Paint CHiPs
Viva Le Me
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26420 |
quote:
Originally posted by billgerat
And I dispute your contention, Paint, that a cig a week won't do you much harm. It might not be much, but smoking cigs in any amount has been proven harmful to your health. And it has been shown that it only takes smoking a few cigs to start your body to becomming addicted to them.
You show me a person addicted to cigs, and I'll show you five addicted to fatty foods. Obesity, by all accounts, is a FAR larger problem in America than smoking is. Hell, you throw in smoking, drinking, weed, smack, blow, all them combined, you can still barely touch the amount of people that are addicted to eating fatty non-nutritional foods. Sure, a Big Mac a week combined with a healthy diet will not generally negatively impact your health, nor will a cigaratte. But how many people eat a Big Mac a week that otherwise have a healthy diet? How many people smoke just a cig a week?
And with fast food, we're not just talking about the negative impact of, say, a doughnut. Look at the nutritional stats sometime.
quote:
Originally posted by billgerat
Now, show me how a cheeseburger and fries are dangerous! What cancer causing ingredients are present in a Big Mac? Can you become physically addicted to fries?
Sure you can (become addicted, that is). The statistics of your average American would seem to prove that. The majority of this NATION, is, in fact, addicted to fries and the like. Either that, or we just all like them a little too much. And while these foods don't, in themselves, cause cancer, I'd hardly want to be the one making the case that they don't cause life threatening problems when eaten as a staple (which MANY Americans DO).
A cigaratte, itself, isn't all that dangerous either. The key is that nobody just has ONE cigarette.
You should look at the sales sheets sometime coming from fast food franchises. Over half of the business is done by people that visit more than once a week. And, when they aren't eating at McDonald's, I would guess that their even more regular fare ain't a whole lot healthier.
quote:
Originally posted by billgerat
Sure, MstrG, McD's had to be forced to post their nutritional guides, but it has been known for decades of the caloric and carbohydrate values for food - all you had to do was go look it up at the library, or consult a doctor or nutritionist! How do you think diabetics counted their food? Did McD's deny that their food had calories and carbs? Did they secretly withhold from the public this knowledge? All that lawsuit did was make it easier for lazy fatasses to see the content of the food they were eating without having to do the research for their fucking selves.
Do you support taking the warning labels off of cigarettes? Any person that wanted to do the legwork, since the 50s, could have found that smoking was bad for them. Hell, even if they didn't want to do the legwork, I would guess that most all of us have known people, in the last century, who obviously died from smoking related illnesses. Anecdotaly, it was as obvious as it was from research.
When NOT taken in moderation, fast food is as bad as smoking is. And the difference is, smoking is heavily regulated, easily identifiable, and the public is warned about it. Not so with fast food. A 6 year old can buy any amount of it they want, they aren't given warnings about it, and the stuff isn't regulated to the degree that other public health concerns are.
Obesity related health problems takes money out of my taxpayers pocket, just as sure as shit as smokers do, likely more. If you don't think that it has reached epidemic proportions, you just haven't been paying attention. It is, by ALL accounts, a massive public health concern, probably larger than ALL OTHERS. Smoking is a public health concern as well, which is why it is so stringently regulated, and even then, not so much as obesity should be, by that token. So why you think it is okay to regulate the fuck out of one, spend tons of money warning people of one thing, and not give a lick of sympathy for the other, is beyond me.
quote:
Originally posted by billgerat
And it has been well known for years and years that the more food you eat, and less exercise you do, the fatter you will get. If people don't want to get fat, quit fucking ordering the Big Mac with the Supersized fries and soda, and just get a 1/4 pounder, small fries, and small soda and be happy with that! Quit stuffing your damn faces with fattening foods and get some fucking exercize for God's sake! McD's doesn't make you eat all that food, you do by ordering it! By this same logic, I should sue a supermarket for making me fat because there is so much food on the shelves!
Or, by that same logic, smokers should just stop smoking their goddamned cigarettes, and all would be well.
If they can't, and if their inability to do so costs the taxpayers a significant amount of money, well then, somebody should do something about it. And based on the article Vegas posted, what was being proposed is hardly as drastic as restricting the sale to minors, posting warning labels on the packs, placing sin taxes on the product, spending BILLIONS in a public awareness campaign, none of that. It was just an attempt to get citizens to act on their own behalf to curb what is the number one health crisis in America.
A public health concern is a public health concern. It's not fair to regulate the fuck out of one, and then blame another on the victims.
Last edited by Paint CHiPs on 05-09-2003 at 07:27 AM
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05-09-2003 04:18 AM
Excellent.