FAST-FOOD SUIT BACK ON THE MENU
Appeals Court Reinstates Class Action Against McDonald’s

BY MARTHA NEIL

A lawsuit claiming that eating at McDonald’s made two children obese may go ahead with discovery, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Wednesday.

The New York City-based appellate court reinstated the class action against the Oak Brook, Ill.-based restaurant chain, saying the complaint pleaded a valid claim sufficient to permit discovery.

Last year, a district court granted McDonald’s a motion to dismiss the case. But Wednesday’s ruling by Judge Jed Rakoff said the lower court assumed facts that were not yet in evidence in order to find a lack of causal connection between the suit and the claimed injury. Pelman v. McDonald’s Corp., No. 03-9010.

The class action claims the company violated state consumer protection law by providing misleading information about the nutritional value of its menu offerings.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Samuel Hirsch of New York City says he plans to focus discovery on "the ingredients, the advertisements, the type of representations that they made."

In dismissing the case, the district court said key questions were not addressed in the complaint: "What else did the plaintiffs eat? How much did they exercise? Is there a family history of the diseases which are alleged to have been caused by McDonald’s products?"

However, the 2nd Circuit held those questions to be "the sort of information that is appropriately the subject of discovery, rather than what is required to satisfy the limited pleading requirements" of a motion to dismiss for failing to state a claim.

The complaint alleges that the two minors named as plaintiffs—their parents brought suit on their behalf—were led to believe by McDonald’s advertising that the chain’s menu offerings "were healthy and wholesome, not as detrimental to their health as medical and scientific studies have shown."

Relying on these misrepresentations, the complaint states, the plaintiffs ate at McDonald’s three to five times weekly from 1987 through 2002. As a result, they developed "obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol intake, related cancers, and/or other detrimental and adverse health effects," the complaint alleges.

Paris R. Baldacci, a clinical professor at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, says the 2nd Circuit decision "wasn't surprising at all from a New York practice and pleading perspective."

New York law is applied by the federal court because this is a diversity case, Baldacci says, and under the state’s liberal pleading standards, a simple "I ate food that made me ill" would provide the required notice of the transaction at issue.

McDonald’s corporate headquarters did not respond to a request for comment, but said in a written statement: "Common sense tells you this particular case makes no sense. Today’s ruling, which is strictly procedural, simply delays the inevitable conclusion that this case is without merit."

Critics have pointed to the Pelman suit as another example of a society in which individuals increasingly seek to hold others responsible for their own bad lifestyle choices.

But Hirsch says McDonald’s shouldn’t be allowed to market food to young children that the company knows to be bad for them.

"I think that McDonald’s has to downplay the decision, but they know full well that it’s a lot more significant than they’re prepared to admit," Hirsch says.

http://www.abanet.org/journal/ereport/j28food.html

I always thought the grease and salt dripping off the food WAS nutritious!

holy ****...blame everyone else because your kid is fat it has nothing to do with you as a parent....Afterall, parental instict would never tell you that feeding greasy food to your children everyday is bad for them. And it's also not your fault you never made them get their asses away from the playstation to exercise for 25 minutes :mad: these things just piss me off :mad:

Stupid. I hate McDonalds, but I hate these people that can't hold themselves accountable for their own physical health even more. Nobody ever said hamburgers and fries were healthy.

What moron parent lets their kids eat at McDonald's 3 to 5 times in a week for 15 years? Stupidity right there.

http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.index1.html


:barf:

What moron parent lets their kids eat at McDonald's 3 to 5 times in a week for 15 years? Stupidity right there.Fo reals. Anyone ever see Supersize Me? A guy was basically trying to prove a point by eating at McDonald's everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 weeks I think it was. If he was ever asked to supersize it, he'd HAVE to say yes. He had so many medical professionals backing him up because of how dangerous it is to do that and his health got pretty bad.

Fo reals. Anyone ever see Supersize Me? A guy was basically trying to prove a point by eating at McDonald's everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 weeks I think it was. If he was ever asked to supersize it, he'd HAVE to say yes. He had so many medical professionals backing him up because of how dangerous it is to do that and his health got pretty bad.PS, I'm totally psychic because I was just thinking about this program a half hour ago. :snob:

Fo reals. Anyone ever see Supersize Me? A guy was basically trying to prove a point by eating at McDonald's everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 weeks I think it was. If he was ever asked to supersize it, he'd HAVE to say yes. He had so many medical professionals backing him up because of how dangerous it is to do that and his health got pretty bad.

