‘Cheeseburger bill’ puts bite on lawsuits

I have mixed feelings on this issue.

On one hand…

* It’s classist. Obesity disproportionately affects the poor, in part because people who have to work crappy jobs in all their waking hours just to make ends meet don’t have the time or resources to cook nutritious meals. Fast food is cheap and convenient.

* Kids in the public schools are not, for the most part, exposed to healthy eating options. You can teach the food pyramid all you want, but when all the cafeteria has is pizza and burgers, it’s cultivating a culture of unhealthy eating habits.

* There are parallels to the class-action lawsuits against tobacco companies, which I do support (the lawsuits, that is, not the companies).

On the other hand…

* Seriously, people. I can spend five bucks at the Farmers’ Market and get pounds and pounds of vegetables, and my local Farmers’ Market even accepts WIC coupons. Yes, it takes more time to actually go shopping for ingredients and cook healthy meals, but I’m not sure I buy the argument that it’s cheaper. And if you must eat at a fast food place, they do sell salads, you know.

* Well, duh. Fast food is unhealthy, and it’s not McDonalds’s fault if you stuff your face with it all the time and get all heart-attacky.

* Unlike the dastardly tobacco industry, the fast-food industry is selling a product that is not physically addictive and can be enjoyed in moderation. They also aren’t making any claims that their product is healthy (remember those old-timey cigarette ads that claimed smoking was good for the constitution?). Eating junk food is a conscious choice every single time you do it.

I’m not a health nazi, seriously. I love luxurious, high-fat, gourmet food (and I admit it, fast food French fries are hard to beat). But I enjoy it in moderation, in combination with exercise and lighter eating the rest of the time. It’s pretty insulting to the American public to assume that they’re too stupid to understand the cause-and-effect relationship between fast food and poor health. A victim mentality does not serve to better us as a people.