The Evil Genius we call Fast Food

Everybody seems to blame someone else for childhood obesity.  Most of the blame is put on the fast food industry.  They constantly bombard Americans with commercials that appeal not only to children, but to adults as well.  They conveniently offer everything in Extra Value Meals that come in small sizes but offer upgrades of medium, large and extra-large and why wouldn’t you supersize it? What a deal…..28 more ounces of soda AND twice as many fries for only 89 cents. Fast food companies load their food with fat, sugar and addictive preservatives because it makes it taste better.  The better it tastes the more people are going to crave it.  The more people crave something, the more apt they are to pull into the drive-thru and spend money.  Fast food companies don’t care about America’s waistlines, they care about their bottom line.  To children, fast food is about chicken nuggets, fries and a toy.  To parents, fast food is about convenience and keeping the kids happy.  To corporate America, fast food is about dollar signs.    

  City and State governments have tried to pass laws to make fast food healthier. San Francisco city council even passed a law in December 2011 stating restaurants cannot include a free toy in a kid’s meal (Park, 2011).  Here's my question about that though......When was the last time your child ate the toy?  The toys are not making kids obese people!  Not to mention the fact rrestaurants are getting around this by charging 10 cents for the toy.  At least McDonald's is donating that 10cents to their Ronald McDonald House charity. 

The thing that gets me is that the blame is put on fast food but how are the children getting the fast food in the first place?  There is no magical fast food fairy that's dropping Happy Meals into a kid's lap.  Parents are taking their kids there & buying them the food. 

I'm not anti-fast food.  I feed my kids McDonald's, Taco Bell, Arby's, etc., but only not on a daily basis.  Maybe once a month and generally only when we're going somewhere far or going to spend a long time in the car.  That doesn't mean my kids don't constantly ask me to take them every time we drive past that big yellow M, it means I say NO!

Parents need to stop trying to be friends with their children and be the parent!  It's okay to say "NO" to your child. 


~Jennifer~



References:

Park, M. (2011) Happy Meal toys no longer free in San Francisco.  Retrieved on April 8, 2012 from
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/30/health/california-mcdonalds-happy-meals/index.html