Nobody Forces Us To Eat Anything by Ryan Lopez

So on October, 2011 I offended someone with one of my blog posts, Foods That Will Make You Fat - Issue No. 25.   

I think I gave a pretty decent response, but suffice it to say, I discontinued the series with the hope of bringing it back someday.

But before I bring back the series - my partner, Ryan gave a response I'd like to share with my readers.  I thought it was great.

"nobody forces us to eat anything, unless you consider the peer pressure to 'be with the group and not a hater' when it comes to eating with family, friends or co-workers. Even so, most restaurants will nowadays at least try to offer something healthy to everyone that is knowledgeable about their health and cares to not over indulge.  Still, if I was raised in a family that never ate healthy and this food is all the food that I knew, I might not be aware of what is healthy and what is not. Granted, it's not hard to see how the sh!t on this particular blog, "Foods that will make you fat," will undoubtedly make you fat, but at the same time until people really started saying something about the health concerns that fast food brings with it, these restaurants had no healthy options. If they did they more than likely were not that healthy to begin with. 

My point is this: While there may be some frivolous lawsuits out there, lawyers aren't cheap and time is money, especially when you consider the expensive attorney you'd need to hire to try and take on a fast food corporation as well as the time it'd take for this case to go through the numerous courts just to possibly get anywhere with any results whatsoever. It's not easy to just go and sue and get money. The people that decided to bravely take this journey on are mainly interested in having their message heard and making change. Take the infamous hot coffee incident that, for the most part, everybody has heard of but no one truly knows the details. A woman at McDonald's spills hot coffee on herself, sues because the coffee is too hot, wins and makes money off her own mistake.

Sounds horrible right? 

But what if I told you that the coffee was so hot that it seared the flesh off her bones. When the poor woman got to the hospital the doctors could see the internal muscle and bones inside the two gaping holes in her legs that the hot coffee had made. She needed multiple skin graphs to fix the injury that her insurance wouldn't cover and that she couldn't afford. So she sues McDonald's for two reasons: To not only get the money that she needs to pay back the debt she owes on her surgery, but to also get McDonald's to lower the temperature on their coffee so this suffering could not happen to anyone else. 

While suing McDonald's because you're fat sounds outright ridiculous, it'd help get them to change what they offer so at least there's something somewhat decent to eat there now for all of us health conscious people out there. But what about those that aren't and all they can afford to feed themselves, as well as their children, is a quick fast food meal? At least those places now give not only alternate food options but possibly what their food products now contain regarding calories and grams of fat. They didn't do this on their own. Somebody had to have the bravery to stand up to them and say something. So next time you may thing about criticizing the "lazy, good for nothing" plaintiff that's suing somebody, or consider standing up and applauding tort reform (lawsuit reform) please check out the documentary, "Hot Coffee". Yes, a plug at this point doesn't sound too good, but it really opened my eyes to what's happening to the courts in our country and how it doesn't look too good for our future unless we stand up and say something right now. Change does not happen by itself, it takes people to make it happen, as well as a whole lot of bitching. I appreciate what these people have done for us, and we all owe them a big thank you. I won't forget it, will you?" 

- Ryan Joseph Lopez