Please tell me this is a joke

[sticky fingers]

Who can we sue next?
God for making the rock that I tripped over?



Fast-food makers sued
By Robert Lusetich
July 27, 2002

THIS could be the mother of all class actions. A group of obese Americans is taking on the fast-food giants, claiming they knowingly served products which made them overweight and damaged their health.

Taking his lead from the successful litigation of tobacco companies over the past decade, Washington lawyer Samuel Hirsch has filed a lawsuit against McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC and Burger King alleging they, and not their customers, are responsible for the consequences of consuming fatty foods.

The latest estimate is that a third of American adults are technically obese.

Among those Mr Hirsch represents is Caesar Barber, a 125kg 56-year-old maintenance supervisor from New York, who alleges his array of illnesses were caused by an "addiction" to fast food, which he consumed four or five times a week, for years.

"My doctor said it was killing me and I don't want to die," Mr Barber said, claiming he ate the food "out of necessity", although he stopped in 1996 because his health was deteriorating.

"I ate it more often than not because I was single," he said.

"It was quick and I'm not a very good cook. I always thought it was good for you. I never thought there was anything wrong with it."

Mr Hirsch accuses the fast- food companies of "irresponsible and deceptive behaviour" for not supplying proper nutritional information or offering enough healthy alternatives.

He alleges also a "de facto addiction" for the poor and children.

"You don't need nicotine or an illegal drug to create an addiction, they're creating a craving," Hirsch said.

"I think we'll find that the fast-food industry has not been totally upfront with their customers."

The reference to nicotine is by no means coincidental. Many of the legal forces behind the decades-long war on tobacco -- won in the '90s when the big tobacco companies made multi-billion dollar settlements with governments -- have been mulling a similar attack on fast food to pay for the health consequences of obesity.

Kelly Brownell, head of the Yale Centre for Eating and Weight Disorders, who has advocated taxing fatty foods and subsidising healthy foods said recently that he saw "no difference between Ronald McDonald and Joe Camel".

"We have to start thinking of this in a more militant way," he said.

The National Restaurant Association is preparing to fight, calling the lawsuit "senseless, baseless and ridiculous ... a nationwide ambulance chase against the restaurant industry in response to hysteria over the nation's expanding waistline".

[SSgungfu]

Thats like saying, "Las Vegas took all my money" No, you gambled it away.

[NomortaL]

You convinced me. Thats the worst sue ive seen so far.

[Kope]

Sadly, given the precidents of the various cigarrette cases, there is actually a pretty good chance that this guy will win. The cases are quite analogous in many respects.

Not that I agree that it will be a good thing. But, the way the legal system works is that if you have an analogous precident then you have already gone a long way towards winning.

[{i^(]

You haven't met my ex!

(sorry- had to do it)

[ewallace]

I would sue the makers of low-fat cookbooks too because the books they publish do not have pages that can easily be turned by people with really fat fingers.

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by sticky fingers
I always thought it was good for you. I never thought there was anything wrong with it.

:D :D :rolleyes: That has got to be the funniest excuse i've heard in a long time. Just for saying something like that i wouldn't feel sorry for him if every artery in his heart was clogged. What a fat loser.

[SSgungfu]

I'm going to sue Garelick farms because I'm lactose intolerant and they made me sh1t everywhere!

[TaoBoy]

This is just part of the ever-continuing trend that ensures stupid people do not have to be responsible for their own actions.

I think I might sue my school teachers for not making me smart enough to have earned millions of $$$ by now. Those b@stards!

[guohuen]

My wife and I went to a popular fast food restaurant for the first time in ages(disclaimer, I go through the drive through every couple of months:p ), and we were astounded. I don't know how to say it politely. It was like a whale watch. It was a busy friday evening and the place was busy. I looked around and could only find two adults that weren't overweight. Easily 80 percent of the people over the age of twelve were grotesquely obese. I can't fault the restaurant for this. No one was forcing these people to buy and eat the SUPERSIZE fries that most of then had. A lot of these people were almost as wide as they were tall. Very sad.:(

[PLCrane]

One point that you folks are missing, and maybe the lawsuit is missing it to, is that a lot of fast foods have certain chemicals added to them (e.g., sodium guanylate and sodium inosinate). These chemicals are listed as flavor enhancers, but they are actually appetite stimulants. Slipping drugs into the food is uncool in my book.

To argue that they use deceptive practices because they are serving high-fat foods is ridiculous. Last time I checked, restaurants weren't expected to host nutritional education lectures or anything like that.

Now, if they can find documentation proving that the food industry knew long ago and suppressed information about the health risks of hydrogenated fats, then maybe there's a worthwhile case.

