Big Fat Lies (page79)

Yesterday’s Washington Post was an anti-soft-drink feeding frenzy (see our February 27 headlines). Today’s Post follows up with an anti-fast-food feature about journalist Eric Schlosser, the nanny culture’s current man…

Television advertising from fast food restaurants takes much of the blame for children's poor diets in a new study in this month's medical journal Pediatrics. Instead of holding parents responsible for what their children eat, the researchers say, "[T]hese kids see a lot of ads for fast foods and convenience foods. And that's what they end up eating."

Talking about his new book, "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal," Eric Schlosser recently tossed out the overused claim that "the cost of obesity is…

Author Eric Schlosser's new book, "Fast-Food Nation: The Dark Side of The All-American Meal," makes it sound as if fast-food is somehow responsible for all the world's problems - children dying, farmers killing themselves, fatal workplace injuries, school dropouts, etc. Does Schlosser really think anyone will buy this outlandish premise?

Professor Mol Malek, of St. Andrews University in Scotland, says hamburgers should be taxed on a sliding scale according to fat content. Malek's anti-choice sentiments make it look like he's been talking to the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Michael Jacobson, who wants a fat tax here in the U.S. ("Expert calls for a fat tax on burgers," Scottish Daily Record, 10/9/00)

A woman in Tennessee is suing McDonald’s because she claims she was permanently scared after a hot pickle fell on her chin. She’s seeking more than $110,000 for “physical…

The Hartford Courant adds another voice to those who unscientifically link restaurant portion sizes to rising obesity rates.

Forty-five percent of those polled would not convict anti-choice terrorist, Jose Bove who is on trial for leading the demolition of a McDonald's restaurant. The Daily Telegraph describes Bove's rise in popularity and the advancement of the anti-choice movement as a "work of PR genius."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer John Fauber buys into the anti-choice nannies' argument that "our computerized, fast-food world has made it all too easy to put on weight." Ignoring the fact that people have the ability to choose what and how much they eat, Fauber adds that "portion sizes at many restaurants are out of control."

Jumping on the anti-choice bandwagon, the USA Today's Greg Crister blasts fast food restaurants, blaming them for American's obesity problems, and calls for more government action to fight the problem. Meanwhile, the Houston Chronicle ominously predicts, "Government intrusion into those lifestyle choices and the inevitable lawsuits against food processors and purveyors are probably the next steps along the path, if the anti- tobacco effort is illustrative." ("Junk food," Houston Chronicle, 6/5/00.)