to solve this problem. McDonalds, and the other fast food establishments, can in fact be a part of a healthy well-balanced diet. When used in moderation Hell, I’ll be the first one to tell you that one of my favorite places to lunch is Subway. Granted, I can actually get lower-fat food and a serving of veggies there, so it’s clearly not the same as eating a Whopper or Big Mac.

My personal feeling is that maybe what this country needs is some sort of grass roots campaign to return the focus to proper eating and nutrition. When I talk to people at Weight Watchers (where I lost weight, and where I now work part time), I am boggled by how there are many people who lack basic knowledge of nutrition. I know in my educational experience, I hardly learned anything about nutrition, other than the fact that there were 4 food groups. I never learned about portion sizes, I never learned about healthy eating & why it was necessary. I think instead of spending money on regulatory agencies to regulate “junk food or fast food”, maybe we ought to spend the money on proper nutrition information.

If people are well informed about how healthy eating can benefit them, and how unhealthy it can be to constantly eat fast food, perhaps they would (occasionally) make better choices.

Unfortunately changes like this require a massive change in outlook by millions of people. I don’t anticipate this happening soon. But I refuse to pay a “junk food tax” when I go to Mickey D’s and get a Chicken McGrill sans mayo.

I’m curious to know whether there are any viable options besides regulation, which seems to be the preferred idea du jour.

How do we get people to realize that a Big Mac a day doesn’t keep the doctor away???

13

I can hear the floppy red shoes marching to Washington already.

14

Fast food places would have to be shut down. They would never regulate fast food joints. Why? Greed. The fast food entrepreneurs picked up on the fact that greedy politicians don’t care about our health or what comes into their towns and cities unless it makes them money.

Something should be done since we have the largest percentage of obesity in the world. I was recently in Rome, Italy and realized that there was not one obese person…and if you did see one it was an American. I saw one McDonald’s, but there were food markets on just about every third corner. We can learn a valuable lesson from them.

Since there will always be fast food places here, there are ways for the individual to get around it. Educate, educate, educate yourselves! Once you have been eating healthy for a while you really don’t want greasy fast food anymore. Your body likes and wants good healthy food. It doesn’t take much to keep your body healthy…it does carry you around for a long time. Some people take better care of their cars…that is why we will always have fast food joints…there is a demand for it and they sure do supply it!

15

I agree 100%. I can’t look at the stuff. The very smell of McDonald’s makes me nauseous.

16

scout1222 wrote:

Plus, Subway has that whole “lose weight like Jared did” campaign.

(Not to mention the fact that as of the end of last year, there are now more Subway restaurants than there are McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S…)

17

…I don’t know, as well as diet, exercise plays a large part in keeping healthy, so should the government mandate exercise as well?

It’s tough in the US though, I remember when I first moved here I was amazed at the lengths people would go to to park 20 yards closer to the door of a store they were going to - and it’s impossible to walk across the road in your typical suburban strip mall land. It’s actually easier to get in your car and drive across the road!

Another nasty trend I’ve noticed is the steady increase in portion size in the US - I lived here at the age of 5 as well, and I remember back then McDonalds fries only came in the little white bag - now you can’t even get that size. I was in a McDonalds the other day as well, and I saw that they now have a 2 BIG MAC value meal - 2 BIG MAC’S, LARGE FRIES AND A BUCKET OF COKE!:eek:

18

And this is why we’re the only ‘animal’ that gets painfully sick if we consume raw meat? :smiley:

  • Honesty
19

I eat raw meat all the time - mmm nummy steak tartar (sp).

It also makes sense that as, over the years, the human species has become more and more interested in cooking meat, we have lost the biological ability to deal with certain illnesses that are contracted from raw or undercooked food.

As for parasites, however, we’re not the only species that suffers from them if we eat infected meat. Other animals can also be quite prone to worms, which can be painful or even deadly to them.

20

Regulating fast food is an utterly absurd idea.

  1. The government is not and should not be responsible for your health;

  2. Addiction is the 800-pound gorilla distinguishing tobacco and fast-food;

  3. The individual double Whopper causes no harm to your health;

  4. The fact that the majority of the country is not obese demonstrates that fast-food advertising does not control our brains.

Sua