I’ve been thinking all week that I need to write about San Francisco’s crackdown on Happy Meal toys. But what to say? News of the decision spread fast, generating the predictable “McDonald’s-is-evil” vs. “parents-get-a-backbone” debate. And, really, my opinion on fast-food marketing hasn’t changed since I wrote about the Retire Ronald campaign in April.
I still think the answer is twofold: Of course corporations should stop preying on kids. Of course they should be held accountable. And the sooner they back off, the easier it will be for parents and kids to make good choices. But our kids are kids now. They might not be in 10 years, or even five years. While we wait out the creaky wheels of progress, parents need to, well, parent.
So it didn’t seem like I had much to add.
Then I saw this. It’s a story about a school in Connecticut that took a field trip to a local McDonald’s for a workshop. A nutrition workshop. And while the sixth-graders were there, they assembled their own hamburgers. And while they assembled their hamburgers, they reflected on what they’d learned. Which was, in the words of one 11-year-old: “that McDonald’s can be very healthy for you if you make the right choices.”
There are so many things wrong with that paragraph that I’m sort of stumbling all over myself here. But let’s start with the obvious: A school took kids to a McDonald’s for advice on nutrition.
Gail Grant, the McDonald’s rep who leads these workshops (here’s another one from March), preaches a “read, then eat” mantra. That sounds great until you realize she’s talking about reading a menu item’s nutrition facts, which yields nothing more than the calories-sodium-fat-carbs equation. Forget about good vs. bad fats (and carbs) and chemical additives and factory-farmed meat. Nope. So long as the numbers add up, the ingredients don’t matter!
But of course they do. So when she wraps up her presentation with a “now you know what you’re eating” statement, well, I’d have to say no, no the kids really don’t know what they’re eating. No matter how you dress it up or trim it down, most McDonald’s food just isn’t good for us, “choices” or not.
Here’s where “everything in moderation” gets stuck on auto-play. But, as I seem to be repeating myself lately, “moderation” is a ruse — a buzzword used by food marketers and industry-influenced dietitians to sell stuff we probably shouldn’t be eating in the first place. (And let’s face it: “Moderation” is relative.) As reader Judy said in a comment yesterday about Halloween candy: “It’s like saying you’ll take healthy in moderation.” Yes, it’s just like that.
I know there are people who think we should cut McDonald’s some slack. It’s one company. People should eat what they please. It’s America and all that. But here’s the thing: As I wrote in April, McDonald’s has done more to industrialize and homogenize the U.S. food system than any other company. It buys so much beef, pork, potatoes and other commodities (even apples) that it controls everything from the way animals are treated and food is processed to which produce varieties are grown (not many). That kind of power calls for some serious accountability.
So when McDonald’s conducts nutrition workshops, or provides schools with branded “educational” materials, coupons for good grades and fundraising opportunities tied to store sales, then Happy Meal toys seem like the least of our problems. (And I haven’t even mentioned the summer camps McDonald’s runs in the Philippines.)
At least the toys’ motives are clear. This other stuff? This McDonald’s version of “education”? That’s far more insidious.
Thoughts? Arguments? Rants?
Hat tip to school-food reformer Susan Rubin for the lead on the Connecticut story.
Update on November 9: Nice timing. Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity yesterday released a comprehensive study showing that fast-food kids’ meals are, in fact, seriously nutritionally deficient. (And that’s by government dietary-guidelines standards. Imagine the problems they’d find if they looked at ingredients.) I put up a separate post with details and links: “This just in: Fast food is unhealthy.”
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2010 Christina Le Beau
AMEN!
A McDonald’s nutrition workshop? That’s an oxymoron if there ever was one. Please tell me it was not a public school that went on a field trip there . . .
Great, informative post – I particularly appreciate your point about how much influence McDonalds wields over the U.S. food system. The Happy Meal toys really are the least of the problem, and it appears that they’re shifting the focus off of much deeper issues. Lots of food for thought, no pun intended!
Sorry, St. Louis mama, looks like these indeed have been public schools. But, honestly, that doesn’t surprise me.
Wow – just wow. I think this is a sneaky new way of advertising if I ever heard of one. Like food corporations paying to advertise on school vending machines. This is just a new way of doing the same thing.
The worst part is, this kind of “education” really undermines the parents. When the child comes home and says “McDonald’s can be healthy if you choose well!” and the parent tries to correct their child, they’re getting very strong mixed signals. After all, their teacher obviously agrees with the instructor and their parents don’t. Older kids can start separating this out, but in younger kids, it shakes up their very foundation to be faced with a “who do you trust?” question.
