Originally published May 1 2004
Fast food joints: Eat here at your own risk
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Fast food chains could see it coming: massive class action lawsuits
blaming restaurants for causing obesity, diabetes, heart disease and
other chronic diseases. So they lobbied hard to get Congress to pass the
"Cheeseburger Bill," making them immune to such lawsuits. It's sort
of the way ski lodges operate: ski at your own risk, we're not
responsible. But in this case, it's "Eat at your own risk. We're not
responsible for the diseases." At one level, they're right: only
consumers are responsible for putting food in their mouths. At the same
time, however, fast food restaurants have been living what I call the
Big Lie of convenience foods: that such foods can be "part of a healthy
balanced diet." In reality, they can't. Every cheeseburger takes you one
step closer to diabetes, heart disease and obesity. There is no place in
a balanced diet for a single cheeseburger. And, yes, these restaurant
foods do cause chronic disease due to their use of toxic ingredients
(like sodium nitrite, hydrogenated oils, and refined white flour) and
extremely poor nutrition.
Americans who order fast food would have to hold the lawsuits under a
bill passed by the House yesterday.
Only a few lawsuits against fast-food giants have been brought so far,
and none has been successful.
But some plaintiffs' lawyers say juries soon may be ready to hold an
industry that peddles fattening products through ubiquitous advertising
-- often aimed at children -- at least partly liable for the rise in
obesity and obesity-related diseases.
Nearly two-thirds of adults and 15 percent of children in the United
States are overweight, and Americans spend $33 billion annually on
weight-loss products and services, according to federal statistics.
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