I was just mentioning to a co-worker the other day that I have never had an addictive personality. I drank in college, but quit later in life. Likewise, I smoked cigars for a period of time, but also let that habit go. However, those hamburgers and fries are something I have never been able to shake (pun intended).
Maybe it is because fast food joints are on nearly evey corner in urban communities. Or maybe it is because most American children have been unwittingly trained, socialized even, to know the golden arches from birth. Either way, fast food is as ingrained into our way of life as is t.v. (which is a whole other conversation).
We all know fast food can be very unhealthy, but is fast food akin to tobacco? A case is being made by a Yale research center that says so.
Is Food the New Tobacco?
By Marion Nestle of the Atlantic (3/21/09)
http://food.theatlantic.com/nutrition/is-food-the-new-tobacco.php
The Rudd Center at Yale is devoted to establishing a firm research basis for obesity interventions. Its latest contribution is a paper in the Milbank Quarterly from its director, Kelly Brownell, and co-author Kenneth Warner, an equally distinguished anti-smoking researcher from the University of Michigan. Its provocative title: The perils of ignoring history: Big Tobacco played dirty and millions died. How similar is Big Food?
The paper is getting much attention. A spokesman for the American Dietetic Association, a group well known for its close ties to food companies, emphasizes that food is not tobacco. Of course it's not. But food companies often behave like tobacco companies, and not always in the public interest. The Milbank paper provides plenty of documentation to back up the similarity. Worth a look, no?
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