Guest guest Posted May 13, 2003 Report Share Posted May 13, 2003 I liked the reference to Newman's "oreo" which is an excellent cookie. If they just find a way to make it with wheat. Regards. ----- Original Message ----- From: Francesca Skelton support group Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 8:26 AM Subject: [ ] lawsuit over trans- fatty acids I heard on the news this am that there's a consumer group suing Kraft forusing trans-fatty acids in their Oreo cookies and then marketing tochildren. Is this the start of something big? They compared Kraft to thecigarette companies marketing to young people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 13, 2003 Report Share Posted May 13, 2003 There have been a number food related of suits, recently one against Mcs for making some teenagers fat, which was dismissed. I found a related statistic interesting. Modern teenagers eat within 1% the same calories as previous generations.... it's their physical activity level that's changed (game boys instead of games). IMO this is just the combination of two trends... first the propensity to sue... If the only tool in your kit is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The second is avoidance of personal responsibility. I suspect the increasing health care load from a majority population that is overweight with some 30% clinically obese will motivate gov't and health insurer's to take some appropriate action... hopefully education first (warning labels on candy bars?), and when that doesn't work maybe taxing calories.... Since the real problem is that calories are too cheap. Add a sin tax to empty calories, just like cigarettes and alcohol. The public cost from abuse is similar so why not apply some economic leverage? JR -----Original Message----- From: Francesca Skelton [mailto:fskelton@...] Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 8:26 AM support group Subject: [ ] lawsuit over trans- fatty acids I heard on the news this am that there's a consumer group suing Kraft for using trans-fatty acids in their Oreo cookies and then marketing to children. Is this the start of something big? They compared Kraft to the cigarette companies marketing to young people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 13, 2003 Report Share Posted May 13, 2003 I have heard that is being considered in the U.S. on 5/13/2003 11:58 AM, john roberts at johnhrob@... wrote: > Add a > sin tax to empty calories, just like cigarettes and alcohol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 14, 2003 Report Share Posted May 14, 2003 I have 2 gsons that spend a great deal of time with computer games and they're both skinny - it's inherited - we're all hyper and we're all beautiful (ha). It's not just food and exercise. That aspect means that the general public has a health problem - not sueable, IMO. But I do think the food industry could take to heart something that has been known since 1970 - the badness of transfats. Continuing to use them is simply ignorant. Regards. ----- Original Message ----- From: john roberts Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 10:58 AM Subject: RE: [ ] lawsuit over trans- fatty acids There have been a number food related of suits, recently one againstMcs for making some teenagers fat, which was dismissed. I found arelated statistic interesting. Modern teenagers eat within 1% the samecalories as previous generations.... it's their physical activity levelthat's changed (game boys instead of games).IMO this is just the combination of two trends... first the propensity tosue... If the only tool in your kit is a hammer, everything looks like anail. The second is avoidance of personal responsibility.I suspect the increasing health care load from a majority population that isoverweight with some 30% clinically obese will motivate gov't and healthinsurer's to take some appropriate action... hopefully education first(warning labels on candy bars?), and when that doesn't work maybe taxingcalories.... Since the real problem is that calories are too cheap. Add asin tax to empty calories, just like cigarettes and alcohol. The public costfrom abuse is similar so why not apply some economic leverage?JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 > There have been a number food related of suits, recently one against > Mcs for making some teenagers fat, which was dismissed. I found a > related statistic interesting. Modern teenagers eat within 1% the same > calories as previous generations.... it's their physical activity level > that's changed (game boys instead of games). PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi currently yields 816 items (not all with abstracts) for the search string: (obesity exercise) AND (childhood OR children). A skim down just the first 2 pages provides a variety of sources with somewhat differing study results. However, in just the few I did read, inactivity is a definite contributor to childhood obesity; one showed correlation with the amount of TV watching but not with computer usage. > > IMO this is just the combination of two trends... first the propensity to > sue... If the only tool in your kit is a hammer, everything looks like a > nail. The second is avoidance of personal responsibility. Both these statements are quite true. The legal system has deteriorated considerably in just the last couple of decades in the US. It was not that many years ago that a jury in a civil matter would have to be convinced that a clear injury and clear cause were present and that personal responsibility had been exercised by the injured party. These requirements have rapidly evaporated from the tort system in this country. A good article on this very subject - with the Oreo cookie suit preparation as one example - is today's offering from mises.org http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=1227 Lack of individual personal responsibility for one's actions are prevalent in all areas of our society, fostered and encouraged by the government in all its many forms with its hundreds of agencies and thousands of laws and directives (expand that to thousands and millions if one considers government at *all* levels throughout this country). It is not uncommon for some of these to be attempts to undo the damage being done by others - it is a mass of tentacles strangling the very fiber of individuals, and therefore society. > > I suspect the increasing health care load from a majority population that is > overweight with some 30% clinically obese will motivate gov't and health > insurer's to take some appropriate action... hopefully education first > (warning labels on candy bars?), and when that doesn't work maybe taxing > calories.... Since the real problem is that calories are too cheap. Add a > sin tax to empty calories, just like cigarettes and alcohol. The public cost > from abuse is similar so why not apply some economic leverage? Such a " solution " is just another tenatacle on the monster of government, rather than letting individuals (adults) be responsible for their actions - *all* of them. The initiation of force or fraud is all that should be proscribed; the rest of the actions taken by government are those that could be performed by any individual or group. It would then be up to individuals to purchase these services based on their own evaluations of what is in their own overall best interest and/or to use the unsolicited opinions of some non-coercive group. The fact that there would be obese people - or practioners of any risky actions, etc. - would have no effect on anyone but the persons themselves and those who chose to associate with them. (Any harm these individuals might directly cause others would be a separate issue and for which the violating individual would be responsible.) Others would not be forced to support them with the programs of agencies funded by expropriated money - taxes. Of course, any would be free to donate time and/or money as they freely chose. As it is now, self-responsibility is at an all time low as a result, I contend, from the very " solution " that has caused the problem - evasion of reality. > > JR **Kitty Antonik Wakfer *** MoreLife for the rational - http://morelife.org Reality based tools for more life in quantity and quality Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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