9 Nasty Truths About Your Favorite Foods
Famous Death Row Last Meals
In an effort to curb the obesity epidemic in this country, health officials are considering banning fast-food restaurants. They are calling it "health zoning."
It sounds like a valiant effort, but will something like Los Angeles City Council's proposed two-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South L.A., where the adult obesity rate is 10% higher than the national average, really work? Mark Vallianatos, director of the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College, said "While limiting fast-food restaurants isn't a solution in itself, it's an important piece of the puzzle." He called this kind of legislation "the wave of the future."
However, banning the building of new fast food restaurants doesn't seem like it will change habits in the existing environment. Because eating fast food is simply more practical for people, won't they just keep eating unhealthy foods from the restaurants that are already there?
SLIDESHOW: Tattoos That Go Way Beyond Your Average Tramp Stamp
'American Idol' Changes Record Contract Policy: Runner-Up No Longer Guaranteed Major Bucks
Honor Student Jailed For Missing Too Many Classes
America's 10 Highest-Paid CEOs of 2011 (and How They Earned It)
The Richest Woman in the World: How Gina Rinehart Earns her Billions
PHOTOS: Nicole Scherzinger Almost Reveals Too Much
What Happened When Alex Kenjeev Paid His Student Loan in Cash
Carrie Underwood's Grunge Rock Past: 'I Was All About Pearl Jam'
PHOTOS: Kristen Stewart Almost Bares Sideboob
First Woman To Command A Warship In Royal Navy History
Samsung Galaxy S III review
VIDEO: Cop Kills Naked Man Allegedly Eating Another Man's Face
Mary J. Blige, Charity Lawsuit: Singer's Foundation Sued for Failing to Repay $250K Loan
Hawkeye and the Blue Ear Help a Mother and Her Hearing Impaired Son
PHOTOS: Americans Honor Troops On Memorial Day Weekend
What's a Realistic Retirement Age?
SLIDESHOW: And You Thought Your Navel Piercing Hurt
Missing Canada Children Found In Mexico Four Years Later
Alan Simpson Lashes Out At GOP 'Madness'
Blood Found In Missing Girl's Bedroom
WATCH: Mermaid Gives Birth
5-Time World Boxing Champ Found Dead
SEEING IS BELIEVING: This Boston Terrier Has The World's Largest Dog Eyes
Yale Student Killed In Crash Days After Graduating
'Cannibal' Attack: Naked Man Shot Dead In Miami 'As He Chewed Victim's Face' (VIDEO, PICTURES)
Dario Franchitti Wins Indy 500
Etan Patz Murder Suspect Knew 'Intimate Details,' Sources Say
Meghan McCain Reacts To Vicious Attacks
'Genius' Teen Cracks Isaac Newton Puzzle That Stumped Mathematicians For 350 Years
The Best And Worst Picnic Foods
Rodger Streitmatter: PHOTOS: 8 Legendary Same-Sex Couples
A Night To Remember: HuffPost Gay Voices Salutes Same-Sex Prom Couples
9-16-2007 @5:30PM Jeannie said... I think people should eat what they please. They have got to do so in moderation..........There is nothing wrong with having a burger and fries maybe once a week and then eat healthy the other 6 days. Moderation is the key. I love McDonald's fries but rarely have them, but when I do get a craving I go get them and enjoy them knowing I probably won't have them again for a month or two.
Reply
9-16-2007 @5:34PM Deborah Stone said... Give me a break. I would like all control freaks to move west. If they did this, then all of the east would be free to have liberty and think for themselves, and all in the west would be "free" to be lead around by the nose and never have to think for themselves. When is the government going to quit taking our liberties from us for "our own good"?
Reply
9-16-2007 @5:36PM Lola said... 78: You don't agree but you do agree. You're synopsis are not connecting. Try a cheeseburger, it may help.
Reply
9-16-2007 @5:36PM Gina said... Are they banning pizza places, too?
So when the office buildings empty out at lunch times, the hungry workers have to sit for a half hour while their meal gets cooked? Eating takes a half hour. That's one hour. Then there is the time going to and from the restaurant, and elevator times, and a rest room stop. Looks like a lot of people are going to punch back in late.
No skin off my back though. I eat healthy.
Reply
9-16-2007 @5:40PM Laugher said... You morons let this happen. It started thirty years ago when you started passing no smoking laws. Now it will never stop. Thx u IDIOTS.
Reply
9-16-2007 @5:41PM boredwell said... legislating diet. legislating morality. legislating internet. legislating laws to legislate new ones.NYC mayor bloomberg passes the "no more transfats" city code thus regulating restaurants. the city of belmont,CA has passed the strictest no-smoking law in the world. besides being unable to smoke in parks or on sidewalks, the city is considering banning smoking in your own home! (i suppose they think this 2nd hand smoke is more deleterious than toxic co2 emissions which when breathed-in equals smoking a pack-a-day without putting a filtertip between your lips!)
when demogoguery threatens to depose democracy, we mustn't allow legislators to pull ANY MORE wool over our eyes-Baaaaa!
