| MadMax |
Posted
on 28-Jul-02 08:08 AM
Fat Americans sue fast food firms
More than half of all adult Americans are overweight
BBC
Thursday, July 25, 2002
A group of overweight Americans have sued several US fast
food giants accusing them of knowingly serving meals that
cause obesity and disease.
"I always thought it was good for you. I never
thought there was anything wrong with it
- Caesar Barbar
The lawsuit - filed in New York State Supreme Court in
the Bronx - says that McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's
and Kentucky Fried Chicken misled customers by enticing
them with greasy, salty and sugary food.
"The fast-food industry has wrecked my life," Caesar
Barbar, one of plaintiffs, told the New York Post.
Mr Barbar - a 57-year-old maintenance supervisor who
weighs almost 125 kilograms (275 pounds) - said he
regularly ate fast food until 1996, when a doctor warned
his diet could potentially kill him.
Mr Barbar said he had already had two heart attacks and
has been suffering from diabetes.
'Bad eating habits'
"I always thought it was good for you. I never thought
there was anything wrong with it," he said.
A recent assessment of obesity in the US found that more
than a half of all adult Americans were overweight.
About 54 million adults were classified as obese - that
is people who are about 15 kilos or more over the healthy
norm based on height - and hundreds of thousands of
deaths each year were attributed to obesity-related
diseases.
Health groups say one of the biggest culprits for this
growing epidemic is junk food, and that the best time to
break the cycle between obesity and bad eating habits is
when people are young.
Fast food companies - such as McDonald's and Burger King
- are currently participating in a campaign urging young
Americans to eat a healthier diet.
A spokesman for a restaurant industry group has ridiculed
the legal action.
"He must be aware that fully two-thirds of all foods
consumed in America are consumed in people's homes. Is he
proposing that we sue America's moms?" John Doyle of the
Center for Consumer Freedom told ABC News.
Read the complete news at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2151754.stm
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