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Mcdonalds and Obesity

In: Business and Management

Submitted By tyler1392
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Since 2001, McDonalds and many other fast food restaurants have had to defend themselves against lawsuits alleging that their food has been the sole contributing factor for a customer’s obesity or obesity related medical conditions. The lawsuits began with several cases represented by Samuel Hirsh. The first, which was later dropped, was concerning a customer, Caesar Barber, who was a maintenance worker claiming to have become obese from eating at McDonalds and other fast food chain restaurants. While that case was later dropped, Hirsh was back in court with the same allegations except this time he was representing two teenagers: Ashley Pelman and Jazlyn Bradley.
The teens claimed to have eaten fast food from McDonalds regularly because they believed the food was a healthy choice. They eventually become obese and developed obesity related diseases, including diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol intake. The complaint alleged that McDonalds should have known that is food would cause obesity and related medical conditions in American children and that it deceived customers by offering unreasonably unsafe food items, engaging in deceptive marketing, sales and advertising and failing to warn consumers about the dangers of its products. Additionally, since Pelman and Bradley were minors, Hirsh claimed that they could not be accountable for their food choices.
The outcome, however, was not what the plaintiffs expected. The plaintiffs could not prove that McDonalds products were so completely unhealthy that they were either outside the reasonable consumption standards for consumers or too dangerous to be consumed. McDonalds, and other fast food restaurants, are not solely responsible for the obesity epidemic that is ever-developing. Instead, personal choices and responsibility, declining activity levels, medical history and

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