SAN FRANCISCO - 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.
LOL
Well I hear those transfats are bad crap, really they should invest more time in getting kids active and moving instead of worrying to much about their diet. But the motto here in the states is: When in doubt, sue somebody.
They should be suing for Nabisco to label their product, though, they are going about this rather stupidly.
neoolong wrote:Seriously though, exercise and a healthy diet is much more important than banning a chocolatey treat that can be perfectly okay in moderation.
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Wow. I never eat Oreos anyway, so it doesn't really affect me.
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sounds like something Dr. Cocteau would have done.
All I can say is this, each and every oreo package says exactly how much fat and how many calories are contained within each serving. If that isnt enough information for the public to make an informed decision, then I dont know what is.
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Darth Yoshi wrote:Wow. I never eat Oreos anyway, so it doesn't really affect me.
same here.
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You know, the smokers all warned you about this...alright, fine, nobody sets their oreos on fire and fills the air with secondhand transfat, but I'm going to laugh my fool head off when Big Macs and Oreos are sin taxed to three times their fair market value by the same people who made cigarettes cost $5 a pack.
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cant agree more Red. I consider all this crap against smoking bullshit, especially in NYC. Let the market decide if people want to breathe in second hand smoke or not. If there is enough of a market for people who dont want to, then restaurants will individually ban smoking. There is no need to ban it all over.
Oreo's can be seen as the same thing, educate people about what is in the food they eat, and about healthy living in general (no one has ever argued that Oreos are good for you), if they still choose todo things that are detrimental to their health, its their problem, not mine.
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Well at least it's not about racism with the hard black man protecting the soft white man from the imperialist white invaders known as my teeth. Because as you know, Oreos represent the death of the American dream.
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Of all the chocolatey foods to ban, they choose Oreos!! They're almost as well-known as Star Wars by now, for goodness' sakes!! Take them away, and you cut something out from the heart of America!
When will these people ever come to realize that even with all those chocolatey foods, just practicing simple moderation and exercise would absolutely slaughter these fat problems and send them screaming to hell!!
Yet another reason why I feel that California should sink into the ocean. Or at least have anyone involved with the government there dragged out and hung by thier toes until they scream bloody murder.
Fucking PC police state.
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Shinova wrote:When will these people ever come to realize that even with all those chocolatey foods, just practicing simple moderation and exercise would absolutely slaughter these fat problems and send them screaming to hell!!
NapoleonGH wrote:cant agree more Red. I consider all this crap against smoking bullshit, especially in NYC. Let the market decide if people want to breathe in second hand smoke or not. If there is enough of a market for people who dont want to, then restaurants will individually ban smoking. There is no need to ban it all over.
Yes, all hail the infinite wisdom of The Market. The Market is wise. The Market is all-knowing. The Market will always make the choices that are best for society as a whole, rather than allowing short-sighted profit motives to dominate. The Market is never wrong
Oreo's can be seen as the same thing, educate people about what is in the food they eat, and about healthy living in general (no one has ever argued that Oreos are good for you), if they still choose todo things that are detrimental to their health, its their problem, not mine.
No such thing as second-hand Oreos. This is a red-herring thread hijack.
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I can't believe that. OMG. I've eatin those things all my life. Yeah, what WON'T kill you nowadays? They want my Oreos? Alright, give me the newspaper and 40 minutes. I'll shit out the entire pack for those assholes.
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