Playing the blame game for obesity? Try a mirror

OFF/BEAT GLIDEWELL E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published August 2, 2002

I usually try to stay away from the subjects that the talk show comedians are all over, because they have better writers and because it makes a subject get stale more quickly.

But when I read the story about the New York man's lawsuit against four fast-food chains that he blames for his obesity, two things jumped out at me.

The first, of course, was obvious. The lawsuit takes to a ridiculous extreme the great American trend of blaming anyone but ourselves for self-inflicted problems.

The second was that the guy who filed the lawsuit is younger, taller and weighs less than I.

Do I have a cause of action against Budweiser here?

Caesar Barber, who sued McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and KFC saying it is their fault that he is fat and unhealthy, is 5 feet 10 and weighs 270 pounds. I am just under 5 feet 8 and weigh 274. He is 56. I am 58.

I still hold that none of that makes me overweight. My weight would be fine if I were somewhere around 6 feet 7. I am, simply, undertall.

Fat or not, I have not a soul on earth to blame other than myself.

My forebears tended toward a generous girth, so I guess I could blame my genes.

And I could lay claim to a glandular problem -- with my salivary glands. Every time I see food, my mouth waters.

But I have been thin. Lots of times, and although McDonald's et al may have been willing co-conspirators, the primary villain in the case of every ounce I have gained has been me.

As far as I know, I can't sue myself and, if I could, I wouldn't bother because I already know I'm broke.

And I can understand why Southwest Airlines wants to charge really obese people for two seats. To be sure, it is time for airlines to get more realistic about the seat width and legroom they provide in coach seats, but when you are taking up more than one seat, you should pay for more than one.

I can still fit into a regular airline seat, do not need a seat-belt extender and don't raise the separating seat arm for more room unless I am traveling with the person next to me and it is someone who doesn't mind the intimacy of an occasional hip nudge.

But if I were just a little larger, I would just shut up and cough up the extra fare. I have musician friends who buy a seat for their instruments. I'd be willing to buy one for my fundament.

I guess what bothers me most about Barber's lawsuit is that it plays right into the hands of the hysterics who were whining after the tobacco cases that fast food would be the next target and wringing their hands over the feared advent of the food police.

Tobacco was different. Nicotine is an addictive drug that was advertised for years as safe, pleasurable and even as a diet aid. (Remember "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet"?) Jury after jury has found that the tobacco companies knew of the addictive potential and other unhealthy side effects and did nothing.

I remember that the first health warning I saw on a package of cigarettes was while I was sitting in a bunker waiting for a mortar attack in Vietnam and that I saw the warning as humorous under the circumstances. Quick to respond, as usual, I quit smoking a mere 21 years later, and if I get sick because of the delay, the blame is mine, not anyone else's.

But food isn't a drug. It's food. Nobody with a normal IQ is unaware of the risks of consuming too many calories and too much fat. We called cigarettes coffin nails for decades before the surgeon general did, and none of us is so stupid that we don't know when we are putting something in our mouths that we shouldn't.

I'm sorry that Mr. Barber is sick, just as I was sorry a few years ago when I needed cardiovascular surgery in part, to be sure, because of my eating habits.

But I don't need case law or appellate court decisions -- or the food police bellowing into a loudspeaker to tell me to put down the doughnut, step slowly away from it and we all get to live longer.

I already know and so does anyone else with enough functioning brain cells and motor skills to unwrap a Twinkie.

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