Article: Fast-food restaurants face legal grilling: Lawyers explore whether the fast-food industry should be liable for the effect its meals and marketing have on public health.(Features)(Ideas)

Byline: Seth Stern Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

For decades, Caesar Barber ate hamburgers four or five times a week at his favorite fast-food restaurants, visits that didn't end even after his first heart attack.

But his appetite for fast food didn't stop Mr. Barber, who is 5 foot 10 and weighs 272 pounds, from suing four chains last month, claiming they contributed to his health problems by serving fatty foods.

Even the most charitable legal experts give Barber little chance of succeeding. But his suit is just the latest sign that the Big Mac may eventually rival Big Tobacco as public health enemy No. 1 in the nation's ...

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