A few weeks ago, my mother offered my niece some popcorn and she immediately piped up with “We just learned that chips can be healthier than popcorn if you put a lot of butter and salt on the popcorn!” Remembering how fragile my self esteem was at her age, I couldn’t bring myself to correct her (although it’s true if the butter and salt are industrialized junk, and even more so if the “butter” is butter flavoring or margarine). I know that a lot of people want nutrition taught in schools, but I personally wish it was never even mentioned in schools beyond “veggies are good”. Too often, the message they get at school is no different than what McDonald’s is teaching them.
Sing it, WordVixen. The “nutrition” taught in most schools is dangerously misinformed, guided almost solely by the government food pyramid, which, in turn, is dictated more by industry lobbyists than by good sense. That’s why we have a school-lunch program that counts fries as a vegetable, white-flour anything as a grain, and flavored milk as an acceptable source of calcium and protein. Pure insanity.
I so completely agree with everything you said, and I’m thrilled I found this blog. It’s right up my alley. This is why I spend SO much time educating my children on “real” health and nutrition and am so glad I get to homeschool them; I can’t imagine trying to undo the brainwashing and blatant mis-information given out in schools. I’ve been taking a bloggy break lately and haven’t been posting, but you’ve got me thinking….I may need to share this. Thanks!
Ugh. A local school took kids to McD’s for lunch after a morning farm visit. They couldn’t eat lunch at the farm, because there were bees.
Stop. the. insanity.
Colleen, that is seriously messed up. Talk about mixed signals. And, really, who cares about a few bees? Use the opportunity to teach kids about pollination. Or, sheesh, if they were that bad, go to a nearby park and eat lunch there.
Yeah, but all it takes is one kid to get stung and go into anaphylactic shock. Next thing you know, the parents are up in arms about how the school put that child in harm’s way because anaphylactic shock (which manifests within minutes) is much more dramatic than clogged arteries (which won’t manifest for several years).
People have a very short-term view and their fears are based much more in immediate consequences that they can see TODAY than on potential consequences which they can do something about later anyway (eg join the gym next month), because until they have a heart attack it’s still not too late.
Like you Christina, I think the moderation argument is BS in this setting. While I don’t have a problem with grass fed burgers and cupcakes as an occasional treat, McDonald’s and their ilk are a different story. The meat that they use is not healthy for us, the planet or the long term viability of antibiotics, something that I’ve written about on my blog as well as on Mrs. Q’s http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/2010/08/guest-blogger-wheres-beef.html
It’s pretty despicable when schools allow fast food to be part of their day in any way. I was furious back in June when my son’s field trip included a trip to McDonald’s especially when we have a terrific school lunch provider who would have happily provided box lunches. The whole fiasco cost me a pretty penny when I rewarded my son with his courageous decision to not take the lunch. School should be a fast food free zone. Period.
Melissa, glad you weighed in. I remember your “very happy meal” alternative for your son’s field trip. And yes, your Fed Up guest post was terrific.
*Clears throat.* Um, WTF?
“McDonald’s can be very healthy for you if you make the right choices.”
Shouldn’t that read, “McDonald’s probably won’t kill you if you don’t eat it very often and you make the right choices and you eat only really, really legitimately healthy food the rest of the time?”
The funny, not ha-ha, part is that the “right” choices at McDonald’s don’t include the burgers, which the children were making as part of their workshop on how “healthy” fast food can be. If my kids’ school was going on this kind of insane field trip, I’d keep them home for the day. No joke. I’d also explain in full and colorful detail to school administrators WHY I was keeping them home, as well as provide enough information on the detriments of this kind of food AND miseducation to crash their email servers. I’d distribute it all as propaganda to other parents, too. Wearing a chicken suit, if I had to. Beating a drum and standing on a literal soapbox in the middle of town. Making a total ass of myself. Because clearly, any school that pushes this kind of nonsense down parents’ throats must believe that those parents are asses. At best.
Wow, Christina. Clearly you touched a nerve. 🙂
I think this was a great idea of the school district and McDonald’s. As the 11 year old you quoted stated, “McDonald’s can be very healthy for you if you make the right choices” – which is an accurate statement.
Part of education is teaching children to think for themselves and make appropriate choices.
