WHO: Governments should regulate fast food to slow obesity

tigersword

I do have a problem with the quantity that restaurants are giving. Just an example, the medium soda currently at McDonalds was a large soda 20 years ago. There was no extra large.

But people need to be held accountable for there own actions. We do not need government in our lives any more than they are now!

I don't remember a "large" being 20 ounces at McD's in 1994. Maybe I'm mistaken, as I was 13 then.

I worked at McD's in 1988, and we had small (12 oz), med (16 oz) and large (20 oz). By the early 90s they had introduced Super Sizing and the Extra Large was the mammoth-sized cup that came with the jumbo sized box of fries. So, yeah, 20 years ago, there was an extra large soda at McD's. After Super-Size Me came out, they did away with the Super Size meals because of all the negative hype.

The 42 oz supersize drink was actually introduced in 1987 as an LTO. 32 oz drinks became the large about that time. Your franchise may have been a late adopter.

jonnythan

I'm for policies that work and against those that don't work.

The only legitimate reason to be against these regulations is if they do not work.

Only if you don't care about the ideas of personal freedom, smaller government, etc....

toutmonpossible

Provided that government is willing to provide or subsidize the purchase of healthier food for people who need help, I think it's an idea worth exploring. Corporations that make money from unhealthful food have no incentive to stop and fast food is formulated to appeal to certain pleasure centers in the brain, which makes people crave it, and if they can't afford to buy anything better, they're going to keep eating it. If there is indeed a link between fast food, obesity, poor health, and increased healthcare costs, the so-called "Nanny State" may have to step in to save people from themselves or protect people from others, just as it did in requiring seat belts, child car seats, the end to smoking in public areas, and any number of actions designed to preserve public health.

tigersword

Provided that government is willing to provide or subsidize the purchase of healthier food for people who need help, I think it's an idea worth exploring. Corporations that make money from unhealthful food have no incentive to stop and fast food is formulated to appeal to certain pleasure centers in the brain, which makes people crave it, and if they can't afford to buy anything better, they're going to keep eating it. If there is indeed a link between fast food, obesity, poor health, and increased healthcare costs, the so-called "Nanny State" may have to step in to save people from themselves or protect people from others, just as it did in requiring seat belts, child car seats, the end to smoking in public areas, and any number of actions designed to preserve public health.

Fast food is not "formulated" for anything. There is NOTHING in any fast food restaurant that you couldn't go to a grocery store and buy yourself. So should we regulate grocery stores too? What about site own restaurants? Heck, I can make a BigMac in my kitchen at home, maybe we should make sure to install cameras in people's kitchens so we can regulate the fact that they aren't making unhealthy food in their home? Regulating fast food for anything other thN making sure they post nutritional information is a ridiculous and stupid idea. It certainly won't "fix" anything, because fast food isn't the problem. People have been eating "fast foods" for a long time. Just because people only equate "fast food" with burger places now, there have been "fast food restaurants" ever since there have been restaurants.

jonnythan

I wonder what part of 100% ground beef was formulated to make me crave hamburgers. Must have been the way god created cows.