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SAN FRANCISCO - (AP) Kids in California may have to give up their Oreos, if a lawsuit filed by a San Francisco public interest lawyer is successful.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Marin County superior court, seeks a ban on the black and white cookies, arguing the trans fats that make the filling creamy and the cookie crisp are too dangerous for children to eat.
Stephen Joseph said he filed the suit against Nabisco, the maker of Oreos, after reading articles that said the artificial fat is hidden in most packaged food, though consumers have no way of knowing.
The big difference between this suit and others that have targeted tobacco and McDonald's fast food is that consumers know that tobacco is bad for their health and that McDonald's food contains a lot of fat, Joseph said.
"Trans fat is not the same thing at all. Very few people know about it," he said, explaining that his suit focuses on the fact that trans fats are hidden dangers being marketed to children.
Nabisco officials were not immediately available for comment. They have 30 days from the May 5 filing date to respond to the suit.
The National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites)' Institute of Medicine (news - web sites), which advises the government on health policy, said last summer that this kind of fat should not be consumed at all. It is directly associated with heart disease and with LDL cholesterol, the 'bad' kind that accumulates in arteries.
But the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) said partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which contain trans fats, are present in about 40 percent of the food on grocery store shelves. Cookies, crackers, and microwave popcorn are the biggest carriers of trans fats, which are created when hydrogen is bubbled through oil to produce a margarine that doesn't melt at room temperature and increases the product's shelf life.
The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) has tried to force food companies to list trans fat content with other nutritional information on food packages, but manufacturers have challenged the rule. Even food labeled "low in cholesterol" or "low in saturated fats" may have high percentages of trans fats.
Informing customers about trans fats on food labels could prevent 7,600 to 17,100 cases of coronary heart disease and 2,500 to 5,600 deaths per year, the FDA has estimated.
Joseph said he has targeted Nabisco because, while other major snack food makers have reduced the amount of trans fats in their products, Nabisco has not.
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I tend to agree Jon, as IM all about personal responsibility, but I can also see the standpoint that our "public health" defender is taking here. Trans Fats are evil, man made nasties that contribute the large percentage of obese people we have in the US. And food manufacturers are under no order to tell us the problems they create. If the government can't get it done in the face of self serving big business lawsuits seeking to block the regulation of the information of this, I dont see why we should be upset when a private group sues, essentially doing the same thing the greedy corporation did to the government.
Health tip of the day: Youre better off eating a tablespoon of straight up butter than you are margarine with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil in it. That **** is nasty.
Did you hear about the lawsuit three Queens teens tried to bring against McDonalds, claiming that they misrepresented their food as healthy and these poor kids are now fat because they ate there EVERY DAY?
Talk about a lack of personal responsibility. Their parents should be sued for costing the taxpayers for this shizza to be even brought to court.
Next thing you know they are going to sue the chocolate companies, beer, and whatever else, that is deemed "bad for us". I know... since pre-marital sex is bad too, we can just sue the crotches of all the people that we may have been tempted with in our lives... and sue the ones that turned us down too, we can call it disrimination!!
I'm going to sue my mom for the hundreds of Oreos she has bought me in my lifetime. I could've sworn they were a health food!
Individuals have to take control of their own lives and stop expecting others to do it. Just because some people can't keep their hands out of the cookie jar doesn't mean the cookies should be taken away from everyone. I can eat as much McDonald's and Oreos as I want; I won't get fat. However my mom and sister have thyroid problems so they do have to watch what they eat and can't easily lose weight (even with exercise). You just have to know your OWN limits.
Besides, who really wants to live forever? I remember when my grandma was in her late 80's saying she'd lived long enough and wanted to die. Her mind was ready, but her healthy body didn't give in until she was almost 101 years old.
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