How are fast food restaurants like McDonalds and KFC still legally open?

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I don't eat McDonald's or KFC however they don't make people overweight, people eating it a lot does. Its like apples are good for you, however if you eat hundreds a day then yer... If people stopped eating their crap they would close.

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Reply 41

AspiringDoctor

No.. it would not be fair to what is probably the majority that treat fast food places as a treat once in a while. People should be able to make educated decisions for themselves as to what they are eating.

Reply 42

TSR Group Staff

Maccy D's is positively healthy compared to some of the things I'm told my Scottish ancestors used to eat. Fit and strong to look at, but internally suffering.
And they wondered why their hearts would give up in their 40's/50s...

Bad eating decisions will always be there, with or without fast food chains.

Reply 43

Fullofsurprises

Original post by purple_panther

That's just the visible effects. It can lead to heart attacks, narrowed arteries, high blood pressure - you name it. However it's not their responsibility. People should look after their own health and have enough common sense not to visit places like that regularly.

It makes me laugh how Americans sue fast food restaurants for making them obese when they only have themselves to blame. It doesn't take a genius to know that food like that is unhealthy. It is super nice though so it's ok to treat yourself every once in a while. And bearing in mind how much profit places like that generate (these are multi-million businesses) they will never be shut down.

It's true that people decide to use these places, but we shouldn't ignore that the big chains spend billions advertising their products and in particular aim their ads at children to hook them at an early age onto burger culture.

The downstream effects of this industry are highly negative - they rely on cheap, factory farmed, intensive cattle and chicken rearing, with vast quantities of pollution produced which enters rivers and oceans and which the industry does not pay anything to help clear up. The beef cattle raised on an industrial scale to provide for McDonalds and Burger King in turn require massive amounts of soya, which is mainly coming from land 'released' from destroyed forest in Brazil.

It is an incredibly anti-environmental and inefficient way to obtain protein and it is also extremely damaging to health, since eating too much meat is basically bad for you right out of the box.

Add to that an explosion of obesity, crippling the health budgets of many countries and you have to question if it's all really worth it just to enrich the shareholders of these US corporations and their cultish, secretive operations.

The growth of ill health and obesity in countries not previously exposed to them, like Japan, China and Russia, can be directly traced to the expansion of their 'restaurants'.

Reply 44

Fullofsurprises

Original post by AspiringDoctor

It often isn't an equal, informed decision.

One the one side - billions of ££s spent by highly sophisticated corporations on skilfully designed psychologically manipulative advertising and packaging, often aimed at children.

On the other - Jo Schmo and his missus and kiddies, with average education and not much money, being pestered to go there by the TV ads.

Reply 45

username1044970

Uh oh, here come the food Nazis! If you come near my BigMac, I'll rip your ****ing head off!

Reply 46

EllieC130

If you're not responsible enough to only eat this stuff in moderation than you deserve to be obese.

Reply 47

c_p

Original post by Yorpul

It's just something I've been wondering for a while, honestly.

I'm aware that there's no laws or legislation against any such restaurant chains being open in the UK, but with Obesity being such a huge problem (pardon the pun) in the western world, surely cutting down on such establishments would ultimately cut down a huge chunk of the obese population?

I know this whole post it pretty vague, but any thoughts?

This is the most naive thing i've read. It's like saying, why do the sell food in the USA there are lots of fat people, let them starve. Or. Why do they sell alcohol because if you drink lots of it you can do silly things. They sell the food cause it makes billions a year. Who in their right mind would stop selling something which brought so much income into a country?!

Reply 48

nic-nac

Yes they are horrendously unhealthy, but if you only have them once in a while and everything else you eat is healthy and you do exercise, then it's fine. They can't help it if fat people go in there most days to gorge themselves. And it would be impossible/illegal for them to stop overweight people entering. I'd be happier if such places didn't exist, but while there's a market for them, they'll exist. But even if they were banned, it wouldnt solve much of our obesity problems. The best thing to do is educate people in how unhealthy such foods are, possibly go for shock tactics in showing people what goes into the food/ how the animals for the meat are treated.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 49

Get_Lucky_606

I think when I saw that photo of a mcdonalds meal that they put in a glass box and left it for a year or so, and it hadn't even decomposed slightly was when I decided to avoid it in future. If it's not good enough for bacteria/germs to eat then I don't wanna put it in my body :tongue:

Reply 50

rosee92

Because that's not the ONLY place they eat? What about all those generic fried chicken shops on the high street, or £1 kebab-meat pizzas from Iceland or meat pies and gravy from the chippy? Or, even just eating a multipack of walkers in one sitting?
The reasons these places are still open:
a) without the food service industry a large part of the economy would collapse
b) what about regular people who want 1 unhealthy meal once in a while?
c) you'd have to ensure that people would make other healthy adjustments other than fast-food intake.

Could really do with some fried chicken now, dammit.