An In & Out burger protein style (as they call it, which means wrapped in lettuce leaves instead of a bun) is about the only fast food I’ll consider eating.

MRE

Hi Hellistile–

Cheers–
MRE

Unfortunately, we established bad habits with our kids before I developed diabetes and those habits are hard to break. My son (age 10) especially likes McD’s, though I try to stear him away from it. He will go for the starch & sugar. My daughter (age 12) is more open to low carb, but still wants the sugar stuff. I am trying to change things, but I don’t want to be too overbearing as that could be counter productive. My parents tried to keep me away from sugar, but went ballistic when I ate it. That just made me want it more.

Now that I have type 2 diabetes, I’m concerned about my kids getting it, even in childhood. My son doesn’t like most veggies, but if I can get him to eat more meat and less starch & sugar, he’ll be better off. I agree McD’s has a right to exist and advetise, but I also have a right not to eat there.

When I see toddlers being “led” into fast food joints I just cringe. I look on the fat and grease and salt and sugar in fast food as serious child abuse. I have no idea how a (supposedly) “loving” mother can do that to her child.

[No, I'm not a health good nut; Safeway, A & P, Albertsons, Publix, et al are fine stores if you just shop the perimeter.]

We NEVER looked at fast food as a reward.
We NEVER considered fast food as a substitute for a meal.
Fast food was viewed not much differently than peep-shows, porno-shops, or beer halls; free to do business, but nothing to do with us.

Some parents go along with coaches who believe that fast food is acceptable in a sports venue. Fortunately, our girl’s coach was the wife of a physician and she provided fruit plates as the after game treat. No one is required to frequent fast food joints; I have no idea why some folks think it’s a requirement of childhood.

Likewise, we never bought Captain Crunch, or any other sugared cereal, for our daughter. She was raised on oatmeal or other plain cereals during the weekday with omelets or waffles on the weekends, and “meals from scratch” the rest of the time. We love to cook and don’t view cooking as a “chore.” [Women who complain about cooking are sending a terrible message to their family.]

My daughter is now in her 40s and never developed a taste for fast food; she says it is “too salty and too greasy.” She prefers apples and bananas to candy bars, and the only “soda” she drinks is an occasional 7-up. Since she wasn’t brought up on junk food, she doesn’t view sugar, salt, and grease, with nostalgia.

In fact, to the lucky generations who were not raised on fast food, it tastes yucky.

I must be hitting a particular age because I have so many jingles in my head. I can’t decide if I am annoyed or relieved that today’s TV commercials are using classic rock tunes instead of jingles. We Tivo and fast forward through most of the ads anyway, though.

Anna

Yep. Who would have thought that even the mighty Beatles would become elevator music.

Cheers–
MRE

It’s not so hard…

Repeat after me – “No”.

See?

Seriously, though, consistency beats the marketing. Our boys learned at an early age not to whine about stuff they saw on TV. We just didn’t buy the sugary junk or go to the fast food restaurants all that much. We eat out maybe once a month and that is only because we are on the road or something. The boys do get treats occasionally like on family ice cream night, so we aren’t complete ogres; it just isn’t all of the time as seems to be the norm anymore.

It isn’t that we are “meanies” or anything – it’s about getting value for the money. Eating out is a waste of money and doesn’t really save time. I can pan fry up a couple of steaks in less time than it takes to sit in the drive-thru and there isn’t that much clean up. Steaks and a can of green beans or a bag of coleslaw is probably cheaper, too.

Blaming McDonald’s or TV for this is kind of sad, IMO. They don’t drop this stuff off at my house and make me buy it.

You are right across the board, but it does take some fortitude when tired and beaten down to not just give in.

The real shocker here is this: a lot of normally laissez faire type people are reading reports of this research as parents and thinking they cannot compete with a billion dollar a year ad budget and that something should be done. I wonder, what exactly should we do since McD (and others) exercise their first amendment rights, play mostly fair and buy airtime for their ads. That’s the market, right? It must be optimal.

FWIW: This is tongue in cheek. I don’t think we should regulate McD’s ability to spread their commercial message, and I don’t think they are in need of any heavy government regulation on their message. It would be nice, however, if they had to comply with packaged goods labeling requirements (at least one regulation that most dieters can say is to the benefit of the many) on their sexy packages. I went into a McD the other day and was unable to find nutritional information. They are supposed to post plainly. Of course, I went into a Starbucks and was similarly unable to find the info, so McD isn’t alone in their lack of compliance. But, as consumers, we might ask for a little substantial information with our high gloss imaginings of food (I think Omnivore’s Dilemma had the best piece about what a McDonald’s burger really is… it’s reminiscent of a good burger experience. Nothing more or less).

Any rate, always interesting to see the normally anti-reg people on the verge of clamoring for regs.

PS- Currently reading “Government Failure vs. Market Failure” which excoriates a number of government policies and produces some recommendations for better policies and places where policy is inappropriate. Very interesting. The more I look at it, the more I blame Congress, which leads you to ultimately blame voters.

Hi Max–

Cheers–
MRE

Ressy

I am disgusted by how often my kids ask for fast food, and am even more disgusted with myself for caving this past week. My 5 year old broke his leg, and this has caused both my husband and me to throw all of our common sense out the window, it seems. We feel like we have a 40 pound newborn… carrying him around everywhere, we’re exhausted. Fast food to the rescue.

From now on, though, I’ll be tempted to wrap my grass fed steaks in Micky D’s wrappers. Wink wink!

Back then when i was home with the kids, you never fed other kids at your home without checking with the parent. And you had to get permission to take them to a drive through, and some hints on what it would be okay to order.

Nowadays listening to the moms it is standard to drive through as a treat each time kids have guests. And they order whatever they want. Giant drinks, fries, desserts.

Maybe my experience is skewed because it was the first flush of the natural foods movement and a university town… but things have changed so much so fast.

And continue to change at a dizzying pace.