Would you like trans-fats with that?

Wal-Mart announces their delis will no longer use trans-fats in preparation of food.

That pretty much leaves McDonalds as the last bastion of hydrogenation.

While pretty much every other fast food joint has foresworn the carcinogenic, unhealthy oils, McDonalds makes perpetual excuses and puts off the day that they too will stop using hydrogenated oils in their foods.

I find the debate over New York City's ban on trans-fats to be amusing. One side says "first it was seatbelts, then secondhand smoke and now fatty foods? What kind of nanny state is this?" The other side says obesity is a "huge" problem, and we need to act to save people from themselves.

Not much mention is made of the real financial cost to society vis a vis the tremendous amount of tax dollars that are spent caring for people whose behaviors have turned them into a walking cardiac-in-waiting. And when it comes to government intervention and the basic test of a "compelling state interest" in legislating, clearly there is one here. Billions of tax dollars go into caring for people who eat this stuff anyway - just like smokers keep on smoking.

Reading this got me thinking about lawsuits.

First, there's the smokers' suits against the tobacco companies. People who smoked and developed lung cancer or emphysema sued the tobacco companies because they "misled" the public about the nature of their products. In other words, the people needed the cigarette companies to tell them that smoking was bad for them. The hacking cough was not, apparently, enough on its own. If only Altria had said "smoking is dangerous", they would have stopped immediately.

Some of these suits were successful, some were not. In my mind it's absurd that an individual could hold a tobacco company liable for such a thing. Anybody who smokes knows it's bad for you, no matter what a tobacco ad says.

On the other hand, the lawsuits brought by the states were different. They sought compensation from the tobacco companies, who made billions selling products they clearly knew (as evidence showed overwhelmingly) we harmful - and got it. In my mind, the states are absolutely entitled to collect on the billions they laid out taking care of sick smokers.

Now consider junk food.

McDonalds more or less stands alone in a crowd of fast food peddlers who have admitted there is a health cost associated with using hydrogenated oils. The jury is in on the issue. They clog arteries, cause colo-rectal cancer, heart problems, circulatory problems and so on, and the FDA admits that there is no amount it considers "safe" for comsumption.

Despite this, when you want fries with that, they are selling you a substance they know full well to be poison.

Because McDonalds is clearly aware of the danger of trans-fats, and continues to sell them despite that knowledge, that they expose themselves to all kinds of lawsuits by both individuals and the states. And with a winning example to fashion a lawsuit on (the tobacco companies), there's a strong possibilty that some of the people and all of the states would win. Some interest groups have brough suits against KFC and McDonalds for loosely related causes, but my bet is that the big money is going to happen with these kinds of suits.

I wonder if they're thinking about this at Burger College. 

Comments

[ren]

I wonder what the ethical implication is, of serving Japanese Fugu fish? (When improperly prepared, it can cause immediate seizure & death).

Are extreme Jalapenos immoral, somehow?

Could it be, that lacking a bravery-centered ethical system, our society is collectively seeking the perfect vegetative state of the triplets in "Minority Report"?-- a womb-world?

Would we flourish under it, if we ever attained it?

What if we attained it, and someone less developed manipulated it (as in the movie)?

Has eugenics returned, wearing a mousse-wig?

[b tween]

fugu fish, peppers, puffer fish, strawberries (if you're alergic) and other potentially lethal foods are completely different in principle.

they kill you dead on the spot.

Hydrogenated oils clog your arteries over time, and if you consume them regularly, likely make you a regular patron of medical businesses and pharmaceutical companies.

It takes years of costly and painful interventions before they get you. And to my point, it's usually the taxpayer who get stuck holding the bag.

I don't wish for nannyism to overtake individual responsibility or reckless courage (for fugu diners), but why should peddlers of stuff like that reap the rewards while the public pays the bill?

Privatisation of profit/publicisation of risk. A long practiced ripoff.

[ren]

OK, I hear you.

What about tattooes, and STD's from risk-sex? Long term sports injuries? Alcoholism, especially societally blessed, as in Euro-Cosmo vinoculture? Pregnancy "for luv" sans economic self-sufficiency? Hatred stemming from obsolete religio-cultural myths? Car accidents? Jihad? Vendetta as culture?

It seems like the more we learn, the less value is contained in our "wealth" accumulations. What should people want? Buddhists have answers for this, but I hate their tone. You need more than just blankness. You need a life, with a vital quest to it. But after studying money theory, you realize that its just a created charade. If wealth is delusion, does it work backwards? Is delusion then a form of wealth? Is criminal wealth valid wealth? What if most 21st century wealth is essentially criminal? If so, we'd better flap our way right back into the cuckoo's nest ! Was Howard Hughes a happy guy? Michael Jackson? Trump the Dump? Is Nero any less dead than his blind kitchen slave?

[ren]

Check out my "Spano as an Irishman" cartoon at:

http://bp3.blogger.com/_mGINv98_ccg/RkR3QfH0lDI/AAAAAAAAAJo/uMpNdlblCdc/s1600-h/ANDY001.jpg

[b tween]

I know what you mean, and many of those "societal ills" you mention are dealt with by laws. There is no easy solution.

On the subject of Buddhist blankness, I read a crappy murder mystery I found in the rack at the Beacon RR station, that illustrated with a metaphor the difference between the Western and Asian cultural views of life and death.

In America, if a man in a forest is bitten by a poisonous snake, every imaginable effort will be made to save his life. Snakebite kits, airlift ride to the ER and so on.
If a man is bitten by a poisonous snake in a rice paddy in Cambodia, he will sit down and wait to die.

I'm feeling "Asian" about politics these days. I'm not naive, but the magnitude of the surrender is just stunning.

To paraphrase Colbert from last week: the administration knows that when Pelosi and Reid say they're going to get tough, it means they're not.

Agony column. I swear, I'm going to turn this into an agony column.

[renaissance costume]

"first it was seatbelts, then secondhand smoke and now fatty foods? - I would say that the person who said this is really really ignorant and stupid. I want to punch him on the face. As if these things were not for the good? tsk.. I hope he dies from a car accident, lung cancer or heart attack.. stupid idiot.