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_____________________________ FOOD FIGHT UPDATE May 4, 2004 _____________________________ ATTACK OF THE TRIAL LAWYERS �The other day, my family and I went to a McDonald�s in Brooklyn. When I asked the clerk to �super-size� our meal, she told me McDonald�s no longer super-sized meals. How could I have forgotten? The chain started phasing out the practice in January. . . . Had customers protested that McDonald�s was offering them too much food, too much value for their money, and making them fat? Not at all. The anti-McDonald�s campaign was a partnership of self-appointed consumer advocates, politically correct Big Media, and unscrupulous attorneys, replete with a frivolous lawsuit charging the fast-food giant with having �caused� customers� obesity. Consumers had no say in the matter.� - Columnist Nicholas Stix GET OFF YOUR McBUTT �McDonald's is unveiling its new �Go Active� meals for adults on May 6th, in an effort to defer criticism that fast food is responsible for the obesity epidemic. This move follows the end of �Super Size� meal options, and represents a concerted effort to change the image of the chain to a more health conscious one. . . . Perhaps along with promoting healthier dining options McDonald's should do away with the drive-thru window so consumers will be forced to get out of their cars and walk to the counter before they order their food.� - The Hartford Advocate, 4/29/04 WHAT ABOUT PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY? �Unfortunately, there are Americans who--rather than ask what they can do themselves to control their weight--want to blame others for their obesity.� Some are also hoping to fatten their wallets that way. A few years ago, when Caesar Barber, who weighed 272 pounds, filed a lawsuit against Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, and Kentucky Fried Chicken in the Bronx Supreme Court, he complained to The New York Post, 'The fast food industry has wrecked my life.' . . . It's time we have faith in the willpower of Americans to keep their weight down without unwanted and unnecessary help from lawyers and bureaucrats.� - Paul Weyrich, chairman of the Free Congress Foundation REGULATION THROUGH LITIGATION ''An obviously disturbing thing about lawsuits against 'Big-Fast-Food' is that they promote a culture of victimhood and jettison the principle of personal responsibility.� But an equally-disturbing aspect, and one which particularly concerns me in my role as a U.S. Senator, is that such cases circumvent legislative decisions and subvert the democratic process. Under this practice [of 'regulation through litigation'], the legal process is used not to compensate parties who are injured due to the breach of an existing and recognized duty.� Rather, the judicial system is used to impose new duties, after the fact, on lawfully-run, though politically incorrect, industries.'' - Senator McConnell at a Free Congress Foundation conference on ''Restoring Responsibility--Litigation, Victimization, and the Corruption of Culture''� GEE...AND HE PUT ON WEIGHT? �(Activist Morgan) Spurlock dared himself to eat nothing but McDonald's for 30 straight days, shunning most exercise while gorging on burgers with special sauce and downing 42-ounce Cokes.� - New York Times, 5/2/04 EAT LIKE A PIG, PILE ON THE POUNDS �Although he's in perfect health these days, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock admits that having binged exclusively on McDonald's food for 30 days for his documentary Super Size Me has left him with serious consequences. . . . Spurlock, who won the director's prize at the Sundance Film Festival for the movie, ate dozens of Big Macs, bushels of fries and many shakes for 30 days, while three doctors, a nutritionist and a fitness instructor charted his changing health statistics. In the end, he put on 25 pounds and 65 cholesterol points.� - CJAD.com, 4/30/04 TALE OF TWO FILMMAKERS �Call it a duel: Two filmmakers eat nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days. One gains 25 pounds, gets gut-wrenching ill and goes on to win Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival. The other? Well, she's losing weight and claims she has never felt better. The difference can be attributed to quantities ingested. One gorged, the other pecked. �...Morgan Spurlock, a 33-year-old filmmaker reared in West Virginia, went on his fast-food odyssey after hearing that two teenage girls filed a lawsuit against McD's for allegedly making them fat. The suit was laughed out of court, but it was just one punch in a litigious assault, attempting to smack down Fast Food like Big Tobacco. �Spurlock binged on burgers, fries and shakes for 30 days, monitored by a cardiologist, gastroenterologist and internal specialist. Whenever the cashier asked him if he wanted to �Super Size,� he did. The result: His cholesterol, blood sugars and fats surged. His liver began to resemble an alcoholic's. His belly sagged, his head ached, his mood darkened and his libido went limp. In one scene, Spurlock pukes in the parking lot. Dinner and a movie will never be the same. . . . Spurlock's film, �Super Size Me,� opens in theaters May 7. �...Filmmaker Soso Whaley, 49, doesn't find Spurlock so funny. She calls his film �junk science.� She's making her own flick about her 30 days at McD's, only she's sticking to an 1,800 calorie a day diet. Her film is an attempt to show that people can eat sensibly, even at the drive-through window. . . . �The poison is in the dose,� she said. Spurlock suffered ill effects simply because �he ate like a troglodyte.� � - Denver Post columnist Al Lewis LEFT GOES HOG-WILD �And when it comes to (Morgan Spurlock�s) movie, many critics have, appropriately enough, lapped it up. Ebert & Roeper gave Super Size Me �two thumbs up�, while Variety found it an �entertaining, gross-out cautionary tale� that �leaves little doubt that eating this stuff [McDonld�s food] on a regular (or even occasional) basis is bad, bad, bad for ya.� �To the New York Times it was one of a clutch of �entertaining, moving and historically significant� movies at this year's Sundance Film Festival, a festival where Spurlock won the award for best director for what The Hollywood Reporter has dubbed his �brilliantly subversive� work. �Subversive? Hardly. Fashionable? Certainly. Blaming �Big Food� for America's big people is merely the Left's latest big lie. . . . Condemning McDonald's on the basis of the kamikaze consumption of Super Size Me makes about as much sense as using Monty Python's Mr. Creosote as an example of typical restaurant dining. Spurlock's bizarre breakfasts, lunatic lunches, and demented dinners added up to some 5,000 calories a day, freak-show feasting that proves nothing about McDonald's. It wasn't WHAT the greedy slob ate, but HOW MUCH.� - Columnist Andrew Struttaford, National Review Online, 4/29/04 THE SUPER SIZED CON Spurlock�s anti-McDonald�s propaganda film is sliced and diced by Tech Central Station. Check out their website dedicated to exposing this Michael Moore-wannabe goofball for the left-wing propagandist he is at: http://www.techcentralstation.com/supersizecon.html ********************************************* FOOD FIGHT UPDATE is published by: Citizen Outreach Chuck Muth, President/Editor 611 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, #439 Washington, DC 20003 (410) 391-7408 For more information, visit www.citizenoutreach.com
