Caveat Emptor - An idea upheld in the fast food industry - discuss
 

caveat emp·tor: The axiom or principle in commerce that the buyer alone is responsible for assessing the quality of a purchase before buying.

It's well known that fast food is bad for you, or is it not well known?

The marketing strategies of these fast food chains like McDonalds have no regulations set upon them to state the negative health risks associated with their food. Why??? Eating fast food on a frequent basis can really harm your body more than most tend to think.

The ads on tv and radio present a picture perfect image of their food that appeals to both adults and children, and they buy into it, because that's just how people are.

I think if it were mandatory for these fast food chains to somehow inform their customers about the serious negative health effects from eating their food too frequently, less people would eat it.

I think there are 3 types of people concerning fast food:

1. Those who know the facts about fast food and choose not to eat it.

2. Those who know the facts about their food and choose to eat it regardless.

3. Those who don't know yet still eat it, but do not research it because of a very common character flaw, lack of motivation. But these people do care to a degree, just not enough. Most however DO care once they realize what they're doing.


I believe type "3" probably accounts for 50% of the fast food frequenters. If you intervene on their behalf, and give them the knowledge that they would CARE to have, you will find that a significant # of these people would stop harming their bodies.

And I believe the mentality of caveat emptor is greedy and criminalistic because it goes against human nature.


sorry I had to get that off my chest. :winkwink:

so what do you think? should the fast food industry be required to inform customers, just as cigarrettes have a general's warning?

I do. Fast Food is a very big reason why american's are so obese, and unhealthy.

seen supersize me recently, i guess?

no! although i can't wait for it to come out on the 28th. :)

i've only seen the trailer.


i'm a fitness trainer btw so this stuff is important to me. heh

fuck no, and I feel the same way about the cigarette industry, alcohol, and more than likely all others.

I hate that shit.

McDonald's new healthy salads, yeah right, healthy. Their fiesta salad that they don't put the nutrition facts for anywhere, has 27 grams of fat in in. One more gram than a double cheeseburger.

Did you ever get your arm to be that big?!? : )

Tell me why. Do you honestly believe that everyone who consumes these products knows exactly what it is they're doing to their bodies? (mainly referring to fast food)

You guys wanna see the nutritional values of McDonalds food?

http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_control...n.inde x.html

there it is. Check this out:

A Big Mac contains 600 calories, 33g of FAT

A Double Quarter Pounder, 700 calories, 47g of FAT

10 piece chicken selects, 1,250 CALORIES!!! 64g of fucking FAT!!

Guys you may not know this, but the average individual should consume roughly no more than 1,800 to 2,200 calories a day. These are just 1 pieces of food items coming from McDonalds.

It's fucking insane and horrible for your health.

haha. NO! It has gotten bigger though, workin on it ;)

Cigarettes are bad for you. Right? Tobacco companies have been forced to tell us this. Right?

Do people still smoke cigarettes? Wait, I'll rephrase... do LOTS of people still smoke regardless of fully well knowing that cigarettes are bad for their health? And the answer is... yes!

Isn't it already a law for fast food restaurants to have those little health books laying out the health information about their offered food? People still eat it.

You're assuming all people are stupid and need their hands held throughout life... I agree people are stupid, haha, but holding their hand will do little.

Those little booklets are everywhere. Health information is on the websites.

What else do you want? There's proof for you that people don't give a rats ass. People know it's bad for their health. They don't care because it tastes good and it's easy, and often times fairly inexpensive.

Correct.

Yes! You're right, however, even without the absense of statistical information, I'm willing to bet that the number of people who smoke per capita has dropped to a significant degree, which is well worth the prevention attempts. A life is a life.

I have no idea, and obviously it isn't enough because I don't even know about it.

I don't assume all people are stupid, I don't even assume many are stupid. But people lack significant information while still consuming fast food frequently, but that is not to say that they don't care. By providing them with this information in a successful way, I believe it will help many people make healthier decisions.

It should be pointed out to people as often as possible, and people should be made very aware of it. Know why? People eating lots of fast food are jacking up health insurance prices very strongly, and the extremely obese are often actually physically disabled which causes them to be less productive members of society and cost society money.

They may or may not know. Generally you should know of course unless you and your volleyball where just rescued off an island somewhere.

Fast food does have nutritional sheets available for the asking. TV dinners also have nutrition info posted right on the box, does not stop most from eating these sodium bombs now does it? Yes it does not stop at fast food.

There is a wide variety of products we all consume that we do not know what exactly it is doing to our bodies. So where should it stop? An examples, the amount of butter resturants use in the vegetables (people assume they are healthy).

Regulation is something I am opposed to, and Government holding a product liable over the consumer of that product is generally outlandish.

I mean fuck, take a look at how much money is spent in the fitness industry. (Mind you, the fitness industry within itself are also fucking culprits providing very ineffective means of fat loss).

The fitness industry is a massive industry. People WANT to look good, people CARE about themselves and their health. It's proof enough with all these fad diets.

But they get on these fad diets, they end up worse off than the started (also proven), and they fill very discouraged and go back to their negative eating habbits and lifestyles.

If you give them some solid information though, it will be a step in improving the health of americans.

Hey, what do you think of all those "energy drinks"? Gatorade, Powerade, Propel, etc. I heard Propel is terrible for you, is it true?

You're missing something very important though about human nature. It's a character flaw that many have, people won't ask for nutritional facts. People don't even know fucking dick about the nutritional information on packages, they don't know what sodium is or what it does, they don't know the difference between good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates.

The decisions made by many people who indulge in negative diet habbits act out of ignorance, not carelessness.

To be honest with you, I haven't done much research on them.

Gatorade and powerade to my knowledge aren't bad for you.

But I believe the energy drinks like Red Bull probably are if used excessively.

