Today's episode on Dr Phil is about people suing the fast food industry for making people fat.

He's great to watch. Really cutting into that lawyer. Words like "what a load of crap".

Basically he said what everyone said here. No one forces you to eat fast food, it's a conscious choice. Suing the fast food company for making you fat is total bull.

It was a very spirited "discussion". Well more like an argument than a discussion.

Here is more info and also the fast food industry reply

http://www.drphil.com/show/show.jht...fatlawsuits.xml

I saw the show today, too. Suing the fast food industry is ridiculous, but I think the complaints regarding the airplane seats are valid. I wish they had shown 2 very large people being seated next to each other on an airplane. I also wanted to slap that superior attitude off the skinny lady's face that was in the audience who had asked the overweight lady to move.
asugar

Yes I agree about the ridiculous aspect of the fast food lawsuit. You could tell that the lawyer was just out for a fast buck.

And I feel for both guys. I haven't travelled extensively on airplanes but one thing that I noticed is you are CRAMPED. Even though I'm a normal sized person, I'm a big girl (tall and big boned) I feel jammed in those small seats. And that's sitting next to a average size person.

Looking at all those overweight people, I kept wishing I could email them and tell them about lowcarbing. Sad to have the answer and no way to communicate it.

But I have been realizing more and more just how much people are not ready, or do not want to listen to the message.

To do LC in any form you have to take responsibility for KNOWING there are foods out there that you just can't eat alot of. To take responsibility for your health, you have to take the responsibility to ignore the numbers and know that each bite you put in your mouth is a change to change your metabolism and your body's responses to food.

Many are just not ready for that. I was just in the chat room I like to frequent on aol, and listening to people I have talked to for months. THEY ARE ALL DIABETICS!! Two of them the FIRST type II in their family. They for two days now have talked about being scared about the complications of this disease..but when I mention there are answers out there.. THEY IGNORE THEM!
Even my father who is ready to SOME degree is not ready to let go of the party line given us for the last 20-30 years of Low fat eating.

Today I had one of those upsetting instances at work. There are a couple of women I watch daily putting sweets, and manufactured foods in their mouths ALL DAY LONG! They are about 10 years older than I am and WHAT I WILL BE if I stop taking care of myself the way I have been working on.
I haven't pushed this on them, but if someone asks.. YES I get very very excited about it!

The one lady is a very obnoxious loud sort of person that actually was hired on originally as Marriott and not Ritz Carlton. She knew I had been reading one of Atkins books for information.
She of course could NOT WAIT TODAY to tell me that he had a heart attack, and of course They all jumped in with..WELL YEAH>.its all that FAT he eats.. and of course they would not and did not know the facts of what that was about.

I said that it was my firm belief that we needed to get back to what we were eating like in general a century ago.. if you had a farm ect. She said.. BUT they ATE JUNK!
This woman was stuffing cheetos in her mouth as fast as she could. I told her about my great grandfather that was healthy tall and sexy all his 90+ years of his life eating .. all this high fat food.
And tht her mother probably ate more like that than not.
She got SO MAD.. which in turn ticked me off. SHE STARTED with rudeness and intending to make me feel badly for low carbing and not eating her junk food, but she made me MORE determined than ever to GET HEALTHY and STAY HEALTHY!
.. *** whew****
And she of course will start everyone on the diet of the week next week or the next.. something truly awful and having NOTHING to do with nutrition and what is good for you.
Personal responsibility..she doesn't want it.. and she doesn't like it that I am trying.
Poofie!

The purpose of these lawsuits is to force fast food corporations to disclose their business practices, food formulations, ingredients and marketing plans. Dr. Phil is missing the point. Might I add he's pretty chubby and probably likes his bigmac and fries.

It's similar to lawsuits against tobacco companies. Without litigation the public would not know the poisonous ingredients that tobacco companies add to their products to make them more addictive, regardless of the fact that these ingredients kill people.

Both types of companies continue to assert that the use of their products is freedom of choice. Quite true, but we all have a right to be an informed consumer. Many food corporations have been caught red-handed lying about their ingredients. Therefore it takes litigation to crowbar the truth into public view.

Doug,

Last time I checked, fast food restaurants either had a nutritional chart posted somewhere, or you could ask for one. But if people don't read and head, what's the point?

And I think Dr. Phil is 100% on target. Anyone with at least a small degree of awareness would know that fried foods are fattening (especially the low-fat, calorie-counting crowd), and it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that larger portions equal more calories, fat, carbs, etc.

