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Lawyers continue assault on Big Junk Food - They're just getting started. We'll have bans and taxes on junk food someday. The $5 Big Mac. "Potato chips and french fries could soon come with a warning label in California if the state's top attorney prevails in a lawsuit filed Friday against nine fast food chains and snack-food makers. [The] Attorney General asked for a court order requiring McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Frito Lay and other companies to warn consumers that their fries and chips may contain acrylamide, a chemical the state says causes cancer." Bringing out the c-word.

"Also named were producers of potato chips and other packaged potato products like Procter & Gamble Co., makers of Pringles chips. Burger King Corp., KFC Corp., a unit of Yum Brands Inc., for its KFC Potato Wedges, Kettle Foods Inc., makers of Kettle chips, which bills itself as a natural health food brand, and Cape Cod Potato Chips Co. of Hyannis, Massachusetts, a unit of Lance Inc."

"The lawsuit alleges that companies have violated a state law passed in 1986 requiring companies to provide warnings before exposing people to known carcinogens or reproductive toxins. In 2002, scientists found potatoes and other starchy foods cooked at high temperatures contained low levels of acrylamide. Other studies have discounted the potential toxicity of acrylamide to humans."

"Acrylamide is also widely used for industrial purposes, including sewage treatment."


(Sidenote: I predict that within five comments to this posting, someone will mention a common argument that comes up whenever the assault on junk food is compared to tobacco.)
posted by jr to health at 6:25 P.M. EST     (9 Comments)

Comments ...

What DOESN'T CAUSE CANCER anylonger...for me, I'm not going give these findings another thought!
posted by MARIELORA at 06:51 P.M. EST on Sat Aug 27, 2005     #

I blogged about this earlier with a bit of a different idea.

Since we've been told that ketchup contains lycopine (yes I probably spelled it wrong), which supposedly reduces cancer...all we have to do is drown our fries in ketchup and we have probably successfully countered the french fry risk.

For those of you who don't like ketchup? Suggest giving up fries, lol or waiting until there is a more definite study than the one used by California.

When I heard years ago that peanut butter caused cancer in lab rats I gave up worrying about it. While of course there are certain risks we should all be careful of when it gets to the point where I have to worry about eating fluffernutters? PAH on them all. I will continue to live dangerously with my fries, my diet pop AND my peanut butter.

:-)
posted by psyche777 at 09:02 P.M. EST on Sat Aug 27, 2005     #

I am much less worried about acrylamide than the trans-fatty acids in fast food french fries.

After all the fries I have eaten, I am probably 100x more likely to drop dead from a heart attack than I am to get some acrylamide-related cancer (or from glycidamide, its reactive metabolic by-product, which is supposed to be the real carcinogen)
posted by historymike at 09:39 P.M. EST on Sat Aug 27, 2005     #

Well, I haven't seen that 'common argument' yet, jr. ;) I've been predicting this for years. There's money to be made in a lot of industies.
posted by Foolkiller at 03:16 A.M. EST on Sun Aug 28, 2005     #

Did the California study say how much of the stuff had to be fed to the rats to show that it might cause cancer?

Usually, they feed the rats much more whatever substance they're testing than you could ever consume in a lifetime...

I'm sure that just about anything in too much quantity will kill you...

Also, note in the article - the lawsuit says the companies have to notify the consumer that the product MAY contain acrylamide.
posted by intrepid at 07:54 A.M. EST on Sun Aug 28, 2005     #

Snack and fast foods are not good for you. Neither are cigarettes. Neither is coffee.

We consume them since they are deliciously yummy (disclaimer: I don't smoke, and I can't imagine why someone does -- but other than that, it's none of my business) and fulfill our Human needs for scrumptious vices.

Which is why you'd have to be a grade-A moron to overconsume these things. It's a product. So's a car, and those kill 40K people a year (with unknown numbers killed by the emissions). So's a gun. So's a ladder (how many are killed by falling off all of those?). All products and tools are harmful to some degree.

I find the labels on the average new ladder particularly ridiculous, but at least we haven't banned them. So they can label things all they want. Put a big freakin' sticker on every new gun that says "WARNING: VERY DEADLY". (Heck, that's WHY we buy them.) Plaster labels all you like on that hamburger wrapper. But don't ban it. Bans mean you've lost faith in your fellow man and emphatically remove his authority to decide things for himself.

P.S. I'm hoping the labelling frenzy will backfire eventually as Americans will refuse to be treated like children. "A cigarette's bad for me? NO SH*T, SHERLOCK! Now watch me buy ANOTHER ONE of my own free will!"
posted by GuestZero at 02:48 P.M. EST on Sun Aug 28, 2005     #

The states will need cash when the big tobacco jackpot runs out. This is where they will get it from, as I predicted in a former posting. The need for cash is neverending. Let's simply put 2 and 2 together here.

Once that huge pot of money runs dry, the states will need another set of big money players to cough up (excuse the pun), some cash! I would assume the fast food companies would be next. How dare they serve their (disaster meals), laden with fat and cholesterol, and fattening the population of America! (never mind the question of personal responsibility). We are talking about the insatiable need for cold, hard, cash here!
posted by Bbcmjeep43 at 10:10 A.M. EST on Mon Jul 18, 2005 #
posted by Bbcmjeep43 at 04:01 P.M. EST on Sun Aug 28, 2005     #

I guess Shakespere was right when he said "kill all the lawyers". It really IS pathetic, so many people in this country are looking for easy money. There ain't no free lunch, you have to work for it. (unless of course you a union official, but thats a different thread :))
posted by JeepMaker at 06:52 P.M. EST on Sun Aug 28, 2005     #

Everyone is looking for a way to SUE, whether it's blaming McDonald's for their weight gain to spilled coffee in their lap!

Freedom of choice, we chose to smoke, we chose to eat french fries and chips, we chose to climb that ladder, drive that car......

Where is the lawsuit......

Agreed, JeepMaker, union officials don't have to work!
posted by ajeepthing at 07:21 P.M. EST on Sun Aug 28, 2005     #

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