Fast Food / Junk-Food Companies

¶ … Fast Food / Junk-Food Companies Ethically Responsible for Health Problems?

There are those who contend that fast food companies are indeed ethically responsible for the health problems that result from their high caloric, sodium-rich and basically unhealthy food. Others say that it is solely the personal responsibility of the individual to make good decisions when ordering and eating food. This paper presents the "pro" and "con" to this argument.

Yes, junk food restaurants should be held accountable

In the movie "Super Size Me" Morgan Spurlock ate at McDonald's three times a day for a whole month. He received a health checkup from three physicians prior to his stunt of eating at McDonald's thrice daily for a month; and he was checked periodically during the month, and then he was checked again at the end of the month. According to Roger Ebert's review of the film, Spurlock's weight ballooned by 30 pounds, "his blood pressure skyrockets, his cholesterol goes up 65 points" and as to his liver, it behaves as though Spurlock has "toxic shock," Ebert writes. Moreover, Spurlock's skin looks unhealthy and he had chest pains. Of course, had he continued, what he was doing in reality was digging his own grave, asking for trouble.

But the bottom line is that, according to Jenny Murphy, the fast food chains "deserve some of the blame for the epidemic of obesity" in America since they "do not alert their customers to the hazardously high calorie and fat content of the food they offer" (Murphy, 2000). Meanwhile attorney Samuel Hirsh in New York filed a class action suit against McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and KFC, alleging that they are "irresponsible and deceptive in the posting of their nutritional information" (Park, 2002). Moreover, Hirsh asserts that these fast food chains "create a de facto addition in their consumers, particularly the poor and children" (Park, 2002). There is no doubt whatever that fast food (junk food) restaurants serve food that is unhealthy and that a constant diet of food high in fat, sodium, and cholesterol can cause serious health problems, and there are nutritional and honesty issues that these businesses must somehow own up to.

No, junk food restaurants should not (cannot) be held accountable

Dan Abrams of MSNBC, a legal consultant to the network, writes that just because obesity has become an enormous health problem in the U.S. that is no reason to sue the fast food franchises. These lawsuits "are an embarrassment to our legal system, and an embarrassment to the people who are saying they were so dumb not to know they might get fat" (Abrams, 2004). In fact on the day that Abrams wrote that piece for MSNBC the U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called "Cheeseburger bill" which was legislation to "protect the fast food industry from frivolous lawsuits." (Abrams).

Abrams attacked John Banzhaf, the lawyer that has launched some of the suits against the fast food industry. Abrams says that Banzhaf is wrong to link the suits against tobacco with the need to sue junk food companies. In the case of tobacco companies, Abrams continues, "people were misled about what was in cigarettes" but the same deception doesn't apply to fast food. "People should know fast food isn't good for you," Abrams writes.