Americans innocent, but guilty from eating

     Were Eating More, and Enjoying It Less, blared the headline for Candy Sagons Food section article in the April 19 Washington Post. Is it any wonder why with the medias persistent attacks on the food industry?

     According to a new Pew Research Center survey, only 39 percent of Americans say they greatly enjoy eating a drop from the 48 percent who felt that way in a 1989 Gallup poll, Sagon reported, noting the number among those who consider themselves overweight is significantly lower than 17 years ago.

     People are feeling guilty, Sagon quoted Thomas Wadden of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, adding, Theyre forever checking their conscience before digging into that ice cream sundae.

     News outlets like The New York Times are helping to pile on the guilt, while driving readers away from personal responsibility by blaming fast food makers themselves.

     The same day as Sagons Post article, The New York Times ran a story critical of McDonalds fast food restaurants for beefing up its bottom line by aggressively marketing its dollar-menu items to young people.

     McDonalds has marketed the Dollar Menu to teenagers, young adults and minorities who are already plagued with an especially high incidence of obesity, complained Times writer Melanie Warner.

     Warner went on to cite critics of the fast food industry, including Jerome Williams, a communications professor at The University of Texas at Austin. Williams attacked McDonalds for making Big Macs and double cheeseburgers seem fun and exciting to young black and Hispanic consumers. Williams called that marketing demographic a segment where you have these huge obesity issues.

     The Business & Media Institute has previously documented Warners slanted reporting, on soft drink and fast food producers. The Business & Media Institute also has released special reports on the medias coverage of the so-called obesity epidemic.