[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I find that quite simple. If you think that certain restaurants are undermining your health don't go to them.

I agree. I mostly don't go unless, on rare occasion, my friend suggests going to Subway, KFC, or Wendy's because it happens to be quick and convient. At Wendy's I tried the chili and side salad which I thought was okay in a pinch.

How else would you "fight back"?

I don't know. I didn't get a chance to finish the book. The library got it from out of the county so I couldn't renew it. I don't like reading the same book for long periods of time. To me it gets to be a chore. So I only read 5 chapters. In order to finish it, I ordered my own copy, but that will take about a week to 10 days before I get it. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Summary below by Publishers weekly.

The summary below seems accurate.

Publishers Weekly

Simon, a health policy expert and law professor, skewers the food industry for undermining the health of Americans with "nutrient deficient factory made pseudofoods." In lawyerly fashion, she explains the ABCs of the business imperative of "Big Food" (Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods and McDonald's, among many others): make short-term profit without regard to the product's nutritional value or societal effects. Permissible tactics, she says, include false advertising, sham "healthy" food initiatives and co-opting the government, press and academia. Simon also argues that food-industry advocates use front groups to attack critics and spread misinformation about nutritional needs. Simon also chastises her fellow food activists for applauding all "steps in the right direction," no matter how inadequate; the press for its passive publication of scientifically dubious industry statements; and the government for abandoning effective regulation of the food industry. Her case made, Simon offers a host of suggestions and a manual-like set of directions to parents and other food activists on how to work with legislatures, school boards and the media to create a "just food system" that is "sustainable, affordable, accessible, and convenient." (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by justjim

Why do we always blame "fast food" for obesity? People need to take responsibility for themselves. McDonald's is not to blame----people just eat too much and drink too much sugar drinks and snacks period. We eat at McDonalds occasionally and drink their good coffee often and are not even close to being overweight. I firmly believe its not so much what you eat but how much!

We don't always blame fast food for obesity. But fast food is definitely out there as a contributing factor. For some people, it can't be ignored when it's everywhere. Since fast food vendors have been around for several decades and the fast food market has just about reached its saturation point, it looks like normal food to people who grew up with it.
When I was growing up, I never saw a fast food restaurant, or supermarket, until I was about 16 years old. By then my habits were pretty much formed.

Today, babies, toddlers, and pre-teens are taken to fast food places all the time. Their parents and grandparents grew up in a fast food environment. People don't think of it as bad because they grew up with it. And once they're addicted to high fat, high sodium, high sugar, low fiber, and low vegetables, even if they subsequently learn that it's not normal food, it becomes difficult for them to resist it's allure. They're hooked.

The food companies have become experts at hooking people. Remember the ad they once had for potato chips? "Bet you can't eat just one." They were bragging about the addictive quality of their product.

[wendyquat]

I haven't been able to eat fast food burgers since reading the book, Toxin, 20 years ago!

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

We don't always blame fast food for obesity. But fast food is definitely out there as a contributing factor. For some people, it can't be ignored when it's everywhere. Since fast food vendors have been around for several decades and the fast food market has just about reached its saturation point, it looks like normal food to people who grew up with it.
When I was growing up, I never saw a fast food restaurant, or supermarket, until I was about 16 years old. By then my habits were pretty much formed.

Today, babies, toddlers, and pre-teens are taken to fast food places all the time. Their parents and grandparents grew up in a fast food environment. People don't think of it as bad because they grew up with it. And once they're addicted to high fat, high sodium, high sugar, low fiber, and low vegetables, even if they subsequently learn that it's not normal food, it becomes difficult for them to resist it's allure. They're hooked.

The food companies have become experts at hooking people. Remember the ad they once had for potato chips? "Bet you can't eat just one." They were bragging about the addictive quality of their product.

I think that is just a little too simple. Even if the food companies didn't advertise and you can't blame them for promoting their business, that is the American way...even if they didn't.

There would still be people who chose food that was not healthy. They would not insist their children try everything so that they could get used to "what is good for you" and they would be too lazy to cook. They would still have tummies as they grow older unless they have unusual genes and they would still have difficulty keeping up the level of exercise that is needed for optimum health because we all are a little lazy.

There would be people from every background and every economic level who ate healthily but not perfectly by other peoples standards.

My view is to "run your own railroad and let me run mine."

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I think that is just a little too simple. Even if the food companies didn't advertise and you can't blame them for promoting their business, that is the American way...even if they didn't.

You made the assumption that I blame them for promoting their business when I was just holding a mirror up to reality, to show what exists. Fast food promotion is a fact of life that everyone is exposed to, period.

There would still be people who chose food that was not healthy.

Obviously. Are you assuming I thought otherwise? I wasn't in anyway suggesting what you are assuming. I was simply expressing my rational as to why things are different today than when I was a kid.

They would not insist their children try everything so that they could get used to "what is good for you" and they would be too lazy to cook. They would still have tummies as they grow older unless they have unusual genes and they would still have difficulty keeping up the level of exercise that is needed for optimum health because we all are a little lazy.

Are you saying that's what would happen if there were no more advertising? If that's the case, I would tend to agree. But that's based on your big assumption that I was suggesting there should be no more advertising.

There would be people from every background and every economic level who ate healthily but not perfectly by other peoples standards.

You're making more (perhaps emotional?) assumptions: Eating "perfectly by other peoples standards"?

My view is to "run your own railroad and let me run mine."

Because I tryed to explain how things are different today than they were when I was a kid, you think I'm trying to run your railroad?