Los Angeles fights fast food

[SaGa]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080730/ap_on_...z2YCe6aSQ9H2ocA

LOS ANGELES - City officials are putting South Los Angeles on a diet.

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The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to place a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in an impoverished swath of the city with a proliferation of such eateries and above average rates of obesity.

The yearlong moratorium is intended to give the city time to attract restaurants that serve healthier food. The action, which the mayor must still sign into law, is believed to be the first of its kind by a major city to protect public health.

"Our communities have an extreme shortage of quality foods," City Councilman Bernard Parks said.

Representatives of fast-food chains said they support the goal of better diets but believe they are being unfairly targeted. They say they already offer healthier food items on their menus.

"It's not where you eat, it's what you eat," said Andrew Pudzer, president and chief executive of CKE Restaurants, parent company of Carl's Jr. "We were willing to work with the city on that, but they obviously weren't interested."

The California Restaurant Association and its members will consider a legal challenge to the ordinance, spokesman Andrew Casana said.

Thirty percent of adults in South Los Angeles area are obese, compared to 19.1 percent for the metropolitan area and 14.1 percent for the affluent Westside, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Research has shown that people will change eating habits when different foods are offered, but cost is a key factor in poor communities, said Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

"Cheap, unhealthy food and lack of access to healthy food is a recipe for obesity," Brownell said. "Diets improve when healthy food establishments enter these neighborhoods."

A report by the Community Health Councils found 73 percent of South Los Angeles restaurants were fast food, compared to 42 percent in West Los Angeles.

South Los Angeles resident Curtis English acknowledged that fast food is loaded with calories and cholesterol. But since he's unemployed and does not have a car, it serves as a cheap, convenient staple for him.

On Monday, he ate breakfast and lunch — a sausage burrito and double cheeseburger, respectively — at a McDonald's a few blocks from home for just $2.39.

"I don't think there's too many fast food places," he said. "People like it."

Others welcomed an opportunity to get different kinds of food into their neighborhood.

"They should open more healthy places," Dorothy Meighan said outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. "There's too much fried stuff."

Councilwoman Jan Perry said that view repeatedly surfaced at the five community meetings she held during the past two years. Residents are tired of fast food, and many don't have cars to drive to places with other choices, she said.

Los Angeles' ban comes at a time when governments of all levels are increasingly viewing menus as a matter of public health. On Friday, California became the first state in the nation to bar trans fats, which lower levels of good cholesterol and increase bad cholesterol.

The moratorium, which can be extended up to a year, only affects standalone restaurants, not eateries located in malls or strip shopping centers. It defines fast-food restaurants as those that do not offer table service and provide a limited menu of pre-prepared or quickly heated food in disposable wrapping.

The definition exempts "fast-food casual" restaurants such as El Pollo Loco, Subway and Pastagina, which do not have drive-through windows or heat lamps and prepare fresh food to order.

The ordinance also makes it harder for existing fast-food restaurants to expand or remodel.

Rebeca Torres, a South Los Angeles mother of four, said she would welcome more dining choices, even if she had to pay a little more.

"They should have better things for children," she said. "This fast food really fattens them up."

i give 2 cheers, thou debate over the freedoms of companies will spawn from this

[TitsMcGee]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080730/ap_on_...z2YCe6aSQ9H2ocA

"They should have better things for children," she said. "This fast food really fattens them up."

Then don't feed it to your damn kids. Seriously when is shit like this going to stop? I am so fucking sick of people blaming fast food because they're fat. News flash bubba, the reason you're fat is because you don't get your ass up off the couch. It seems like there isn't any personal accountabilty for anything these days.

[SaGa]

Then don't feed it to your damn kids. Seriously when is shit like this going to stop? I am so fucking sick of people blaming fast food because they're fat. News flash bubba, the reason you're fat is because you don't get your ass up off the couch. It seems like there isn't any personal accountabilty for anything these days.

i believe this is more to the price of healthy vrs unhealthy food and accessability of getting it. even where i live the nearest market for fresh food and veggies is 2 miles. not to bad but still a bit far without a car

i agree there isnt enough promotion for activities outside the home. perhaps the tv/video game culture is part to blame. but if a famine ever where to happen in the us, my skinny ass whouldnt last long.

[TitsMcGee]

i believe this is more to the price of healthy vrs unhealthy food and accessability of getting it. even where i live the nearest market for fresh food and veggies is 2 miles. not to bad but still a bit far without a car

But that isn't the fault of the fast food companies. The city needs to make some incentive for markets to open up in those areas. If you think it's bad for your health then don't eat it. Sometimes you gotta make the extra effort if you want to eat healthy.

Granted this is just my opinion because I never had a problem like this. Where I grew up the nearest fast food joint was 15 miles away, and my parents had huge veggie gardens in the summer.

[SaGa]

But that isn't the fault of the fast food companies. The city needs to make some incentive for markets to open up in those areas. If you think it's bad for your health then don't eat it. Sometimes you gotta make the extra effort if you want to eat healthy.

Granted this is just my opinion because I never had a problem like this. Where I grew up the nearest fast food joint was 15 miles away, and my parents had huge veggie gardens in the summer.

or is it, fast food chains spawn bye the densly populated area. creating convenience to gain market share. the convenience isnt the speed of the food, but the distence you are to that food. if the nearest place for food walking is down the street, you will eventually give in and start going there. if fastfood control 75% of the market, they hold the power to choose the best locations. and holding the biggest market means they can undercut grocery food prices. yup basicly yum corporation in particular almost holds a monopoly on prepared food.

and in reality its all about money, those who make more will probly eat healthy. but those who have 20 dollars for food for the whole week. might find things getting tight.

perhaps this is big brother at work