Reply
9-16-2007 @5:44PM wiser now said... By all means let them choose to stuff themselves with junk. Then they can live for 30 years with the joys of diabetes and other long term chronic disease. Easier to put a gun to your head and get it over..............
Reply
9-16-2007 @5:54PM Lauren said... As a former fat ass, it was easier for me to keep gorging myself and gaining more weight when McDonalds was a quick walk right from my high school. We do it to ourselves. Humans are animals, I'm sorry, sometimes very irrational animals. Let them take the junk away. I am all for it. Then I might not see so many obese children. In my opinion when your kid looks like a ball of fat with a head, its child abuse, but then again, its California, haven to illegals, welfare junkies, crackheads, hookers and liberals.
Reply
9-16-2007 @5:55PM Robin said... Well, this is what you get when we allow the "government" (people who want their way of life to be your way of life) to make OUR decisions for us. No matter how well intentioned bans and laws may seam, eventually they believe things that are none of their business ARE their business. (Seat belts, smoking bans, bottled water bans, fast food bans, etc.) YOU may not smoke, or eat fast food, or drink bottled water... but eventally the "governemnt" is going to target something you really enjoy, then you'll realize how wrong, and unamerican all this is. What's next... and next... and next... and next?
Reply
9-16-2007 @5:56PM Gina said... Look at foreign countries where we opened franchises. The fat population in those countries has increased by leaps and bounds. The proof is in the pudding! We've gone from a fat nation to a fat world!
Reply
9-16-2007 @5:58PM Porky said... Typical California communists - My freedom is mine; yours is negotiable.
Reply
9-16-2007 @6:06PM James said... "wave of the future". are you kidding me. face it folks, we are just to clueless to manage our own lives and big brother is more than willing to do it for us. someday soon youll be craving a big mac and instead of worrying yourself over the negative health implications youll be paranoid that the thought police know...its 1984 in 2007
Reply
9-16-2007 @6:04PM Lola said... Most people who want government to impose these Orwellian laws have been unable to control themselves. They find it easier for government to control everyone.
Reply
9-16-2007 @6:07PM Grace said... Ban fast food restaurants? Maybe not. Yes, when I am on the road I will stop and get something to eat, but that's when I do long trips that are over a a certain amount of time, normally more than 3 hours long. The obesity thing doesn't start with the restaurants, it starts with the people who think that even though they had a diet soda with that big mac and large fry they won't gain any weight. I know someone who can eat it daily and not gain an ounce, but that is because they work out every other day and genetics blessed him.
I'm not saying getting rid of the restaurants will ease the issue of how many fat people walk the planet, but it can help ever so slightly to ease the temptation. Legislation wants to ban them, I say limit the amount of restaurants total in say a 10 mile radius.
People aren't poor if they're going to the restaurants to eat either. For the amount of money spent daily or monthly in a restaurant you can by enough groceries to last you roughly 2 to 3 weeks (depending on how many people are in your house). I know this because I stopped eating fast food for a solid month and saved over $150. We were eating it roughly 2 maybe 3 times a week!
And here's a thought if you don't "have time to cook" then that means that you are overly busy. Yes, work is important, but so is your health. The more you work the more stressed you are and combining that with your love of fast food, well you may die about the same time as your children, isn't that a comforting thought? We have all these lovely new techologies that make things go faster, yet at the same time we are neglecting what is truly important and that should be family.
I have cut back on my work, cut out fast food entirely. My husband has done the same and now we cook together every night and we spend moer quality time doing things we love to do. And no...we're nowhere near being in our 50's or 60's. You don't need to live in 1950 to have good food served daily or to have the house clean, we need to slow down and get out more so that when we have that burger, large fries and large soda we won't be the fat people walking around.
And thank you for not moving out west...we don't need anymore people looking to get on TV.
Reply
9-16-2007 @6:05PM Rob said... Damn,I need a Big Mac now.
Reply
9-16-2007 @7:54PM Marcy said... Does the pharse "1984" mean anything to anybody?
Reply
9-16-2007 @6:15PM Mel said... Don't be so sure the supreme court will shoot this down. Our city has such a ordinance no new fast food joints for 2 years then the city has the right to evaulate and make decision whether or not to continue the ban. Good Luck LA
Reply
9-16-2007 @6:17PM NICOLE said... How about paying people living wages so that they can afford decent food? Of course the rich & m iddle class people are doing this, they think everyone can magically have whatever they want just like them, but sorry for them to be able to live their lives of too ,much the res tof us go without heat, decent food, housing, medicine, anything necessary for decent survival
Reply
9-16-2007 @6:19PM joyce said... Jim,
They can't afford anything else???? Do you realize how much cheaper it is to go to the grocery store, buy food, take it home and cook it...than it is to go to a "fast food" restaurant? These people could probably get 2-3 healthy meals for the same cost of a fast food dinner.
Reply
9-16-2007 @6:21PM Lola said... Control yourself. Grow your brain in other ways by keeping occupied with other things, rather than doing the more convenient thing, be that eating too much or passing laws to keep you from your vice.
Reply