Will American food companies be blamed for obesity?

Will it come down to this: makers of high-fat or high-sodium foods being held legally responsible for obesity in America much as tobacco companies were pilloried for smoking-related health problems? Food companies are preparing for just such a battle.

In December, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report saying that obesity rates had reached epidemic proportions and called for "a national plan of action."

It has been estimated that some 300,000 Americans died of obesity-related causes in 2000 deaths which are called preventable resulting in $117 billion in health care costs.

Already, a handful of class-action lawsuits have accused food companies large and small of deceptive marketing cases which some experts see as the forerunners of suits against companies for simply selling fattening foods.

A tobacco critic is working with students at Northeastern University to develop strategies which could be used to bring obesity-related claims against food-makers.

But legal observers note that anti-food activists may be biting off more than they can chew. First, food is not addictive in the way tobacco is. Also, metabolism rates vary among individuals and physical activity including a walk after dinner - can do wonders for waistlines.

Then there is the issue of personal responsibility, which seemed to carry weight with some juries in tobacco cases.

Source: Shelly Branch, Is Food the Next Tobacco? Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2002.

For text (WSJ subscribers) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1023915670931417880-search,00.htm
For more on Class Action Suits http://www.ncpa.org/iss/leg

FMF Policy Bulletin\18 June 2002

Publish date: 26 June 2002
Views: 387

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The views expressed in the article are the author’s and are not necessarily shared by the members of the Foundation. This article may be republished without prior consent but with acknowledgement to the author.

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