[Hai_To]

This is just another example of how little personal responsibility exists in American society today. It is never my fault. It is someone else's/society's fault that I'm fat/have cancer from smoking/kill people... You know whose fault it is? Yours.

These are the type of people that really and truly tick me off. If they took their snouts from the trough occasionally, they'd realize that their obesity is their own fault. Put down the chocolate smeared remote control and take a walk around the block for Christ's sake.

[fa_jing]

Originally posted by PLCrane
One point that you folks are missing, and maybe the lawsuit is missing it to, is that a lot of fast foods have certain chemicals added to them (e.g., sodium guanylate and sodium inosinate). These chemicals are listed as flavor enhancers, but they are actually appetite stimulants. Slipping drugs into the food is uncool in my book.


Oh so you noticed too that they're putting crack in the burgers? I always wondered what that Sh!t was that destroys your stomach and that you keep burping up afterward. IMO, it is an addictive chemical (why else would you crave a sh!tburger) and the restaurants (I use that term loosely) have not publicized this in any way. They should be sued, they really should be put out of business. Burnt to the ground. It is a case of lack of truth in advertising. You don't see any big signs at the local Mickey D's saying "addictive chemicals have been added to our food." I have thought for a long time that they were putting crack in the burgers, but I never knew exactly what. F'uck all those fast-food places, and no, the lawsuit is not frivolous, although the basis stated may be incorrect.
Pardon my language.
-FJ

[Hai_To]

I truly doubt that fast food restaurants are making their food addictive. If the food was addictive I think I might have had withdrawal symptoms when I stopped eating that stuff 10 years ago. I don't recall any. As a matter of fact on a recent road trip I, unfortunately, got some food from Burger King as it was quick and my brother and I could eat it as we drove. I don't recall having any cravings for the food afterwards.

Simply put, calling the food addictive is a cop out. In this day and age everything is called addictive as no one wants to take responsibility for his or her actions. The restaurants are complicit in the fact that the food they serve is fattening. However, if a person realized that and still ate it, their obesity and (potential) heart disease is their own fault.

People need to face facts. The problem is not McDonald's or Wendy's etc. You are fat due to your own weakness. Blaming someone else does not fix the problem. It just further infantalizes our society.

[PLCrane]

Hai To,

I'm not fat. Not even close. I'm just repeating what I heard from someone who used to work in the food manufacturing industry (yes, food comes from factories). There's tons of research that we'll never see, because it's proprietary information.

Same guy also said that aspartame is an appetite stimulant, and a study was done in which they fed one group of rats the equivalent of hamburger, french fries and milk shake, and the other group hamburger, french fries and diet soda with aspartame. The diet soda group gained more weight.

I mentioned this to a friend of mine who's in the distribution end of some of these factory foods. He was giving me a taste of some new product, which contained guanylate and inosinate. His response was, "Good. That means people will eat more and buy more of my product."

Food manufacturing is all about deception. Chemists work hard at making things appear to be what they are not. Nobody should be surprised that they would add a chemical that makes you want to eat and call that chemical a "flavor enhancer". I never heard that it was addictive, just that it stimulates eating.

[Hai_To]

PLCrane,

Sorry if I came off a little too harshly. Lack of personal resposbility is one thing that truly ticks me off.

Am I surprised that corporate America puts appetite stimulants in fast food? Nope. There are few depths left unplummed by the corporate world in the pursuit of the All-Mighty Dollar.

Besides I'm hardly fat either. "Scrawny" is a word that comes to mind. :D

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

doesn't subway have a generic list of fat contained in the most popular sandwiches right on their napkins?

[PLCrane]

NP, Hai To. I just didn't want the mega-corporations to get out of this argument with no stink on their hands.

Hey, maybe we could start an association of ectomorphs for kungfu!

[Royal Dragon]

Why is it a Burger King Burger sits in your tummy like a rock, but a homemade burger the same size does not? An tastes better to boot?

Answer, the suff you have at home (My home especially) is usually the 90-95% meat with the balance if fat, but the fast food is only like 70% meat, and the rest is fat...............................

Now, add to the fact that the choicest cuts of meat go to fancy resturaunts and high end grocery stores, then to your neighbor hood jewl and finnaly the fast food is getting the lowest quality for cost reasons............................

Now, add your genetically engineered growth hormones and antibiotics mixed with "Flavor enhacers", and you have more waste product in that Mc burger than anyhting.

I haven't looked into this, but I suspect all the stuff we feed our cattle is fat soluable. That being said you are getting far more of it in high fat Mc Burgurs than the 90-95% fat free high grade stuff at the grocery store.

It's NOT the red meat that is bad, it's the stuff we put into it.

