Fat people
More people are starting to weigh in on the McDonald’s class action lawsuit (yeah, it’s a bad pun). I happen to fall square on the side of those who say it is the personal responsibility of each of us to regulate what we eat and/or drink. Joel Mowbray and Mona Charen from TownHall.com both have articles on the suit with different angles on the same viewpoint. Mr. Mowbray credits fast food for his losing 80 pounds, while Ms. Charen has an interesting take on both who’s blame and how society has promoted things like fast food.
I can agree with the points made by both authors. Mr. Mowbray ties the availability of fast food to the Atkins Diet, and how for most people, preparing chicken or steak every day is a lot of work. So what he did is go through the drive through, get some double cheeseburgers, and then remove the buns. Doing this consistently lead to losing 80 pounds in five months. My parents also followed (and still follow) this strategy whenever they went to a fast food joint, they too have thrived while still enjoying the convenience of McD’s and BK.
The second article, by Ms. Charen, starts off by asking whether it is really McDonald’s fault, or if it might have something to do with the kid who had “no idea that the Big Mac, Supersize fries and milkshake he consumed every day added up to nearly 1,800 calories and almost 60 grams of fat,” while eating that much three or four times daily. Where were the parents that allowed him to do this? She points out that this much the same as the tobacco lawsuits, where people who had made the choice for decades to continue smoking in the face of all the warnings managed to get billions in “damages” for their stupidity. Ms Charen points out that the fast food restaurant chains are not solely to blame. Our society in this day and age expects servings which are enough for two or three people and then expects to be recompensed for our lack of control. My wife and I routinely split entrees from Red Lobster or Applebee’s without any problems, maybe if more people did that servings would get smaller, prices would go down, and we’d all be a little bit healthier.
