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January 26, 2005

When did McDonalds ever say their food was healthy?

Here's an article I read today that states a judge is going to allow an obvious frivolous lawsuit to go forward. I'm pasting the article for your perusal. Here it is:

Lawsuit Over Fast Food and Fat Takes a Step Forward By VOA News
26 January 2005

The McDonald's Corporation will have to answer a lawsuit filed by four New York teenagers who allege the company hid the health risks of hamburgers and Chicken McNuggets.

The suit blames McDonald's for the teenagers' obesity and health problems, and it asks billions of dollars in damages. McDonald's is the world's largest fast-food chain, and company officials have called the lawsuit "frivolous."

A district judge originally dismissed the suit, but an appeals court late Tuesday allowed the case to move forward and cleared the way for the teens to demand that McDonald's turn over documents.

The case was originally filed in 2002, and is the first obesity-related lawsuit against a food company to reach a judge.

Some information for this report provided by Bloomberg, AP, AFP and Reuters.

Can someone cut these lawyers off at the knees. Giving even the slightest bit of time to this stupidity is ludicrious. I hope McDonalds can keep this trial going to make it long and painful for the lawyers and the stupid fat kids and their parents that think they are going to hit the fat lottery. The ever weakening of America'a youth.

Posted by Rocco at 07:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2005

The "Cheeseburger" Bill

I can't believe that it's come down to this. Congress has to waste their time creating legislation to stop fat people from suing the food industry. Is it me or haven't Americans known since the 70's that fast food and snacks like cookies are not healthy. I remember for years whenever something was high in caloric content it was always compared to a Big Mac which had somewhere around 800 calories. The statement went something like this " It has twice the calories of a Big Mac" translated, that meant it was twice as bad for you as a Big Mac. This brings me back a few years ago to the crazy guy who sued Kraft foods over the Trans-fat in Oreo cookies. People this is crazy. If you are fat it is through your own making not some fast food or snack company. Get a grip and get off your ass.

Posted by Rocco at 08:02 PM | Comments (1)

January 17, 2005

Kudos to Kraft Foods

Although I think that Kraft Foods did a disservice to the Food Manufaturers Industry. I believe their heart is in the right place. I have just spent nearly two hours on their website www.kraftfoods.com
and I was blown away. There is too much really cool stuff to talk about in this entry. You really need to go visit it yourself. I'm going to contact the company and see if I can't link to it from www.askrocco.com. The one outstanding part is the daily menu and recipes (of course they're Kraft food recipes) and the ability to store your own information at a click of your mouse. This site can be a very useful tool in the war on obesity. Use it and report back please.

Posted by Rocco at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2005

This is out of F@#kin' Control!

I think Kraft foods has done a huge disservice to the food manufacturers industry by agreeing to not advertise less nutritious foods to kids. This is a subject that thoroughly pisses me off. At no time should the Government, Schools, or any other organization take it upon themselves to ban or limit certain foods. The reason why people are fat is because those individuals do not exercise control or restraint in eating foods that are less nutritious. I love Oreo Cookies and have since I was 10 years old before that Chips Ahoy were my favorite. Cookies do not make people fat. Eating out of control and no physical activity makes people fat. There is nothing more fun and delicious than sitting down to an ice cold glass of milk and some Oreo cookies. Parents not food manufacturers are to blame for childhood obesity. If parents would do there job and help educate there children about exercise or maybe when they're playing they're f@#king X-box they would throw them out of the house for a game of Man Hunt or Ring-a-lareo maybe they may obtain the social skills needed to survive in this world and also maintain an adequate weight. If the parent is fat then they must get educated first, change their attitude and then pass that information down to their kids. Fat is not acceptable, I don't care how many associations form to want to make it acceptable. This suggestion will probably never fly but I wish that any parent that let there kid get obese should be brought up on charges for child abuse. Because childhood obesity is a sure sign of poor parenting.

Posted by Rocco at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2005

Vh1's Celebrity Fit Club

I just witnessed Vh1's Celebrity Fit Club for the first time and I have to say it seems strange in a good sort of way. It was good to see Celebrities having to be weighed in front of the whole world. Weighing yourself in public can be very humbling and can give you the neccessary slap in the head that you need to acknowledge the fact that you are fat. The personal trainer on the show seemed like he was trying way too hard to be a hardass. Being a hardass should come a little more naturally. I don't know about you but any mental health professional with an English accent grates on my nerves. They sound extremely condesending when asking even the most simple question. All in all though I thought the concept and the content was pretty good. I just wish they would have been able to get Kirstie Alley or Meatloaf or maybe the other fat guy on the Soprano's Steve Schrippa or maybe better Big Pussy (Vincent Pastore) because there's really no big Celebrities on the show. It kind of reminds me of those Celebrity boxing matches. I do look forward to seeing the anguish in the tranformation. Because to lose the fat that some of these people have to, it will take a lot of hard and I mean hard work. Good luck to them.

Posted by Rocco at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2005

The Sugar Lobby:Tales from the Crypt

For years the sugar lobby has been crippling America with lies upon lies about their sugar free products that are saturated with sugar. Years ago the FDA make a concession to the food industry that only sucrose or what is table sugar can be called sugar, basically it's the brand name, like Kleenex is to facial tissue. So the sugar industry began it's quest to figure out ways to derive every other sugars known to man into viable sources of sweetening to put into products. Sugar free cookies were now made with fructose or dextrose, both sweeter sugars than sucrose. So Americans thought they were living a healthier life because they weren't eating sugar. Americans consumed these items by the truckload and it started to show. If any one has the balls to say that consuming sugar doesn't make you fat then look at some real statistics. 30 years ago we as Americans consumed on average 6 pounds of sugar per year, which at that time seemed absurd, now 30 years later we consume on average 16 pounds of sugar per year. 16 pounds, holy shit! Sugar is directly related to fat gain because when we eat most sugars insulin is released into the bloodstream which blocks the utilization of fat stores. So the more sugar we take in the less fat we will burn. Almost every food product that is manufactured by man will have obscene amounts of sugar in it no matter what they call it. I have provided you with a list of the different types of sugar out there, so read the labels and don't let the idiots of advertising get the best of you.
Brown sugar
Cane sugar
Carob Powder
Dextrose
Fructose
Honey
Lactose
Corn Syrup
Glucose
High-fructose corn syrup
Maltose
Milk Chocolate
Sucrose
Molasses
Beet sugar
Malto-dextrin

Posted by Rocco at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

January 13, 2005

U.S. Goverment Guidelines are good start but still off

After reading about a hundred stories regarding and listening to Tommy Thompson speak about the new Food Guidelines I wondered if they really believed that these guidelines were going to decrease the incidence of obesity. Knowing what to do and actually doing has always been the problem with people becoming fat or obese. The only really good thing I think that came out of these guidelines is that the sugar lobby doesn't seem to have a stranglehold on the government as it did in the past. For years the sugar lobby has found loopholes in advertising to say products were sugar free but were still chock full of sugar by calling it by another name like high fructose corn syrup. All the guidelines in the world won't help us if we don't start believing that we as individuals need to take responsibility and accept that it is going to be hard work ahead of us to get this obesity thing licked. These guidelines will work if their adhered to but there are already companies and agencies and scientists(telling us that sugar doesn't make us fat) trying to put the spin of the findings to help discredit them. Here's a funny thought; lets all just start an exercise program, stop bitching about how we don't have time and make it part of our daily routine, kinda like walking the dog and stop eating food we know is not good for us. Maybe we'll beat this thing yet.

Posted by Rocco at 10:36 AM | Comments (2)