Howdy Solf

Jul 29, 2011 -- 12:01AM, solfeggio wrote:

As the title of the blog points out, who put McDonald's in charge of kids' health?

www.appetiteforprofit.com/2011/07/27/who...

The company comes up with these stupid, meaningless ideas simply to get more publicity. 

Do they have Mc Donalds and other fast food resturants in New Zealand?  

Are there laws in New Zealand that force such businesses to sell food that people won't buy?  

Perhaps the govts  should subidise fast food resturants that only sell organically grown vegan-macrobiotic foods.   They could get the money from those nasty ol corpse selling fast food industrial complexes by imposing unhealthy food sin taxes.   

We have been over this before.  The problem with the American diet is largely one of what foods are available at what price to what people.

McD, Wendy's, Burger Doodle, et. al. may not have caused that, but they sure take advantage of it.

And, please don't give us the old, "they just need to....."  There are structural, societal reasons why some people can't .  It really is too complicated to explain in a brief forum such as this, but if you cared, you could do the study.

I don't expect you to take that time.

Christianlib is right: The problems of obesity have to do with what foods are available to everybody and at what prices.  Fast food is cheap and available, and so people eat it, regardless of the fact that, as others have pointed out, it isn't very tasty and, all things considered, it isn't all that cheap, either.

But, even if the fast food chains did start offering more nutritous foods, that doesn't mean anybody would buy them.

There was a piece in the LA Times recently showing the results of a study that showed that even if people do have access to healthier foods, they aren't going to buy them:

articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/17/health/...

As the article showed, proximity to fast food restaurants played a big part in people's food choices.  Easy access to supermarkets did not mean that people would buy the produce and other healthy foods in them.

BTW: We have fast food restaurants here in NZ, but they haven't been around as long as in the States.  I am convinced that the fact that we have a McDonalds in our local mall now, and a KFC right down the street, have played a big part in our seeing many more very fat people these days than we would have seen twenty or thirty years ago.  What is especially surprising is that we are seeing fat Asian and Indian children now, which would have been unheard of only a few years ago.

Once upon a time, you would see an Asian mother buy an apple for her child as a snack.  Now, they are in the McDonalds queue.

And yes, I do think that the fast food franchises are indeed evil and never should have been invented.

you know it is just downright bizzare how things have changed.

I think in my parent's generation food was harder to come by.  I am not claiming my parents were starving children but they probably went to school with some hungry children.  Dinners were portioned out based on budget.  I remember my dad talking about how he and his sister would fight (playfully) over any extra portions and they would steal food off each other's plates.  Now when it is time for dinner there is typically plenty to go around and a mother has no problem putting out extra pork chops or dinner rolls. 

Now we don't have to worry about starvation, which is a great thing.  Getting food is not really a concern.  But we are thinking about food more than ever.  I think avoiding obesity in this new world is comming down to the bastards with lucky genetics and those that really care about their weight.  For many of us it is too easy to be fat and we have to exercise alot of willpower and thinking about our eating.    The world is NOT going to change.  We are going to be faced wtih fast food restaurants, vending machines full of processed food that will never rot and just alot of easy to buy, easy to prepare and easy to eat processed food.  I don't see this changing ever and so it is up to us as individuals to make the decisions we need to make to keep a healthy body.  Nobody can do it for us. 

Jul 29, 2011 -- 11:55PM, rabello wrote:

Jul 29, 2011 -- 4:19PM, Girlchristian wrote:

Do you really think that McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King are the reason we have a problem with childhood obesity?

No, and I didn't say that so I have no idea why you would ask....

...and, yes, there is currently an epidemic of childhood obesity leading to adult-onset diabetes in juveniles, affecting mostly the African American population, the group with the least likely access to healthy foods.  In your world, they're supposed to go to so-called free clinics to get their care, in my world, since many of their problems are due to socio-economic stressors they can't control, they'd get the same quality of care that fat rich people can get.  

That's what my post was about, not about laying blame the way your post does.

rabello

what do you do for fun??????