Generally any of the strong energy drinks used in excess can be bad for you.

Note: But don't think you *need* that stuff. If you supply yourself with a sufficient amount of good carbohydrates before doing any activity, you'll be *aware* enough.

And as for the gym, I've trained for nearly 4 years and have made great gains without ever taking any energy drinks. Just need to know how to eat for those types of activities.

So should every store have a nutrition nut standing out front teaching people what they should have learned in school?

You're aiming for a perfect society. Stop. It won't happen. Worry about yourself. People are idiots. A few more heart attacks from McDonald's is helping the over-population issue.

Actually I am not missing that. It just is none of the Governments damn business if people do not educate themselves.

Most companies try to keep the actual facts from their customers.

Some examples:

There's a Dutch food manufacturer who produces a kind of snack bar which is advertised as "a nutritious and healthy snack". The thing actually contains about a third of the amount of energy the average person needs in a day. Obviously, snacking on these things will make you fat in no time.

Chupa Chups advertise for their lollipops with a commercial in which a professional soccer player explains why lollipops (almost pure sugar) are good for children's health.

Most high calorie products are advertised with lines like "gives you lots of energy". Products with craploads of sugar are advertised with "low in fat".


The corporate misinformation about food literally has billions a year in funding (all advertising for junk food). Some simple government campaigns are no match for that.

If you eat it and your ass spreads then common sense would say that you need to exercise and/or stop eating there. I do not have any remourse for someone who can not use logic to understand cause and effect of eating.

It is not rocket science, everywhere you look there is food and nutrician info out there hinting if not flat out saying the stuff is bad for you. I weigh 240 pounds and am 6'4" and it pisses me off that I can not get super sized fries to eat when I want cuz some fat girl and her dad said basically that they were to stupid to realize that their lifestyle of sitting around plus fatty food meant that they were unhealthy. And yes I do eat fast food from time to time but my motabolism and my exercise takes care of it.

I take responsibility for informing myself, I do not rely on others to hold my hand, I do not like it when people bitch about the world not doing things that responsible adults do for themselves:2 cents:

That's good that that is how you are, unfortunately that's not how others are.

And "responsible adults" are few and far between.

galleryseek do you also think that resturants should have nutritional info inside of their menu's? You know actual resturants, since afterall they are not required to explain that your green beans have been cooked in chicken stock and then sauted in 4 tablespoons of butter, that your mashed potato's have 1/4 pound butter and 1/4 cup heavy cream, that your meat sauce is also loaded with extra fats, and your desert will push your meal over the 4000 calorie amount?

A nutrition nut? No. A more effective means of providing the necessary product information? Yes.

Your attitude about it is negative and heartless. It's a much bigger problem than you think.

Actually yes, I've always wondered to myself why don't resteraunts put the damn nutritional data in their menus, oh - then I realized, it's unhealthy as fuck.

But! The popular resteraunt Ruby Tuesdays has actually began doing that.

Your awfully socialist ya know. By the way your above statement does show how straight regulation free capitalism works.

Listen, there's absolutely nothing wrong with providing healthy, good, positive, useful information pertaining to products. People would STILL have their choice to eat whatever and whenever they want.

But as a fitness trainer I can tell you, people are very oblivious to nutrition and arrive at a giant epiphany once they realize all of the bad things they put in their body. Sure, there will still be people who eat bad things regardless of what they know. But providing this information that the MASS of americans are ignorant to, would definitely help, more than you think.

Not going to knock you since I do believe in an above post you even did a knock on the gym industry which also is as crooked as hell.

You want something done, then do it. Get on the publich school systems ass and make damn sure they just do not provide lip service to nutrition. I just say leave the companies out of it and make the consumer aware.

My attitude isn't negative, it's realistic.

What is your more effective means? Post your ideas. I haven't seen any yet.

Yeah take a look at any Snickers commercial...they are actually suggesting you use it as a pick me up, or filler when you miss meals...it's quite crazy.

I don't know, haven't really thought about it to be honest with ya.

But that still doesn't mean nothing can be done.

The fitness industry is really only 20 years old...

It's in the beginning stages still, and the media and companies are taking advantage of the fact that now since people are health-aware, that they will listen to anything being promoted like mindless drones.

A McDonalds commercial, represents the food as being the greatest thing in the world, appealing to both children and adults. They will buy into it because human nature likes to please the senses.
All over you see fad diets, people try them and end up worse off. Have you ever seen any commercials that promote anything actually Healthy? Or speak out against the atrocities of these fast food chains? NO, because there's money to be made, doing that will fuck everything up.

Society is still ignorant about nutrition to an extent at which they will continue to eat these foods regularly. But this will change, as it is in human nature and in society that we advance our knowledge.

You can say that people know fast food is bad but they eat it all the time anyways because it's a cheap, quick form of satisfying hunger -- but if you take these people and show them where they will be health-wise years down the road IF they continue on their path, it'll be a shocker of significant portions.

Just like the beheadings you hear about in Iraq, you never quite fully understand it or take it AS seriously as you would IF you actually see the videos.

Seeing your body is an irrepirable damaged state is very scary. These small meals, meal after meal, day after day will add up and take it's toll on the body.

Once people really realize this, I believe a lot will have the motivation it takes to do what they need to do to avoid these problems. That means eating more healthy, even if it's more expensive. It's worth it, this is your body, your life, YOU, we're talking about.

Helping people understand this to the fullest extent possible WILL yield results, and good results at that.

How we will help them, I don't know. But it can be done. If we can send a man to the moon, we can educate people about nutrition.

This idea that people simply don't care, or have the means to eat healthy is complete and utter bullshit. People care, they care enough to get up in the morning and brush their teeth, why? Because they fear they will rot. Your body will rot too, if you nutritionally neglect it.