Chew On This: Fast Food and Kids

Fast food places don’t sell healthy food because we won’t buy healthy food, we want it cheap, and speedy. Maybe we should pack our kids lunch and put a sticker or a free toy in side.
I also got myself a nutrition guide. It was an eye opener.

We were in Odessa Ukraine this year adopting our son. McDnoalds is very popular there also and is also marketed to kid and young adults. Like the tobacco companies they are marketing to the young and uneducated.

It is clearly up to consumers to dictate where their dollars go. Those in the know, need to advocate to schools the importance of healthy school food lunches, limiting fast food and the marketing associated with it, and also push for solid nutrition education and physical activity from elementary on up through high schools. Fast food is cheap, convenient and ubiquitous, but the trade off is excess calories, sodium and fat. Fast food chains have nutrition facts available in their restaurant chains and on the their websites.

More importantly, fast food is what it is, FAST food. It was never meant to replace quality home cooked meals or make promises to your health. They are a corporate business and they are in it for money.
Your health is your wealth, guard it aggressively.

Contemporary muckrakers like Eric Schlosser, Marion Nestle (Food Politics) and Greg Critser (Fat Land) have reached the adult public, and the fast food industries are taking notice.

Fast food is the new tobacco. The US needs laws that severely limit fast food advertising to children and youth.

Please check out www.cspinet.org

I find myself agreeing with VH. We are a fast-food nation. I think we can all blame whomever we want for our choice but in the end, they are our choices. What about personal responsibility?

I won't dismiss the effects of marketing, BUT... if a one-year old child is drinking soft drinks, who put it in their little spill-proof cup?

Again, I won't dismiss the effects of marketing, BUT... market to children all you want. Who is buying fast food for them?

Parents - you have got to take some responsibility on this issue. For the sake of your child's health! Children DO NOT rule the roost. Learn to say no. You're not going to be able to control what they eat at school, etc., but you can try to balance that with healthy food at home.

I question whether more and more legislation is the answer. It will be interesting to watch Australia. Banning Happy Meals is... well... interesting.

Fast lives = Fast food and I can't see us slowing down anytime soon.

It is obvious to me that we are not the most healthy society, in many ways. However, I think the most important issue here is that health lies with the people and their choices. Fast food companies have turned 180 degrees, working hard to bring healthier foods and options to their menus, but regardless, we can't forget that it is a free-choice world...what you eat, how much, where, when---it's all up to you. We ARE in control of what we, and our kids eat. We can't just be looking for someone, some company, or an entire industry to blame.

I have a two year old who loves Coke. She learned to say it very early on - which seemed to me a testament to their advertising. But I've learned to say "no" when she asks for it. No matter what or how much is being advertised, it's my job to teach her healthy eating habits and when it's okay to indulge a little bit. That's the rule for McDonald's - it's a treat, not a habit. If we try to blame McDonald's or some other company for our eating habits - as Schlosser seems to be doing - we'll never have the personal responsibility or self-discipline to eat healthy because temptation will always be there, whether they advertise it or not.

We can whinge and complain all we like about wanting the government to do something about fast food giants selling to our kids.

It won't happen. The government isn't going to do anything.

Fact is, the responsibility is ours, as parents.

I do not take my son to McDonalds - never have, and never will. Not surprisingly, he is fit, lean, and healthy, and has never had any of the illnesses that his age cohort seem to get with regularity. No ear infections, no colds, no flus, no 'bugs'. Not even a sniffle. He loves his broccoli, and he steals fruit from the fruit bowl with regularity. Nectarines are his favourite food.

I am a parent. The buck stops with me. I am responsible for what my son eats, and the nutritional lessons he learns. Blaming others is just passing the buck and refusing to take action. It is lazy parenting.

In the end, it's not that hard to say 'no'. It's only a two-letter word, after all!

No kid out there wants a Happy Meal for the food...it's all about the toy. When we were kids, McD's was a very special treat and it was rare. My dad claimed that the food was basically free in a Happy Meal and that you just paid for the toy. A lot of people don't know that you can purchase JUST the toy from fast food places...why don't parents just buy the toy and purchase something healthy off the menu for their kids? They sell salads, fruit and yogurt parfaits, milk, etc. Make your kids their own Happy Meal. I really do hope they ban Happy Meals though. It will make the parents' jobs much easier. As a side note: I will never take my kids to McDonalds because I think that once they know what a Happy Meal is, they will try to beg me to go there all the time. Which I do NOT intend to do.