[The Willow Sword]

first of all i hope those fat Fu%ks dont get one red cent.

I am currently talking with an attourney and we are planning on sueing FORD CHEVY NISSAN TOYOTA for creating vehicles that spew out filth that depletes our ozone and destroys our environment. i am NOT sueing MAZDA for i own a mazda truck and it has been a good truck for me. when i get finished talking with my attorney i am going to lube up a knot hole in this tree in back yard and shove my wanger in it.(i love trees). they HAVE to realize that we as good decent citizens are not going to be maniplulated anyMORE!!!:rolleyes:

[Hai_To]

Willow Sword,

I'm surprised none of these money hungry lawyers have thought to sue the car companies. I expect that it will happen someday, once they run out of tobacco companies, fast food companies, and the like, to sue.

[The Willow Sword]

it is economically non feasable to do so,,,for lawyers and for the general public. just think of the price hikes in cars if a suit was filed and the suit actually won, as it did against the tobacco industry. Boy the chaos that would ensue then. man i dont even want to think about it.
MAny Respects,,The Willow Sword

[rubthebuddha]

the only justice i see in this?

awarding every plaintiff in this case with about $4.52 -- just enough to go buy another ****ing quarter pounder value meal.

stupid ****s.

[rubthebuddha]

update on other lawsuits (http://www.theonion.com/onion3828/infograph_3828.html)

[MonkeyBoy]

Originally posted by sticky fingers

"The latest estimate is that a third of American adults are technically obese. "

"Why is it a Burger King Burger sits in your tummy like a rock, but a homemade burger the same size does not? An tastes better to boot? "

.

Two out of three Americans are overweight, one third is Obese. Just stand around Penn Station at 5 O'clock and watch the world bounce, shake and jelly roll by. The sad part is all the skeletons walking around thinking they look hot.

The meat for McDonalds and Burger King etc.. comes from flatted rainforest, they slash and burn it and put ugly ass steers with long horns on it, after their slaughter the meat is shipped on a slow boat from South America. It comes off the boat gray through and through.

That's why.

[DelicateSound]

"I'm sueing a fast-food company for making me fat"...

TRANSLATION:

"I'm a dumb assed sh!t who is saddened by his sad, pathetic, lardy existance, and needs to blame someone, as a means of self-gratification and blame-shifting."



I hope the law fees cripple them so much that they can't afford a McD's, and they have to scrounge like rats. Their IS an addictive agent in fast food - Monosodium Glutamate, but everyone knows it's there, and everyone knows the dangers of lardy food and no exercise. Just shoot them now and put them out of their chunky misery.


The ****ing fat losers.

[DelicateSound]

:D

[guohuen]

Hey, I'm still PO'd about the moron that burned themselves with the hot coffee, sued and WON! Maybe the judges are as much to blame as the plaintiffs. Idiocy is fairly universal.

[ewallace]

Southwest Airlines is the ****. For those that don't know, large people must now purchase two seats on an airplane if they are considered too big. This local guy appeared on the news all p/o'd because they had wanted him to do so. He said it was a load of horse pucky because he does fit into one of the seats. Then the show the guy, and the dude was about 380 pounds. This isn't a pro athlete 380 lbs, this is a bona-fide Mickey D's 380. Sure he could fit into a seat, but he would spill over into others.

The last time I flew on an airlines, I won't mention the name, but it is in West America, I had two very very large folks on either side of me. To make things worse, the air vent system was not working in-flight. That combined for the hottest, most unconfortable flight I've ever been on. I could barely move to attend to the itch on my bottom. I fully support SWA's new policy.

Thank you drive thru.

[Hai_To]

I agree with you ewallace. I hope the actions of Southwest Airlines serve as a wakeup call to these severely overweight people. Yes, food that is high in fat and caloric content is easily available. And yes, being overweight is not necessarily a sign of weakness. But, overweight people need to take responsibilty for their situation. Blaming others is not going to solve the problem. The health problems caused by being overweight are severe (diabetes and heart disease to name two). Instead of suing fast food companies or complaining about Southwest Airlines I would hope that these people would take the steps necessary to preserve their health.

I'm probably being too much of an optimist though.

[GeneChing]

The suit is silly but those fast food joints are evil. Burn them.

[scotty1]

You want to hope nobody burns a Mc Donalds in your name Gene.

Yeah, there may be mildly addicitve additives in the food but like Hai To said, I didn't notice feeling any effects of withdrawal the last time I said "Oh my God, I feel sick, I'm never eating one of those again."

I only eat them when I'm drunk.

Addiction my arse, laziness is what we're talking about here.

[Kristoffer]

:D