By Nicole Haley

Fast food has become a staple of the American diet and somewhere along the line one quarter of adults in the United States have become obese, according to the Surgeon Genreral. With the estimate of public health costs stemming from overweight and obesity at $117 billion a year, some think that multi-billion dollar fast food chains should be picking up the bill.

Richard Daynard, a Northeastern law professor and president of the Tobacco Control Resource Center, is one of those people. Since the first dismissed lawsuit filed a year ago against McDonald’s alleging the restaurant’s responsibility for the health problems of several obese adults, Daynard has been very vocal about the unfair marketing practices of several food companies.

When he was asked to discuss Marion Nestle’s book, “Food Politics,” at Tufts medical school last year, Daynard presented his own theory for attacking the obesity problem.

“An approach to dealing with the obesity epidemic are suits based on the consumer protection laws,” Daynard said.

In a conference titled “Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic,” to be held at Northeastern the weekend of June 20, Daynard will speak along with experts like author Marion Nestle to discuss the obesity epidemic. There will also be food marketing experts present along with an open panel discussion on that Saturday and a closing session on Sunday to workshop possible litigation approaches.

Daynard explained that under consumer protection laws, “unfair and deceptive practices are illegal.” Daynard claims that fast food establishments often employ misleading advertisements that do not allow consumers to make educated decisions about the food they are eating.

The type of strategy Daynard advocated is currently being used in a new lawsuit with amended charges that is being brought against McDonald’s by a group of overweight children and their parents. The suit claims that McDonald’s deceived consumers through advertising that presented the food as part of a healthy diet and also neglected to acknowledge many additives and preservatives in the food.

From his experience with anti-tobacco litigation, Daynard recognizes a danger in deceptive advertising when it is used to sell a harmful product.

Daynard brought up a case in Illinois on behalf of the smokers of Marlboro Lights that charges that the name of the cigarettes falsely implies that they are less harmful and dangerous than regular Marlboro cigarettes. In this case, the court found that since the advertising was intentionally misleading, these plaintiffs deserved a refund on money spent on cigarettes.

In the dreary painting that hangs on the wall of Daynard’s office, a smiling skeleton in a cowboy hat lights a cigarette for a little girl who looks nervous and confused as she stands with him in front of endless rows of purple gravestones. For Daynard, the most disturbing part of deceptive advertising is the marketing aimed at children.

Daynard said that marketing schemes used by the fast food industry are often aimed at children and use mascots and collectible toys in Happy Meals that encourage children to bug their parents into taking them to McDonald’s and end up “getting kids started on an unhealthy lifestyle.”

Pointing to a rise in child cases of what used to be referred to as adult onset diabetes, Daynard said, “Marketers have a particular responsibility when they’re marketing to kids.”

As a parent himself, Daynard knows how relentless children can be because he, too, has made the trips to McDonald’s for the latest Happy Meal toy craze. From his own experience, Daynard knows that advertising misleads not only children but also the adults responsible for making the food decisions. Though he tried to make a better decision by staying away from hamburgers and opting for the apparently healthier chicken and fish, Daynard said that he later found out that Chicken McNuggets and the Filet of Fish contain more fat than the hamburgers.

“Even if you try to protect yourself, you’re still misled,” said Daynard.

Daynard feels there is hope for real changes to emerge from the fast food lawsuits because, unlike tobacco companies, establishments like McDonald’s can sell their product in a healthy way since the food, in moderation, is not an inherently harmful product.

In France, Daynard said, consumers are told in advertisements that they should not eat at McDonald’s more than once a week. Daynard had additional ideas of how fast food restaurants could responsibly sell their products. He suggested that McDonald’s reprogram computers to print out the calories of each item on receipts along with the recommended daily caloric intake.

“You just bought 3,270 calories and you’re going to eat it all?” Daynard said, imagining the effect of reading exactly what you’re eating next to the prices.

Daynard also said that fast food companies could help “clean up their act” by not encouraging consumers to eat more by making “super sizing” such a bargain.

“They could price their larger products in proportion to the size and the weight of the product. For instance, if a 12 ounce Coke is $1.20 then an 18 ounce coke should cost $1.80,” Daynard said.

He said he believes people are beginning to revolt from what he terms the “race to the bottom,” where fast food restaurants have tried to make their food just a little greasier than the competition. Noting the success of places like Subway, a more healthy food option, Daynard expressed hopes that more chains would follow suit.

Daynard said he hopes “Northeastern is at the vanguard of this revolt” and some of the options in the Curry Student Center like D’Angelo’s and the sushi bar can be a start.

Daynard is working with other law professors and colleagues with the aid of the Public Health Advocacy Institute in a campaign to explore legal approaches to the American public’s weight problem.

Emily Spieler, dean of Northeastern’s School of Law, said the June conference at NU is designed “to try to think creatively to use the law in the campaign to reduce obesity.”

Spieler pointed to environmental regulations, occupational health and safety regulations and the Food and Drug Administration as cases in which the law has been able to regulate public health.

“One of the questions at the conference will be: ‘Is this a situation in which that can be done?'” Spieler said.