Now Big Food = Big Tobacco?
Just when we thought it was safe to eat again, now it's turning out to be a conspiracy. According to today's New York Times, saturated fat may not be the killer we once thought it was. But just as we're about to enjoy our bacon-wrapped, butter-filled chicken-fried steak wrap, we're hearing that Big Food is becoming the next Big Tobacco. "At its core, the notion of treating ‘Big Food’ like ‘Big Tobacco’ means bringing litigation against large food companies in an attempt to hold them financially liable for obesity and other food-related health issues, much in the way that lawsuits in the 1990s and the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement forced tobacco companies to contribute financially to tobacco-related illnesses and health costs, as well as change labeling and marketing strategies," writes P.K. Read for the Christian Science Monitor. Why? Read posits that because medical costs due to obesity are causing the U.S. so much money -- $210 billion a...