Well, the NY Times has an article about the food industry being a target for litigation. The lawyers have targeted them ala the cigarette industry. It seems we're just not responsible anymore. It's someone else's fault if I smoke, eat too much and never exercise; preferable someone with deep pockets.
Most of the time, when I eat at a restaurant, I bring enough home for another meal. I just can't eat the size portion that's served. The article says 2/3 of Americans are obese, despite the fast food marketers pushing "healthy" alternatives. I know we are bombarded with fat food commercials. But, should the food industry be sued for giving us what we want?
Article QUOTE: Engineering obesity?
Despite his criticism of the industry's practices, Yale's Katz acknowledges companies are in a difficult position. Ultimately, they sell food, and staying in business means selling the foods people want. Public health is secondary.
But what if those companies engineered their foods to make you eat more of them? Though he acknowledges that evidence is scarce, Katz believes companies do just that, much the way tobacco companies were accused of tinkering with nicotine.
Research shows that people eat more when faced with a variety of foods, or even a variety of flavors within a single food. For example, you are less likely to overeat plain baked potatoes than those drenched in butter, salt, sour cream and chives.
Sugary cereals, Katz notes, have more salt in them than many potato and corn chips. Katz believes that's one way to make a cereal's flavor more complex and appealing to get people to eat more of it.
Industry officials dispute Katz's theory. Earl, of the Food Products Association, says he knows of no company that has knowingly manipulated ingredients as Katz suggests.
Whatever the food industry's share of the blame, Tillotson, the Tufts professor, thinks obesity lawsuits are inappropriate and Congress is considering a measure to bar them. Food companies were asked to feed a hungry nation; suing now penalizes them for doing so, he believes.
UNQUOTE
Most of the time, when I eat at a restaurant, I bring enough home for another meal. I just can't eat the size portion that's served. The article says 2/3 of Americans are obese, despite the fast food marketers pushing "healthy" alternatives. I know we are bombarded with fat food commercials. But, should the food industry be sued for giving us what we want?
Article QUOTE: Engineering obesity?
Despite his criticism of the industry's practices, Yale's Katz acknowledges companies are in a difficult position. Ultimately, they sell food, and staying in business means selling the foods people want. Public health is secondary.
But what if those companies engineered their foods to make you eat more of them? Though he acknowledges that evidence is scarce, Katz believes companies do just that, much the way tobacco companies were accused of tinkering with nicotine.
Research shows that people eat more when faced with a variety of foods, or even a variety of flavors within a single food. For example, you are less likely to overeat plain baked potatoes than those drenched in butter, salt, sour cream and chives.
Sugary cereals, Katz notes, have more salt in them than many potato and corn chips. Katz believes that's one way to make a cereal's flavor more complex and appealing to get people to eat more of it.
Industry officials dispute Katz's theory. Earl, of the Food Products Association, says he knows of no company that has knowingly manipulated ingredients as Katz suggests.
Whatever the food industry's share of the blame, Tillotson, the Tufts professor, thinks obesity lawsuits are inappropriate and Congress is considering a measure to bar them. Food companies were asked to feed a hungry nation; suing now penalizes them for doing so, he believes.
UNQUOTE
