Two teenagers sued McDonald's claiming it caused them to become obese. The judge ruled they must prove McDonald's deceived customers about health risks and that without deception, they would not have become overweight. Another lawsuit involves a 15-year-old who ate at McDonald's nearly every day for years and is now over 400 pounds. His lawyer argues people are too ignorant about nutrition and McDonald's has an obligation to disclose food is unhealthy. However, others believe young people should make their own decisions about food and that advertising is not necessarily deceiving.

1. McDonald´s and obesity
Conversation exercise
by Tatiana Medeiros

2. McDonald´s and obesity
• Last year, Bronx teenagers Ashley
Pelman and Jazlyn Bradley sued
McDonald's, claiming that it had
caused them to become obese and
unhealthy.
www.cnn.com

3. McDonald´s and obesity
• The judge ruled that the girls must allege
(and be prepared to prove) that
McDonald's has successfully fooled its
customers into a state of ignorance about
the health risks of eating its product and
that in the absence of McDonald's
deception, they would not have become
overweight.

4. Let´s talk.
• Do you think the American Law should
forbid people from suing Food
Companies? Why or why not?

5. McDonalds Made Me Fat!
• Gregory Rhymes,15, of the Bronx, is taking
McDonald's to court, claiming that the burger
giant made him fat.
• Super-sized at 400-plus pounds and standing
only 5-foot-6, Rhymes says he ate at
McDonald's nearly every day, sometimes
several times a day, ever since he started first
grade --- about 3,300 days straight.

6. McDonalds Made Me Fat!
• Gregory's mother, Ruth Rhymes, thinks
it's only fair that her kid should now try
sinking his teeth into McDonalds. "I had no
idea that he was destroying himself," she
said in papers filed in Manhattan federal
court. "I had no idea."

7. McDonalds Made Me Fat!
• The lawyer acting on behalf of these
outsized teens is Samuel Hirsch. He says
people are too dumb to know what's good
for them and that McDonald's has an
obligation to make known that their food is
unhealthy.

8. McDonalds Made Me Fat!
• "Nobody thinks that going to McDonald's
can be unhealthy because McDonald's
promotes their food as healthy," says
Hirsch. "Young people are not in a
position to make a choice after the
onslaught of advertising and promotions."

9. Let´s talk.
• Do you think young people are prepared
to make their own decisions about the
food they eat?
• Do you think that Advertising is really
deceiving?

10. Let´s talk.
• Do you think young people are prepared
to make their own decisions about the
food they eat?
• Do you think that Advertising is really
deceiving?