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An expulsive extension of
Michael Stephens breaks down the politics of fat. Consumer, health and legal groups have begun a difficult campaign against the fast food industry that recalls the decades-long struggle they wage against the tobacco industry. Lawsuits, yes, but warning and content labels, too; PSAs are probably not too far down the road. (In fact, the FDA launched a food labelling public service announcement way back in 1994. But I never saw them.) The counter-arguments from the skeptical (not all of whom are conservative, BTW) sound familiar, too, so Stephens knows how to answer them; in fact, with fat, perhaps more so than with tobacco, his argument is strong:
The opponents of lawsuits against the fast food industry argue that "everyone knows" that McDonalds and Burger King sell high-fat foods and that those who eat these foods do so by their own free choice. Yet, knowledge alone is not enough to combat the power of life-long exposure to the media and to the omnipresence of fast food franchises and convenience foods. Partially hydrogenated oils have been used in American food manufacture since the 1920s – time for several generations of Americans to incorporate trans fats into their everyday diet and to normalize the consumption of hundreds of foods containing trans fats. Precisely because food preferences are formed over time and are deeply ingrained in our lifestyle, it is difficult for people to change their dietary habits, even when it is revealed that some ingredients in these foods are unhealthy or dangerous.I left work at 5pm today with urgent hunger pains in me belly. My own fault: ate a light breakfast, forgot to bring lunch so I had to resort to an instant ramen noodle soup cup I keep in my desk for just such an emergency. Plus all this blogging and cartooning distracts me from preparing healthier meals. So anyhoo, I'm "starving" (I say with typical american hyperbole) and I have to drop by the store to get some essentials, so naturally I go to Target, only five minutes from my house. I get the essentials, then the hunger and the brightly packaged snack foods beckon me. All those yellows, oranges and reds that advertising science long ago chose for immediate impact and lure. (Yes, Virginia, graphic design can be used for evil. But you knew that.) Then I leave Target, the hunger made all the more intense by another half hour passing, so where do I go? What is a block away, quick, convenient and yummy? The drive-thru, of course. Jack-in-the-Box. Bacon double cheeseburger with seasoned curly-que fries and a (you call that a)medium(?) Coke. Mmm-M!What is really at stake in the politics of fat is the extent to which government should restrict corporate and media influences on the American diet. There is no choice for consumers when every street corner and highway is crowded with fast food franchises and no healthy alternatives are available. There is no possibility of informed consumer decisions, when saturation advertising entirely overwhelms the cautionary messages of doctors and health professionals.
None of which makes me a potential plaintiff in a future suit against Jack, Ron, Carl and the King. When I started smoking, I definitely knew it was bad for me. I had had more than enough information. I chose to smoke because I thought it would get me high (marijuana was, in this instance, my gateway drug). Then, despite my disappointment, I discovered how wonderful smoking could be. Does that make the cigarette industry less accountable for deliberately increasing the addictiveness of their product? No, of course not. But they are not accountable to me. Like I said, I knew better.
And I know fast food is awful, I resolve to renounce it every week, my wife and I reenforce each other's resistance to the temptation of the quick and the easy, we buy healthy whole grains and organic fruits and vegetables—we even joined a gym, of all things. A gym I have not been to in two months, fruits & veggies often rot after two or three samplings, and some time around nine o'clock one of us looks at the other with "ice cream eyes."
So we won't be joining the anti-fast food lawsuits either, although we will gladly cheer them on, rooting from the sidelines. Or, really, the sofa.