'Fat' could become 'normal' in America by 2015

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I remember back in the day when my "lunch" from work might consist of a large fry from McDonalds, milk shake and an apple pie. Yikes! Or I used to get slurpees from 7/11 after high school, that stuff is like pure HFCS mixed with food coloring!

I was right there with 'ya. Mc-D's Big Mac's only cost $0.95 so it was easy to buy a sack of food for $5.00. The thing is back then we were active daily so you could try to offset all of the trans-fats clogging up you guts.

The big problem is that many kids don't have many physical outlets today. Yeah, there are Soccer-moms shuttling kids to soccer, hockey, football or baseball practice, but that's only a fraction of the kids.

Parents aren't around to kick those kids out of the house until dinner time and dinner is seldom something other than some food-stuff that came in a box or a bag either from a fast food restaurant or something frozen from the store pumped up with preservatives.

So most kids have very strong thumbs from either playing video games or text messaging and that's about it. It's pretty much the same food out there that we ate as kids but we weren't so dependent on it and most of us had somewhat active lifestyles. Should we really put the fault on fast food companies?

 

[PeterNorthisawesome]

I was right there with 'ya. Mc-D's Big Mac's only cost $0.95 so it was easy to buy a sack of food for $5.00. The thing is back then we were active daily so you could try to offset all of the trans-fats clogging up you guts.

The big problem is that many kids don't have many physical outlets today. Yeah, there are Soccer-moms shuttling kids to soccer, hockey, football or baseball practice, but that's only a fraction of the kids.

Parents aren't around to kick those kids out of the house until dinner time and dinner is seldom something other than some food-stuff that came in a box or a bag either from a fast food restaurant or something frozen from the store pumped up with preservatives.

So most kids have very strong thumbs from either playing video games or text messaging and that's about it. It's pretty much the same food out there that we ate as kids but we weren't so dependent on it and most of us had somewhat active lifestyles. Should we really put the fault on fast food companies?

Well the fault is 50/50 because if you look at fast food chains like McD you can clearly see that the ads are for kids. They hook their customers at a young age and pretty soon the kids will get addicted. Sounds sad, but it's true... why do you think they make play areas and happy meals? McD has been trying to expand and take Starbucks' customers by adding TV and "business" style interior. Then again it's the parents who should teach their kids about junk food. Too bad US is filled with bad/fat parents, can't really teach if you don't practice what you preach.

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Well the fault is 50/50 because if you look at fast food chains like McD you can clearly see that the ads are for kids.

Who's agreeing to buy these kids all this stuff? I don't see them pulling out their debit cards.

They hook their customers at a young age and pretty soon the kids will get addicted.

The kids addiction is only a byproduct of their parents addiction to the convenience that fast food restaurants give them. If the parents provided more wholesome food to their children on a consistent basis the kids would probably be more attracted to a different diet.

Sounds sad, but it's true... why do you think they make play areas and happy meals? McD has been trying to expand and take Starbucks' customers by adding TV and "business" style interior. Then again it's the parents who should teach their kids about junk food.

I completely agree. It's a parent's choice about what their kids eat most of the time.

 

[bigjohnson]

I'm convinced the lack of active lifestyle is the key issue. Everything else is ancillary or at worst contributory. As kids we used to live a strenuous life and called it "playing", now playing is done on the sofa with an ABC-Box.

*Works for adults too.

 

[Vulpine]

Who's agreeing to buy these kids all this stuff? I don't see them pulling out their debit cards.

Yeah, and you don't see any backhands come out when the "NO! I WANT McDONALDS!!!!" temper-tantrums do, either.

Parents will let a kid leave 3/4 of their food on the table, then turn around and let the kid have chips/candy/soda a half-hour after dinner. :crazy:

I think parents should get tax breaks for back-handing kids that are having a temper tantrum in public.