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Child Obesity: Who's To Blame?

Child Obesity: Who's to Blame?

In December 2002, the parents of two teenagers filed a lawsuit against McDonald's claiming that the chain's fast foods made their children obese, which caused them to develop a number of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Should McDonald's really take the blame for children's obesity? Or should parents be held responsible for educating their kids about healthy eating?

What do you think.....

Blame Whos Obesity Child

Oh Boy, this really fires me up. As FarSeer would say,

Rant On: This is one thing that I am ashamed of, that happens way too often in the USA, this stupid, silly, money hungry,suing of large corporations. Like the woman who sued McDonalds, wasn't it, because she put a cardboard cup full of boiling hot coffee between her legs and then drove out of the drive-up window and burned her self. What is the height of stupidity is the courts ruled in her favor! Man sakes alive. Now look where this has gone.

Now for these parents to sue McDonalds because their children are obese. Taking the parental responsibilities and foisting it onto a business!!

It is the parents responsibility what the child eats or doesn't eat. I think someone should charge the parents with abuse and neglect. Abuse for overfeeding this child and neglect for NOT feeding him/her nutritious food.

When is this going to stop? Shifting the blame onto others by way of frivolous suits?

Closer to my home, actually it happened right here. Several years ago a local lawyer sued the local JC Penny store. He bought a three pack of their store brand of briefs. Went back to the courthouse, went into the restroom and put on one of the briefs. Then he went into the courtroom after the lunch break and continued with defending his client. After court recessed, he went out to dinner, got home rather late and went to bed.

In the morning when he showered he discovered that he had a blister from the "inspected by" sticker that was stuck on the brief. He never checked for any - thus he didn't remove them.

Well, this blister prevented him from performing his conjugal duties(rights?) for several months. At least that is what he claimed in his suit. What fries me is, he won the case! He is no longer practicing law in this county. The locals all believe like I do, If he was so stupid as to Not look for the little stickers in the new clothes AND then make it public that it actually caused a sore, and where it caused the sore, well, I sure don't want him defending me in the court room. I want the Attorney that he hired!

OK Rant Off

Edited: AGene on 14th Apr, 2004 - 2:01am

Child Obesity: Who's To Blame? Reviews Consumer & Travel Family Culture

As a general rule, I agree with AGene. However, there are "two sides to every coin."

In the case of the hot coffee. Apparently there is some OSHA or other regulatory body that states how hot you can make coffee. Whether or not I agree with the law, it is the law. McDonalds had been sited numerous times and just kept ignoring the law. This woman was permanently injured. As a result of this lawsuit, McDonalds now complies with the law.

In the case of suing because your children are fat from eating at McDonald's, I think this is stupid. Although some good has come from it. They now do offer more healthy choices in addition to their usual fare.

While you and I as a rule will always view these lawsuits as frivilous, this is a tool that has been used since the beginning of our legal system to force certain "good" changes to be implemented. So it is not all bad.

Blame Whos Obesity Child

POLICE AXE MCDONALD'S AS SPONSOR

Police are dumping McDonald's as a sponsor of their road-safety campaigns in schools, just weeks after the Government declared war on childhood obesity.
Ref. https://www.stuff.co.nz/hlc/1,,93498~3833005a11~,00.html

Blame Whos Obesity Child

I told friends that this was going to happen right after the ruling against "Big Tobacco". They laughed when I said it, but I was serious.

The only question I have is: Was Ronald McDonald coming to the house/school/playground/wherever with a weapon and taking your child to McDonald's and forcing them to eat a BigMac and a "SuperSized" order of fries and soft drink and then releasing them back to your custody or did you drive them there? If he was, then you got a great case in my court. If you were, sorry about your extra weight.

Hey, I have a few extra pounds I would like to get rid of, but they are my fault. They are not McDonalds, Wendy's, Ben&Jerry's, KFC's, Starbucks or any other places fault that I may frequent. I happily paid for my fat and will probably have to pay a gym to help me get rid of it.

I can see the next series of law suits in this vain. Watch out Sony and Microsoft...you are making that PSII and XBox too irresistable. My kid is sitting in front of the TV now 8 plus hours a day because DOOM4 was just too inticing and you knew it would happen. You specificially tested it for attraction to a particular age demographic and knew they just wouldn't stop playing! Junior is getting so big and doesn't look healthy now that as soon as Ronald McDonald brings him back from his "forced snacking" he sits down to 8 hours of video games.

I am just glad we don't have to be reminded to breath or the world would be a lot less populated!

Have there been some good changes to some of the menus. Yes, there have. I really hope that they were economically driven and not legislated to the companies. McDonalds has changed their menu a bit because they are losing money and they realized people wanted a healthy choice in addition to their delicious fat offerings. Other fast food has followed suit. Several years ago, there was legislation that required the fast food broker to inform you of the nutrition content of their menu. The public definitely had no excuse at that point. However, no fast food location is responsible for what you eat. That was your decision.

Edited: Vincenzo on 19th Oct, 2006 - 3:30am

Child Obesity: Who's To Blame?

CHILDHOOD OBESITY LINKED TO MIDDLE-EAR PROBLEM

Childhood obesity may be linked to a buildup of fluid in the middle ear, a small study by researchers in South Korea suggests.
Ref. https://www.cbc.ca/story/health/national/20...ns-obesity.html

Child Obesity Who's Blame

NZ research links child obesity to mother's diet

Kiwi scientists have helped prove a link between a mother's diet during pregnancy and the risk of childhood obesity. Ref. Source 2

Child Obesity Who's Blame Culture Family Travel & Consumer Reviews

Ok, we can probably all agree that mothers eating healthy is a good thing. However, when I read this study the first thing I thought of was is this genetic or just a function of the family eating habits? They didn't address it in the survey. Now, if they monitored children given up to adoption I might be more on-board with the study, but that also might be tainted on the dietary fat content on those that can afford to adopt.