What is unfortunate is that so many people, whose only information regarding nutrition is what they have read in the mainstream media, feel they are in a position to provide authoritative information on the subject. A review of the nutritional information on a Happy Meal that contains apple slices and milk fits within the current dietary guidelines – but of course, any analysis of diet has to take into consideration EVERYTHING that is eaten – preferably over the course of an average week – a fact that most “pundits” fail to acknowledge. Only by analyzing everything that a person eats can judgements regarding the healthfulness of the individual’s diet can be made – which is why blanket statements such as “McDonald’s is bad for your health” are completely without merit.
Nancy, kudos for being brave enough to represent the alternative viewpoint. But I must strongly disagree. (And, honestly, pick my jaw up off the floor at this defense of McDonald’s as “healthy.”)
People relying on “mainstream” nutrition info are the same people who buy the claim that fast food is “healthy” because it meets certain “dietary guidelines.” Those of us who dig deeper and do independent research realize that McDonald’s food is full of chemicals and highly processed additives, including preservatives; trans fats; artificial colors and flavors; GMO corn, soy and oils; highly processed flours; and high-fructose corn syrup and other refined sugars.
On top of that, the meat, dairy and eggs served at McDonald’s come from factory farms, and factory farms are bad for animals, the environment and us.
What’s healthful shouldn’t be based on numbers. Or on lobbyist-influenced food pyramids and dietary guidelines. It should be based on ingredients and how those ingredients are sourced and prepared.
That’s where education comes in. Reading numbers off a “nutrition facts” chart does not make someone a thinking eater. In fact, I’d argue it does the complete opposite.
I’m fuming. I’m sure if you sat next to me you would see smoke coming out of my ears.
I woke up to the news this morning that its “McHappy Day” in Australia on Friday. Buy a big mac and “something” will go towards supporting Ronald Mcdonald house. EXCUSE ME? Buy a product that is making generations of people sick so that we can have a home for them to go to when they are sick?
And then to read this article as well. Shameless, underhanded, evil etc etc etc. ETC.
I am reminded that in my home town of Auckland New Zealand the children’s hospital ~ Starship~ key sponsors are of course McDonald’s and to rub salt into the wounds of the sick children and there families, the only food outlet that is allowed to operate at this hospital is … YES, you got it. McDevils.
There needs to legislation against this type of sponsorship and blatant advertising. A global ban on companies such as this exploiting the health and well being of children through such under handed marketing.
Thank you for all your work on bring this issue to light for many readers!
Bridget, I’ve heard people defend McDonald’s because of the Ronald McDonald houses, but I have a hard time reconciling the conflicts and not being cynical about the whole thing. And McDonald’s in hospitals? (And in schools — they’re in schools, too.) That’s just depressing.
Unbelievable. I agree that The Ronald McDonald houses are wonderful but this sounds similar to the corporations who support the pink ribbon and breast cancer awareness yet these same companies are the one’s adding chemical concoctions to their products with known carcinogens. Disgusting marketing.
The question of McD’s in hospitals was posed to me by a very smart 10 year old. Purple Asparagus has been providing healthy snacks demos to the oncology/hematology ward at Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital. She asked why, if McD’s is unhealthy, there was one in the hospital. I, obviously, didn’t have an answer for her. I did later learn that when the hospital moves into its new facilities, the fast food restaurant won’t be moving with it. Good news.
While fast food restaurants aren’t part of our diet 99% of the time, for many people they are. And while I don’t advocate the quality of food that is purchased by McDonald’s, I know that many of their vendors are the same food manufacturers like Tyson, that we see in the grocery store.
When a fast food giant talks about moderation, of course we call BS. But their most loyal customers need those lessons in moderation the most.
We can talk about the quality of the food and it’s impact on our bodies and the environment, but the same customers are buying the same quality of food in the grocery store.
Education is important. Education is key. If Ronald McDonald visits a low-income neighborhood school where kids are driven thru the drive thru, or worse (yes, worse!), eating convenience store packaged food on a nightly basis, and they go home to tell their parents how important fruit and vegetables are. Or they ask for apple sticks instead of fries next time. That’s improvement. BIG improvement.
We all need to have these conversations. We all need to educate others, especially those who need it most. This will take time and patience and a heck of a lot of work on many people’s part. I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and tackle this one – but I’m not going to spend my energy battling a corporate giant who fully knows that to grow, they must adjust and they must educate.
Just like Walmart carrying organic milk because their customers asked for it, fast food giants will change their food and menu offerings if their customers demand it. Let’s educate those customers so that they know what to ask for!