I also have 20+ years of smoking behind me (quit almost 2 years (and 20 lbs) ago). I lit my first one back in 1975 when I was 14. When I did that, I ALREADY knew, that smoking was bad for your health and I knew that cigarettes were addictive (I just thought that I would not be effected). It was a stupid choice, but I made the choice to smoke that first one - and I continued to make the same stupic choice each and every time I lit one. I did that, nobody made me. If I turned around and said it was the tobacco industry's fault, I'd also be saying that I am unwilling to educate myself, unable to make decisions (right or wrong), am not responsible for my actions, and so gullible, I believe anything.

Next we'll be suing ice creme producers, candy makers, beer brewers, our parents, our neighbors, teachers, schools, etc. etc, etc, because it's always someone elses fault (actually, it's already happening).

Lawsuits like this just feed this - what seems to be the new American way of life - many don't seem to want to be accountable any more and the system rewards this through law suits like these - and by the unreasonable high awards that are often granted in even legitimate suits. I think Dr. Phil called that the "litigation lottery".

And now I've wasted too much time on this computer here again - should be dressed by now. I think I'll go sue Dell.

Haha Thelma that's a good one. Sue Dell.

That laywer was trying to argue that somehow the fast food industry addicts people to fast food and gets them hooked at first through clever marketing. I just can't believe that anyone could argue this with a straight face.

They are trying to establish a parallell between cigarettes and fast food. Well at least nicotine is a KNOWN addictive substance and the industry knew it and manipulated it. I agree that the manufacturers should pay for that in some form.

But even though I buy into the whole carb addiction thing, fast food by itself is not addictive. The people who eat there everyday and see the pounds pile only need to exercise a little self control. We live in a strange society. Every minute of every day something is offered to us. The whole world is clamoring for us to buy buy buy buy. In this orgy of choice we must exercise restraint, or we would all be fat and broke. You can't start blaming everyone for offering us a choice.

It was fun to watch Dr Phil lay into that nervous lawyer. But then I've taken responsibilty for my health and can use fast-food to my advantage. Double-cheeseburger, anyone?

Unfortunately, that episode also played into the Dark Side's hands. Sure, the case is ludicrous and that particular lawyer was in over his head, but this could be the beginning of a process.

Does McDonald's take advantage of the fact that people like to eat cheap, filling, good-tasting food? Do they, in fact, attempt to make it even cheaper, more filling, and better tasting? Can McDonald's prove that a customer under the influence of their marketing will leave their restaurant healthier than when they entered? Do they not, in effect, prey on the under-privileged who are forced by circumstance to eat there? Should McDonald's not compensate society for the health-care burden to which they have contributed and from which they have profited by knowingly flouting the gov't's nutritional guidelines? Should McDonald's not become a partner in this country's fight against obesity by funding research, clinical care, and educational food programs for the poor?

By constantly airing and honing their argument before taking it to the courts, and perhaps using a more sympathetic host, they may eventually shape it into a "helpless little guy vs Evil, Rain-Forest-Burning Business" scenario and get some public opinion going in their favor. Blood in the water. And the government would be all too happy to feed at the Tobacco, Episode II trough. There are billions of dollars up for grabs in legal fees, settlements, taxes, and lobbying.

Coca-Cola could be next.

Whining is serious business.

The only meaningful choice is informed choice. Lawsuits aren't necessary when people are willing to disclose their practices to the light of day. But that isn't how things work.

Corporations, like individuals, have responsibilities. The food industry is being busted constantly for mistating and lying about their products. They threw down millions in lobbying money to stop food labeling. And lost, fortunately. They still spend huge somes of money to attempt to control regulators so they don't have to clearly describing ingredients. There are, for example, several euphemisms used for MSG, which is still in heavy use in the US food supply. It's medically proven to cause liver toxicity. It stimulates appetite so people eat more.

McDonalds has been busted twice recently, once for putting meat products in their '100% vegetable oil' fries and again for trans-fatty acids in their products. This was discovered by independent research. Only under media scrutiny did they cough up the deception.

Almost all fruits and veggies in the US are irradiated with gamma rays to preserve shelf life. The food corps have so far successfully fought labeling those products. Why? They DON'T want you to have the choice of deciding whether you want to put that in your body.

Citrus is blasted with methane gas to acelerate ripening. Yummy.
Then of course there's genetic engineering and cloning. Neither require labeling.

Proven cancer causing pesticides are made illegal in the US, so the chem and food companies export them and use them in other parts of the world, then bring the same product into the US for your consumption. Thanks NAFTA.

