Should fast food companies be shielded from legal claims their food causes obesity?

Parent Cafe
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<p>The egg McMuffin is apparently one of the better choices at McD’s. And they do offer salads with natural dressings. Haven’t been there for awhile. But only because we are near a Dairy Queen, lol. Starbucks is a dangerous place as well, if you don’t pay attention to what you are ingesting – all of those high calorie baked goods! all those high cal frappos or whatever they are – but they do have some lower cal snacks, and the spinach feta wrap is good there. Also the unsweetened green iced tea is good there (0 cals).</p>

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This is why everything comes with 10 pages of hazard warnings these days. How else can anyone figure out not to use hair coloring as an ice cream topping or to not stop a chainsaw blade with your hands or not to use your iron on your clothes while wearing them? (All actual examples)</p>

<p>I believe the cigarette companies were manipulating the levels of nicotine in their product in order to get/keep people addicted, and were actually claiming in ads that smoking was healthy and doctor-recommended. There is no comparison to food companies.</p>

<p>Shielding companies from frivolous lawsuits is a good thing IMO. There are too many lawyers thinking “wow, cigarette lawsuits brought in $250 billion dollars, who else has a lot of money?”</p>

<p>For example, the largest maker of gas cans in the US has been forced out of business by lawsuits generated by a couple of lawyers who went looking for people who poured gasoline from the can <em>onto open fires</em> with predictably bad results - even though the can has a warning label explicitly against this.</p>

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<p>Nutritional information is available. No way can they be blamed for a person’s gluttony and/or bad decisions in eating.
Besides, many other restaurants provide outrageous dishes and portions. Why just fast food anyway?</p>

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<p>Cigarettes have the unusual characteristic of being deadly when used as intended. </p>

<p>Food, alcoholic beverages, and automobiles – to cite a few of the products commonly compared with cigarettes in these arguments – are harmful only when misused.</p>