Interesting points, Gina, and I agree there’s value in getting more people to ask for healthier options. The problem (aside from the whole “messenger-killing-the-message” thing) is that this “education” absolves McDonald’s of a greater responsibility to change the content and sourcing of its food.
Yes, the same companies that supply McDonald’s are also selling their products elsewhere. But that’s actually the point: McDonald’s wields such influence over the food system that any changes it makes could have a serious ripple effect. A much bigger and faster effect, in fact, than waiting for millions of individuals to start asking for apples with their burgers.
It might seem like shouting into the wind, but I think those of us with a platform need to keep calling McDonald’s on these practices and demanding accountability. These nutrition workshops are a PR tactic to distract from the mounting criticism of McDonald’s food. If we allow/support/defend this, we’re doing exactly what they want us to do.
Oh, Gina, forgot to add: The Yale fast-food research released yesterday (which I posted about today) underscores my point about “choice” at McDonald’s being dubious, and thus “education” about that choice being insincere.
Maybe the next field trip should be to a feed lot or poultry production “farm.” If it’s education they want, those will certainly shine a light on the subject. Then, when they are finished, they can visit a farm…
This saddens me so much. Yes, families have to learn how to navigate a menu at any restaurant – but to pretend that McDonald’s is a nutritional experience is just a joke.
I LOVE this post/blog/topic. And I hate McDonalds. And I never had any adequate excuse to explain this to my kids, or why I refused to take them there.
Until I saw this post: http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-trust-us-you-really-really-dont-want-to-eat-that-chicken-nugget/
Now my boys ( 6 and 8 ) refuse to eat there, too. They ask repeatedly for “natural” chicken and are learning to read ingredients labels.
Show your kids the photo on the site, and read ’em the story of how McNuggets are made, and explain that the burgers follow the same pattern. It’ll work, I promise.
Sarah
Carcinista, how great that your boys are thinking about what’s in their food. I’m a firm believer in starting them young. (Obviously. Hence the blog.)
I’ve seen the pink goo before, and while the veracity of some of the details has since been challenged, I think the basic premise/process holds true. Did you see the movie “Food Inc.” ? The hamburger filler is another eye-opener.
Yes, my husband and I, who were already pretty far down the all-natural road due to my cancer, saw Food, Inc. and lost our taste for burgers forever. Revelatory, and should be mandatory viewing for…well, everyone.
Just saw your other post. Starbucks does seem like an odd inclusion, but with their new food options, I’ve seen many a Chicago parent feeding their kids breakfast and lunch there and usually not the relatively “healthy” options, but the bigger than your head muffins to go with the chocolate milk they’re drinking.
Melissa, that thought occurred to me later. It’s not just the older kids after school. It’s the little ones on their parents’ coffee dates. To its credit, Starbucks has eliminated trans fats, HFCS, artificial colors and other nasties (mostly, anyway) from its baked goods. Most of it still isn’t what I’d call healthy, but at least there are some reasonable options in a pinch. And the packaged snacks it carries (chips, granola bars, fruit purees, etc.) are mostly decent. But yes: Unfortunately it’s usually the mongo muffin and the sugary drink together.
Ok – but I don’t think it’s fair to make a judgement based on a one time observation of a parent. We eat Real Food at home for almost every meal. I cook just about everything from scratch from wonderful ingredients, but if you saw me at Starbucks (a handful of times a year) with my son, you would make this snap judgement about me be/c yes, I allow him to have the chocolate or vanilla milk there and possibly a muffin. How often does this happen? I can’t even tell you be/c it’s so rare and it’s usually when we’re on a road trip.
Also, we really MUST be very careful about allowing or worse, DEMANDING legislation for these issues. Get the government out of our food! That’s why we have this problem in the first place! That is why small family farms are dying off. That is why raw milk and cheese producers are being raided in a most fascist form. It’s still fascism – just a different issue. One side thinks that they know the only right way to do something and forces everyone to comply with their wishes. Frankly, it is none of my business what the lady next to me decides to feed her child. SHE is the parent – it is her decision. Yes, we can tell anyone who will listen, but we cannot force this down anyone’s throat. It is the parent’s decision whether they will believe us or McDonald’s. It is her decision to seek out information.
That being said, I would be very upset to know that my tax dollars are being used to send public school kids to McDonald’s.
Ani, no one is making snap judgments about a particular person or a particular incident. We’re talking about the collective problem of sugary foods/drinks being the norm.