That was a great movie! I haven't been to any fast food place since I saw it, and that was like back in October.

That was a great movie! I haven't been to any fast food place since I saw it, and that was like back in October.Our teacher showed it to us in health. I didn't see the whole thing, but I saw most of it.

lol I remember eating at McDonald's for a week when I was little because they had a new beanie baby everyday. For the love of it. ohno: I didn't eat there for a long time after. I still don't really like it, it grosses me out more than any other fast food place.

Don't take that movie too seriously.


http://www.techcentralstation.com/032504F.html

Big Con Man

By James K. Glassman Published 05/05/2004

Two weeks ago, I flew to a film festival in Austin, Texas, to watch what could be one of America's hottest movies this spring: an engaging documentary called "Super Size Me," which shows what happens when you stuff yourself for a month and don't exercise.

The creator and star, Morgan Spurlock, won best director honors at Sundance, and Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper have given the movie two thumbs up. It won't reach theatres until May 7, but the word of mouth is already deafening.

Here's the premise: Spurlock eats only at McDonald's and stays sedentary for 30 days. He gains 24 pounds, his cholesterol rises 40 percent, he feels lousy, and his sex life collapses.

The movie is certainly timely. The Centers for Disease Control just reported that the number-two cause of death in the United States after smoking is "poor diet and physical inactivity."

But "Super Size Me" is not a serious look at a real health problem. It is, instead, an outrageously dishonest and dangerous piece of self-promotion. Through his antics, Spurlock sends precisely the wrong message. He absolves us of responsibility for our own fitness. We aren't to blame for being fat; big corporations are! And the remedy, he suggests, is to file lawsuits and plead with the Nanny State and the Food Police for protection.

While the film demonizes McDonald's and other restaurants, Spurlock's weight gain and health decline have nothing to do with where he ate (after all, Robert DeNiro gained 60 pounds for his role in "Raging Bull" by dining at great restaurants in Italy), but rather with how much he consumed and how little he exercised (Spurlock even cut down on normal walking).

It's no accident that Spurlock's production company is called "The Con." A prankster and scamster from way back, he briefly ran a program on MTV called "I Bet You Will," where he paid people to do disgusting things.

He gave a woman $100 to eat a Madagascar hissing cockroach. A man got $25 for eating a clam out of a stranger's armpit. Another woman shaved her head, combined the clippings with butter to form a gigantic hair ball and then ate it -- for $250.

Sorry for the unappetizing detail, but it tells who this Morgan Spurlock really is. He presents himself as a socially concerned artist, but, in fact, he is up to his old tricks (among the scenes in "Super Size Me" are a rectal exam and a vivid vomiting sequence). This time, however, the person who cashes in isn't the hairball eater; it's Spurlock himself.

The math of weight gain is simple. Someone Spurlock's size can eat 2,500 to 3,000 calories a day and maintain his weight. In the movie, he eats 5,000 to 5,500 calories a day. Nutritionists calculate that a man gains roughly a pound for every 3,500 extra calories, so roughly every three days, Spurlock overeats his way to an extra two pounds or more.

He could have gained that extra weight anywhere -- at a health-food restaurant in Cleveland or at Taillevent in Paris. He could have burned off the extra weight if he had exercised, but he gives such a solution short shrift. He whines that it's all Ronald McDonald's fault, when really it's a matter of calories in and calories burned.

In fact, it's not easy to eat 5,000 calories at McDonald's.

Consider this daily diet: a breakfast of Egg McMuffin, orange juice and coffee; a lunch of Big Mac, medium fries, Coke and hot caramel sundae; and a dinner of 10 chicken McNuggets, sweet and sour sauce, milk and Fruit 'N Yogurt Parfait. Total calories, according to an excellent calculator on the McDonald's website: 2,730. No skimping here. Now, double it (two Big Macs, 20 McNuggets) and you get a notion of what Spurlock ate every day.

He got fat. Duh!

