Big Fat Lies (page81)

"McDonald's burgers, Taco Bell tacos, super-size French fries, foot-long hot dogs and ice-cream sodas… As portions and choice have grown bigger and more mind-boggling, so too have Americans' waistlines and backsides," reports the Scotsman. The Scotsman's broadside on restaurants shows how far and how fast the claims "linking" restaurants to the so-called obesity epidemic have spread.

Yet another article “linking” obesity to fast food has appeared, this time in Asia. Quoted in the story is Professor Paul Zimmet, head of a steering committee sponsored by the…

Without any scientific facts, the Boston Globe says there is an "obvious link between the growing popularity of 'supersize' servings in restaurants and grocery stores and the country's weight problem." If left unchallenged, this type of inflammatory rhetoric could quickly turn the hypothetical "link" between fast food and obesity into fact.

Seizing upon the so-called obesity "epidemic," Harper's Magazine hopelessly distorts the facts, joining the chorus of nannies blaming restaurants. "Fast food franchises are like San Francisco's old bathhouses - places where high-risk populations indulge in high-risk behavior," they write, without an iota of evidence or an ounce of shame.

Yet another nanny organization is trying to link the "obesity epidemic" to restaurants. A new survey in California baselessly blames a rising obesity rate among high school children on fast food being served on campus. Without any scientific proof, the sponsor of the study claims, "Fast foods on California campuses have become an epidemic… How are we supposed to promote healthy eating when we are up against a multibillion dollar high-fat fast food industry marketing to students right on campus?"

The eco-nannies at Earth Island Institute weigh in on the "Fat Epidemic." They suggest that fast-food restaurants' marketing to children is to blame and they practically endorse the infamous "Twinkie tax."

The food police at Consumers Union are deputizing their 5 million Consumer Reports magazine subscribers, asking for their critical comments on chain restaurants. The magazine plans to run an upcoming…

Reporter Joyce Howard Price details the U.S. government's expanding and intrusive "war on fat." Comments from nannies at the Centers for Disease Control put much of the blame for childhood obesity on fast food chains offering "megaportions" and food eaten outside the home. "Right now this anti-obesity campaign is only in its infancy," says a USDA spokesman. ("Fat Chance: The Government's War on Obesity," The Washington Times, 1/30/00, No link available.)

The director of the University of Pennsylvania's Weight and Eating Disorder Clinic blames the fast-food industry's marketing practices for causing obesity: "You don't see them giving away toys with health meals… When you look at all the fast-food marketing to children, it's analogous to tobacco marketing. Super-sizing. Big Gulp. It's absolute junk food… People should have ethical standards when they promote products to children." ("He'll let you eat fast food, but fie on the French fries," The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/15/99, No link available.)

The Atlanta Journal Constitution takes potshots at fast-food breakfast providers today. The Journal gets its information on the "evils" of breakfast fast food from the king of killjoys, the Center for Science in the Public Interest.