Fortunately, in a "Fast Food Nation" like ours, we have choices, choices about where to eat and what to eat. What we do with those choices and whether or not we exercise personal responsibility and moderation is up to us. People like Schlosser advocate taking away those choices. That's just wrong, in this parent's opinion.

While not eating at fast food restaurants is always an option, many people choose to eat their out of convenience; they really are much faster. As such, eating there does not mean that people are forced to order unhealthy foods. Several of these restaurants now offer healthy alternatives such as salads and fruit too.

My son has been to McDonalds but only a few times. He is 27 months. In the last 6 months I can only think of twice that he has gone. The other day he saw a advertisement in the mail with a big M and said MMMM! Mcdonalds is very good in getting the kids to remember them.
I am living in Europe (portugal) right now and was surprised how much "bad" food is available. America isn't the only place killing itself. I get irritated when people here complain about american fat food because all the places I have eaten here (cheaper places) serve a giant fatty steak with a fried egg on top with fries piled high like a haystack and bread on the side. What really is the difference between that and a mcdonalds meal? The only difference I see is that Mcdonalds has much smaller proportions, elimits the egg, and puts it's meat on the bread. Either meal will kill you dead.

My brother is 18 months old (I'm 21 and nanny for him regularly) and a 50's-style McDonald's is on our walk route. He was thirsty and I'd forgotten milk on our walk or else I'd have never gone in there. Brother was smitten with the inside of that McDonald's instantly--he loves lights (crazy neon 50's stuff everywhere and chrome!) and be-bop music (jukebox! with lights!) and of course black/white, red, yellow colors everywhere, he didn't want to leave for an hour after he drank the milk. And that was without even going into the Playplace (he's too little)--intentionally or not, McD's has their audience nailed down! Nicely, though, the people at the McDonald's were nice and chatted with me politely although all I bought was a milk and a water for an hour of sitting/running around the store.

I can't believe kids that little will drink soda! Brother gets the worst 'icky' face, just like the cat, whenever he finds a fizzy drink (diet coke or seltzer water are often around our house in glasses, Bro likes to investigate).

But yes, as a caregiver for a young child, it is my responsibility to say no. He gets upset when something yummy is gone or denied entirely, but he's soon enough on to the next thing. It is okay to have some ice cream or something else unhealthy once in a while--but it freaks me out to see a toddler with an entire cone! Having him around makes me eat less junk because I will order the small of whatever it is (gone faster, and out of sight for him is out of mind) and then he has a few bites as well, so I end up eating maybe less than half of what I would have.

As another opinion on the Happy Meals: I never liked Happy Meal toys as a kid beyond a couple Sesame Street wind-up cars that little brother plays with today. It was definitely about the food for me, and remained so as an adult--it was easy to tell I'd have weight problems from my focus at an early age. Dad is constantly amazed at how hard it is to get Bro to stop running around and eat, compared to myself as a kid.

...my roommate (now a die-hard vegetarian) once about 2 years ago shared a rather disturbing McDonald's story with us. I wouldn't have believd him, but shamefully, I had accomopanied him that night after the concert we had been at- and good ol' Mickey D's was the only light left on the street... Anyway, the next day, he pooped out a whole french fry STILL INTACT. Anyone who justifies feeding their own children that plasticized garbage by saying it was the toy's fault should just feed their child the toy instead. Kids, can you say HY-DRO-GENATED?!!

That's very gross. I suspect your friend was eating at a hundred miles an hour. Remember to chew your food before swallowing ;-)

I'm not about to defend McDonald's nutritional track record, but I do believe only a parent has a right to dictate what their children should eat. Not other people or governments.

McDonald's is one of the few places a parent can take a young child. You don't get stared at by other customers when your child makes a noise. The restaurants are clean and the restrooms have nappy/diaper-change areas. You don't get thrown out if your kid makes a mess or drops their food.

Busy parents somtimes have other factors to think about than calculating the calorie content of each item in their food. Also, you can choose apple slices and water for your kids if you wish.

It's called freedom of choice.

This is a terrible thing on which is happening in America.

More kids than ever is becomming obese, and people are eating too much chocolates, pizza, hamburgers, chips, pretzels, pasta, and grains. I broke that habit a year ago and weight in the 150s, despite a whole grain addictive diet. Before, I feasted on cheeseburger subs, cookies, and on top of that, my parents were eating a poor diet.