My daughter occasionally has a chocolate milk or hot chocolate from Starbucks, too. But, as with your son, it’s a rare treat. They, however, are not representative of most kids in America. That’s all we’re saying.
(And, for the record, my problem with chocolate milk and hot chocolate from Starbucks isn’t just the sugar. It’s also the fact that the milk used in hot drinks is not organic. And the fact that the individual boxed milks are Horizon brand, which, while “organic” in the eyes of the USDA, in reality uses factory-farming practices. Those little boxes also are ultra-high-temperature pasteurized (UHT) for long shelf life, which denatures the milk proteins and kills valuable bacteria and nutrients.)
Sorry for the thread drift. Now back to the rest of your comment…
As for legislation, I agree with you, to a point. As I’ve said several times now, I think parents need to parent, but I also think some things have gotten so out of control (like McDonald’s balance of power) that some legislation might not be a bad idea. I’m not talking about banning Happy Meal toys. I’m talking about legislation that stops corporate subsidies, mandates accountability, and makes it easier for parents to get the information they need to make the right choices.
I support making raw milk legal, and one of the reasons I support that is because then there would be standards. I’d still do my own research, visit the farm, talk to the farmer, but at least there would be a baseline for milk handling and safety that would weed out the bad actors. Not all legislation is a bad thing.
Is it our business what other people feed their kids? In the macro sense, yes, if you watch what’s happening to health care costs in this country because of diet-related disease. By that metric, it’s our business because we all pay for the results.
But, in my mind, there’s an even more important reason it should be our business. And that’s because it’s our duty as decent human beings to care about other people. So if we can share information that might help someone make better eating choices, or if we can raise our voices in protest against practices that are hurting people, well, then we should.
If I saw someone about to step in the path of a speeding train, should I just figure, hey, whatever, they shouldn’t be standing there anyway? Of course not. It’s the same with food. The impact may not be as sudden, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking it’s any less serious.
This summer the kids earned McDonald’s hamburgers for reading four books in the summer reading program. The folks at McDonald’s are very smart marketers. They are equating something good (reading) with their products. It pissed me off to no end, and for the record, we turned down that “prize” when my little girl earned it. We’ve never stepped foot in McDonald’s and never will if I have anything to say about it.
I love that there’s so much dialog going on about this stuff. Love it. If even one parent chooses not to go the McBadforYou route, we, as activists, have done our job well.
Keep it up, Christina!
I agree with GIna in many parts. We can all get really angry about all of this or we can look at the good at play here. When you “hate” something or someone, like McDonalds, you perpetuate it. What you resist, persists, as they say. How about coming up with some inspiring solutions where kids learn not just about food, but to tune into their bodies when they eat certain foods. I grew up on McDonalds and I always noticed the heavy feeling I had afterwards. I thought that was normal and meant I was full. Now I know its the amount of fat and other stuff that doesn’t really feed my body.
I have three young children and we’ve eaten at McDonalds and chosen to not eat there. I don’t feel good if we go there- and many times there doesn’t feel like there are many alternatives when we travel (that’s basically when we have gone). How about promoting restaurants that have healthy food that are fast and convenient and talking about them.
HOw about talking about what we want to see versus what we detest and regret. Focus on what we want and we create it. Focus on what’s wrong and we keep seeing things that are wrong.
Thanks for this space to express and keep the conversation flowing.
Hi, Rita, and welcome. If you poke around the blog a little, you’ll see pretty quickly that my focus is very much on creating solutions. But often that requires challenging the status quo. We can think positive thoughts all day long, but if we see something wrong and we don’t try to do something about it, then real change is impossible. Especially in a situation like this, where, frankly, I still don’t see any good at play.
You mentioned eating well while traveling, so you might be interested in this post: Real food on the road
I’ve also done a series on children’s menus, which included the opportunity for readers to help design a children’s menu for a new restaurant:
The assault (and insult) of children’s menus
Hate children’s menus? Here’s your chance to create a better one.
Creating a better children’s menu: A chef speaks
I didn’t comment earlier, but I just saw the post about how many people take their kids to eat fast food once per week; 84%…holy cow. Literally, I guess. Fifteen percent of preschoolers ask to go there everyday!? Numbers like that make me so happy we don’t own a TV (less exposure to advertising) and that we live in a little corner of the US that’s about as unAmerican as it can get (http://aucoeur.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/america/). It makes the battle so much easier when going to McDonalds or Wendy’s or Burger King isn’t even an option.
Au Coeur, love your Nantucket stories. We’ve visited Block Island, RI, a couple summers now, and I definitely see the appeal of non-commercialized island living.