I'd suggest that some of you consider the larger issue. Frankly we have a few individuals here willing to stand up to to the ridicule of the not quite bright in order to get some full disclosure.

Dr. Phil sort of reminds me of Dr. Laura without the religious baggage. these things go in cycles, compassion will make a comeback.

lawsuits aside, restaurants need to be pushed to disclose and alter the content of their menus.

and how do you feel about the high fat, high carb food being servied to your children in the school cafeterias--the worst of both worlds.

Here in Colorado, school lunch programs are training grounds for bad eating habits. Corporate fast-food running amuck.
My son recently graduated and over the summer started lo-carbing, not consciously dieting, but just eating what my wife and I eat. He wasn't fat per se but he had a spare tire. He dropped 20 pounds in the blink of an eye, looks great, and is really enjoying this WOE. Looking nice and lean. Oh, to be young again!

Oh I agree with you that we need to be informed about EVERYTHING we put in our mouth, including ingredients, additives, and processing and that compagnies as a whole aren't too forthcoming about revealing this information. However this lawsuit isn't about disclosure. It's about accountability. About blaming someone else for the decisions you made knowing full well the consequences. There isn't a person in America that doesn't know that fast food is fattening. The message has been repeated over and over by the medical community, by the media, by all the bossy coworker at the office. Not to mention that you can find out the nutritional information on fast food just about everywhere, including from the compagnies themselves. Weight isn't something that comes overnight. It creeps up on you. You might close your eyes to the process, but don't tell me you wake up one day in the future, 100 lbs fatter, and go ... I'm going to sue McDonalds, look at what they have done to me.

I'm not defending the fast food industry, God knows. Like all faceless corporations they are evil in the sense they put profit above anything else. But then that's America. Let's not delude ourselves.

However it's not their business to provide nutritious food. That's the business of the school lunch programs and the hospitals and the moms and dads of this world. They offer food that they think will sell. They are a business. It's up to the consumer to vote with their dollars. To accept or reject what is offered. They will adapt, just as they have recently by offering healthier choices like salads

Very well said, Angeline!

And how would those people ever proof that it's the burgers and fries that made them fat? One, or even two, double-cheeseburgers & fries a day won't make you fat - if that's all one eats. What gets people fat are those burgers, fries, donughts, icecream, cookies, bisquits and gravy, chips, etc. etc. etc., and in that line up - even fruit and veggies add to the daily calorie-overkill.

Next maybe they'll sue the fitness industry for NOT advertising enough to make them actually exercise enough to offset some of the overeating?

Maybe instead courts should declare everybody who claims that "somebody else made them do it" incompetent and assign them a legal guardian until it is determined how capable that person is to deal with responsible living. After all, I surely don't want people that are so incompetent out there driving, voting, and doing other things I wouldn't want a 5-year old to do.

That my dear IS THE PERFECT answer :-)
I agree wholeheartedly. :-)
Okay. so where is my court appointed guardian!! This girl needs HELP! :-)
Poofie!

Hey Thelma,
You are absolutely right! It is infuriating that, rather than pointing out that adults have both free will and the developmental level necessary to make consenting choices about eating, and other things, our social climate actually encourages abdication of responsibility by awarding those people with ridiculously large settlements--which, lets face it, even if McDonald's et al. WERE at fault for this man's obesity, would they really owe him millions of dollars? I mean, he's not terminally ill--now that he's finally noticed he's obese, he's still able to go on a weight-loss program and become totally healthy again. And, as for this idea that "it's about full disclosure" and not getting as much money as possible, why would the plaintiff be asking for so much $$$ then? For himself? It's not like he's going to go around afterwards, finding the poor people hoodwinked and injured by the fast food industry's evil practices and sharing the settlement with them. Also, if this lawyer were so noble, why wouldn't he take this case pro bono, or for a minimum fee? I don't know what he stands to earn out of this, but I would bet all of my tiny bank account that it is ALOT.
Relating this to the other Dr. Phil topic of airline seating, I would also bet that this same man, who is basing his lawsuit on the fact that he is obese, would be completely offended if he were asked to buy an extra seat. Well, I would suggest that he use some of the millions from his lawsuit to pay for it. I mean, as a normal-sized but quite tall person, I find it quite cramped and uncomfortable on many flights--should I have the right to put up the armrest and use part of the seat next to me as extra room for my long legs? I don't really think that would fly (OHHH, sorry, I just noticed the awful pun!)