I am down to between 155 and 160 pounds, while my father, although around the same height is now over 230 pounds, while my mother is around 200 pounds. I am still having that big bowl of cereal in the morning. Despite my cereals being whole grain, I think that I have to try to kick the cereal-eating habbit, altough it's going to be a tough one.

My parents are still a poor eater and a poor cooker. Still, I have a decision, should I eat my family's prepared dinner, or should I go on my own and order out fish (unfried) for dinner? Well, on some nights, I order out foiled salmon with vegtables and a cuke salad from Firefly's BBQ restaurant. Sure is a heck of a lot more healthier than chili or stroganoff or that carb-rich chicken alfrado or ziti.

But the whole situation? Not only kids are being exposed to vending machines at schools (Never ever seen one in my school career except for the one at the cafeteria at Keefe Tech serving some chips and fruit drinks from Veryfine) selling candy bars, chips, sodas, and cakes, but compounding the problem, more parents are eating junk food as well. Fokes, the things in the vending machine is 95% sugar, refined grains, and refined flowered dough, and trans fats. And the fast food restaurants they often go out is laden with grease, gunk, sugar, and artery cloging junk out there. And, more supermarkets are bracing out for more junk food on the horizen.

Fokes, we can solve this issue. Do I support a complete ban on vending machines? No. Do I support a ban on fast food restaurants? No. However, can they still make money off of vending machines through funraisers and more? Absolutely. Schools can start putting healthier items on vending machines. They can start replacing candies, chips, and pies with fruits, vegtables with peanut butter, raw coconut cubes, and various nuts and even nut/dark chocolate protein bars, even soy-free, grain-free protein bars. If they have soda machines, they can replace the sodas with mineral waters that have natural flavors without sugars or sugar alcohals.

Fast food restaurants can replace burgers and fries with fish, grass-fed steaks, and steamed vegtables and fruit. they also need to transition to organic means and replace the refined flours with whole grain flours as far as the buns go. McDonalds has said that they are going to sell healthier foods, well, they need to start doing that now. Also, they can replace shakes and sodas with fruit juices, water, and salt-free vegtable juice. They have to quit using vegtable oil and go back to clean animal fat.

But parents are also dieting poorly in the US. I don't know what to do about this situation about a family who's kids are eating junk foods at school while parents are bringing kids out to fast foods and restaurants selling junk foods.

Further compounding the problem, we are growing foods in an awful manner. We are drowing our crops with synthetic herbicides, fertalizers, and pesticides; we are feeding our livestocks junk food products; and we are bracing biotechnology in a wrong way.

To solve the obesity crisis, we need to cut down on grains, serve better foods at vending machines, and stop growing our crops and livestocks in an unhealthy manner. Kids need to start exercising, and schools need to make physical education fun for the kids. They also need to stop serving potato tots, fries, hanburgers, pizza, fried foods, cookies, and cakes to kids and start selling a variety of grass-fed meat, fish, organic fruits and vegtables, and raw milk raised in a clean farm. They need to stop selling candy bars and chips at the vending machines and start selling raw chocolate milk sweetned with better sweetners, fruits and vegtables, and nut mixes. This will go a long way towards a healthier future. Furthermore, fast food restaurants need to throw away the deep friers and frying pans, start grilling meat instead of frying them, and start selling steamed vegtables. Therefore, I can still go to fast food restaurants, while at the same time, preserve my health.

thankyou so much fo r comeing to our school and signing my book called chew on this. my shcool is glen crest middle school in glenellyn illinos. some kids didnt like the assembly and thought it was boreding but i said you should listen to what he is saying it is true. i payed attention the hold time and told some other of my friends that dont go to this school about it and told them they could borrow my book anytime...well dont want to waist anymore of your time. THANKYOU for reading this e-mail and i hope to here back from you.
~kelsey

i dont understand why adults cant walk into a fast food place and order something healthy! set an example for your children that there ARE alternatives to hamburgers and fries and milkshakes. and if the toy is so darn important, did you know you can buy the toy with any food purchase for a $1 anyway? on the rare occasions that i take my 3 kids to fast food establishments, i usually order a salad or the fruit cup. i have seen so many "fat families" (where the mother, father, and ALL the kids are overweight) that it just saddens me to know that they will most likely be that way the rest of their lives and suffer an untimely death. why would anyone want to shorten their life span and the QUALITY of their lives like that?