Thanks! It’s funny, because it seems like it would be inconvenient, but most of the time we don’t miss the chains at all.
About Starbucks- I know a few tween/teen groups, church groups, etc. that meet at Starbucks because of the informal, chatty, coffee shop atmosphere. And I see kids there with their parents – mom gets a latte and treats her daughter to a hot chocolate, or something.
I just heard that Starbucks has a new real food initiative – have you heard about that and what do you think?
Milehimama, that initiative is what I was talking about when I mentioned that Starbucks had eliminated trans fats, HFCS, and artificial colors and flavors. Most of it still isn’t what I’d call “real food” (lots of processed vegetable oils, white flour and refined sugars, for instance). But it’s definitely an improvement. You can see all the ingredients lists here (you’ll need to click on the individual items). Starbucks also now sells a lot of organic and low-ingredient packaged snacks. Again, a lot of it is still pretty processed, but there are some decent options, too.
Christina,
I am absolutely floored by this post. I sat on this comment for quite a while, but after reading some of the responses, I felt I had to chime in.
I’m “in the trenches,” so to speak – I founded and run a nonprofit organization in Charlotte, North Carolina called NoFizz Charlotte ( http://nofizzclt.org ) that, among other things, empowers students to make smart health decisions and avoid things like soda (hence the name) through school and community center outreach programs.
We run outreach programs throughout North and South Carolina, which, as you guys can probably guess, is not the health belt (I’m originally from Colorado, so this greatly dismays me). Unfortunately, in every program, and at all ages, we see an incredibly high proportion of students who are already past the obesity threshold…
Two weeks ago, we ran a program at an elementary school in North Carolina. I won’t name the city we were in, as it’s been a very good place for us to run outreach programs, but it’s a fairly small town in western North Carolina.
After the program finished (at the end of the school day), I hung around to talk with a teacher when a parent came to pick up their student, who had been in our class. The parent brought the child’s younger brother with her – a 3 year-old (I know, because I asked the teacher later). The kid was huge. I estimate, because I don’t know for certain of course, that the 3 year-old weight at LEAST 100 pounds.
This is not just a soda issue (as is our main outreach effort), or just a McDonald’s issue, of course. There are tons of factors at play here. But this IS an epidemic. And McDonald’s will not stop marketing to children, because corporations don’t have a conscience… people do.
Keep up the great work, Christina. I love what you’re doing with the blog, and it IS making a difference. It’s only a matter of time before all of our respective movements click!
Thanks!
Bobby DeMuro
Founder/Executive Director
NoFizz Charlotte, Inc.
http://nofizzclt.org
Bobby, a belated thanks for your comment. And for your good work. I’m impressed with how much you’ve accomplished in such a short time. And yes, let’s keep fighting the good fight!
I read your blog posting with some interest – which is sort of strange as I don’t have children – nevertheless, one thing that no-one has mentioned throughout this entire thing is that you can eat fast food – just don’t substitute it for everyday meals; it should be a treat (or punishment) BUT make sure you get enough exercise. Fast food isn’t the entire problem. The major problem is accessibility. Fast Food restaurants are everywhere – most people can (heaven forbid) WALK to the closest McDonald’s.
I also think parents need to take more responsibility in raising their children again. Granted, it is difficult with society frowning upon a parent who chooses to discipline their child in public with a swat on the backside. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard most people with children try to cope.
Anyway, I was thinking back to when I was in high school – our cafeteria served French Fries (with Gravy – if we asked) but the thing is, I didn’t have it every day and I also took P.E. every day. Luckily now, well into my (ahem) late thirties, I’m still reaping the benefits of being active all those years ago.
So…encourage your kids to exercise (go outside and play – leave the game-boy at home) – heck go with them…you’d be surprised how much fun you can have (without spending money) and when you get home…make a healthy dinner together.
I completely agree with you! The level of advertising McDonald’s has towards children is unacceptable. It’s nearly impossible to prevent kids from being exposed to ads that are on television, the radio, billboards, or on the web. Now they are even being exposed to McDonald’s never ending promotions and PR at schools! This is so infuriating. Do you know if they still run these kinds of field trips? I’m hoping that with enough negative media they stopped, like they did in 2007 when they were criticized for advertising on report cards for schools and giving away free meals with good grades. Schools, of all places should be the one area where kids are safe from manipulation by McDonald’s, but in general, McDonald’s just needs to stop targeting kids!