McDonald's France Advises Limiting Fast Food

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Here's something you don't see every day!

 

http://www.sltrib.com/2002/nov/11012002/business/12309.htm

 

McDonald's France Advises Limiting Fast Food

Friday, November 1, 2002

 

 

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

WASHINGTON -- It isn't often that a food company tells its

customers that it should eat less of its food. But that is what McDonald's

appears to have done in France.

In an " advertorial " about obesity in children that appeared in the

magazine Femme Actuelle in May, McDonald's France said the number of visits

to its outlets should be limited. Forbidding children from eating fast food

would be counterproductive, it said. " However, there is no reason to eat

excessive amounts of junk food, nor go more than once a week to McDonald's. "

A spokesman for McDonald's in the United States said the company

did not agree with the views expressed in the advertorial.

" This is the opinion of one consultant in France, " the company

said in a statement. " We do not share this view at all. "

The company declined to say how a consultant was able to place the

views in a French publication without the approval of company executives.

John Banzhaf III, a professor of law at George Washington

University who pioneered lawsuits against the tobacco industry and has now

focused on the fast-food industry, said, " It's one thing for a health

advocate like me to call for something like this, but when someone in

industry calls for what we are saying, that makes it sound very reasonable. "

McDonald's has had an uneasy relationship with the French recently

because of mad cow disease and the efforts of one French citizen, Jose Bove,

to protect French culture from foreign influences. Bove became a folk hero

in 1999 when he led a group of French farmers to smash windows in a

McDonald's in the town of Millau.

Along with other fast-food companies, the relationship of

McDonald's with the American public has also come under some strain.

Nutrition advocacy groups have been trying for years to attribute obesity to

the fast-food industry, without much success.

But lawsuits have begun to replace hectoring during the last year.

The suits contend that fast-food companies should warn customers that their

products are high in fat and calories and that frequent consumption can

cause obesity. The suits are similar to those filed against tobacco

companies.

The advertorial in the French magazine " shows that health warnings

about the dangers of eating out often at fast-food restaurants are not only

appropriate but may be necessary to avoid liability if children become obese

as a result of overindulgence, " Banzhaf said.

The food industry says such suits are frivolous, and the National

Restaurant Association and the Grocery Manufacturers of America have asked

Congress for protection against them.

McDonald's also described as frivolous a lawsuit that Banzhaf's

law students filed against the company for not disclosing that it used beef

tallow in making its fries. But the company paid $12.5 million in March to

settle the case, he said.

Even before the lawsuits, McDonald's, Coca-Cola and several other

companies began a campaign aimed at childhood obesity to deflect mounting

criticism of their products. In addition, McDonald's announced last month

that it was switching the fat in which it cooks its fries to one that

contains fewer trans fatty acids. Trans fatty acids raise cholesterol

levels.

In the early 1990s, when nutrition labeling became mandatory, the

fast-food industry succeeded in exempting itself from the requirement. But

because of increased pressure, it now says that nutrition information is

readily available in all of its outlets, though some critics contend the

information is difficult to find.

Banzhaf said that the majority of people would probably say that

fat people have no right to sue fast-food companies. But he added " that that

is exactly what they said when we said smokers could sue tobacco companies,

and we have won the suits and we have been sustained on intermediate

appeals. "

" When you win on the trial level and win on appellate level, " he

added, " they are no longer frivolous suits. "

Banzhaf has organized a group of health experts and lawyers who

worked on the tobacco cases to expand the lawsuits. " We want to combine the

altruistic motives and profit motives of lawyers and use them against

obesity, " he said.