some fast food places sell healthy things believe it or not. mcdonalds have salads and fruit. so i'm against this whole banning thing. it's bogus

scratch my last comment. i think we should be able to walk into a fast food restraunt and order something heathly. yes mcdonalds has helthy things but come on you don't no what stuff they put in their salads. like the chicken salad. is the chicken even healthy for u. we should be able to order something healthy knowing it's healthy. yes it has fruit parfaits but is the fruit parfait really healthy for u. i mean come on we should be focusing on our kids. if we don't start feeding them healthy stuff now just think what they will eat in the future! they'll eat junk!! never anything healthy. so we need to teach them a leson now! comercials for other fast food places are going aginst mcdonadls saying that mcdonalds doesn't have healthy chicken but that their place does have healthy chicken. can we trust them? i think not no fast food place has anything healthy. trust me i'm 13! i know.

I believe rachel brook's comment is very interesting, as a college student researching this, i have found out that the changes made in places like Mc Donald's in terms of their introduction to salads are very controversial. You will be shocked to hear that having known a employee of Mc Donalds the salad dressing used in Mc Donalds contains more fat than alot of the other products sold, aswering rachels question of what they use in their salads. yet we think these changes are meant to reduce the people's fat intake and give more freedom over the choice of food in fast food resturants. It has given more choice but the fat intake levels could not have dropped very significantly surely. Australia is correct in that something must be done about the epeidemic of obesilty and i think they are using common sence in taking action, yet this action lacks controll, instead of banning happy meals they should try to push the food companies into making substantial changes in their food, if it wants a reducement in overwieght people. However is this taking peoples freedoms away, fast food is like other people have said meant to be fast, but i dissagree when people think that all fast food companies must be unhealthy, i mean look at subway, it is far more healthy than places like Mc Donalds, we can tell just by looking at their products, yet why should people have their food choices made for them by the government. Eating is one of the most pleasurable things in life and our freedom of it will be destroyed if people continue to think in such drastic ways. yet the issue of obesity is very concerning, their is a fundamental problem here. Taking away freedom must be wrong but it can create good things, where as letting freedoms continue could cause serius problems in the future, for peoples health.

Hokay so heres the kids right and theres the McD's. Hokay so one day McD's just decides whatever we're going to poison the kids so they will all become huge and obeise. The kids they are like oh mommy oh daddy please take me to get myself poisoned at McD's all my friends get poisoned there so if you don't take me to be poisoned that means you don't love me. The parents they are like oh shit shit we better take the kids to McD's and then they are like but we are tired so we will take a nap and then go poison our kids. I'm sorry to say but this is pretty much reality. PARENTS STOP POISONING YOUR KIDS FOR GODS SAKE AND THE SAKE OF THE FUTUR STOP THE MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lazar Uslavicyuopvechemic said:
Lazar Uslavicyuopvechemic[...]

hi im a person who likes toeat fat foods gosh i love foodbut im afat kid so wat can i say !? yea i weigh 97 pounds i checked last week yea me and my mummy wentto the docter just recently and yea!we got lotsof food after and was yummy!oh yes!

I think that when it comes to fast food it is important to keep a nutritional guide on hand. I like that a side salad at McDonald's is bigger than it used to be and fresher. When I go to McD's I usually get a kids meal for myself with an apple dipper and a side salad and no pop. My daughter who is three sometimes gets a french frie and sometimes gets a pop, but she never finishes her meals so it isn't an issue. Fast food is here and it isn't going away, unless we move into an era where it isn't necessary for both parents to work full time. McD's may have a lot of bad foods, but they do have some good choices now.

Good book! It makes one think about the food industry.

In Schlosser's other book "Fast Food Nation", he states so far that Americans spend more money on fast food than on computers and recorded music. Furthermore, at one time it was said that cows ate the remains of dead dogs and cats in te 90s. Now that's disgusting. He also said that taste buds are exploitable, this our taste buds are easily exposed to unhealthy foods, especially processed foods.

Drinking 230 calories of soft drinks for kids, good for retarding growth!

Brittany~~~~ Well I think its good to Have A book based apon wat Amricans eat but we have been eatin it for years so why all of a sudden its makin a difference. Im not faultin u But thats wat its like. Its going to be around for years N its Been around for years so Im pretty sure "Chew On This" Isnt goin to make a change but the book his good very opinionated N is popular N schools. N it also teaches alot based on fast foods im sure most of us never knew. Thank U for your time n carin on how we feel

Nicholas said:
Fur[...]

I kno dam well your ass still eats there

ha ha ha ha i fully agree w/ you on this fast food bullcrap