The question is whether you fall for this sleight-of-hand trick, as many enthusiastic reviewers already have. Are you really as dumb as Spurlock and the agents of the Food Police who appear on the film -- like lawyer John Banzhaf, who sees a tobacco-like pot of gold -- think you are?

What Americans need is balance: Sensible eating plus exercise. Staying fit is a matter of personal choice and responsibility -- which are just what this con man and his co-conspirators want to take away from you.

http://www.techcentralstation.com/images/WashingtonTimes_032504.pdf

I like fast food but only like once or twice a month...I could never eat it more than that. As far as supersize me goes, those kind of movies dont phase me at all...I could watch that movie while eating a Big Mac and fries LOL...it really has no affect on me.

I pretty much think Supersize Me is unrealistic. Who really eats McDonald's 3 times a day for a certain amount of time? I'd like to see it thought, just for fun :p

Don't take that movie too seriously.


http://www.techcentralstation.com/032504F.html

Well...if I remember correctly, a filed lawsuit which was turned down by a judge, said if you can prove a steady diet of fast food would cause physical damage, then you might have a case. Yeah, the end result was pretty obvious, but he was just trying to prove it. Even the doctors he interviewed in the film didn't anticipate the total harm that was done. Either way, it was an interesting thing to watch. If it can influence people to stay away from fastfood, then it's a good enough documentary for me!

Just as I read this I find out my mom's bring home McDonalds on her way home from work.

LONG LIVE THE FAST FOOD INDUSTRY!!!

Seriously. If you eat McDonalds every day for every meal its not THEIR fault your fat. Fast food is ok every once in a while but not for EVERY MEAL! God :rolleyes:

Just as I read this I find out my mom's bring home McDonalds on her way home from work.

LONG LIVE THE FAST FOOD INDUSTRY!!!

And I Just got back from it.

Right On!

I think children should be in shape but I think it should not be forced on them
and I think it should be a family thing.

Well...if I remember correctly, a filed lawsuit which was turned down by a judge, said if you can prove a steady diet of fast food would cause physical damage, then you might have a case. Yeah, the end result was pretty obvious, but he was just trying to prove it. Even the doctors he interviewed in the film didn't anticipate the total harm that was done. Either way, it was an interesting thing to watch. If it can influence people to stay away from fastfood, then it's a good enough documentary for me!Yeah, it was just trying to prove a point. He wasn't trying to focus the blame on McDonald's because he also didn't exercise. He was just trying to get the average habits of Americans through to people in 3 weeks. Of course no one eats there everyday, all day...

"The class action claims the company violated state consumer protection law by providing misleading information about the nutritional value of its menu offerings."

Who seriously doesn't know how bad fast food restaurants are? You don't need "nutritional" information to tell you that.

People are so stupid.

i love Fast food as much as the next person, but i don't eat there no more than say once a week. i know the food is unhealthy, but it is tasty.

and this is good news how?

I had a McDonalds meal today, actually.

But it's not often that I eat fast food. On average, maybe once every couple of months I'll have a meal from McDonalds or Burger King.

I don't think it's bad food, but there are a lot nicer (and healthier) things to eat. I do enjoy it occasionally, though - it makes a nice change.

I like fast food and eat it often. Because of that, I am overweight. But I'm not going to go sue the fast food industry because of that. It wasn't like they were the ones who shoved the quarter pounders, whoppers & biggie fries down my throat.

I can't stand people who can't take responsibilty for their actions and feel they have to blame somebody else.

All that grease must have gotten to the parents head. Who are they going to blame if their kids turn out stupid?

This reminds me of the GG episode last week, where Paris told a student that her mother would have to take an apittude test before she would take her on as an SAT tutor. When the mom asked why, Paris told her, (paraphrased) "I want to find out how much of this is her fault, and how much is yours" :lol: I love GG! <sorry, off topic>

Long live McDonalds. I think I'll go there tonight. :lol:

yeah i mean i hate that kind of stuff too i mean hello if your fat or getting fat cause your eating fast food all the time then heres a clue for all those stupid people out there STOP EATING THAT!!! (sighs) thank you i feel better now lol!

Wow, this is a really old post of mine. Thanks for bringing it back Darth. You must be hitting the archives pretty hard. :p

I can't stand people who can't take responsibilty for their actions and feel they have to blame somebody else.

SAME HERE!!!!