Ronald McDonald is being targeted again and blamed for making our kids obese.
In a letter than will appear in six metropolitan newspapers today, more than 500 health professionals and organizations are asking McDonald’s, the maker of “Happy Meals”, to stop marketing to kids.
It argues that foods high in fat, sugar, and calories should not be marketed to kids and that the colorful clown, Ronald McDonald, plays a large part in that. I agree that it probably doesn’t help.
While I’m not a doctor or dietician, I make the decisions of what I eat and I directly and indirectly choose what my little girl, Gretel, eats.
If given a choice, Gretel would choose pasta for every meal. However, she doesn’t get pasta for every meal. She may complain about finishing all of the veggies on her plate and she may not want milk, but we are the parents. Yes, we listen to her input. But, we make the final decision.
I know that McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants offer more unhealthy choices on their menu that healthy ones, but we can enjoy anything in moderation.
What’s wrong with a child being enticed by a toy in a Happy Meal with chicken nuggets or a burger and fries? Nothing, at all. I’m sure that a child that eats that every day would likely suffer health issues. However, that would not be McDonald’s fault. That would go back to the parents and what parent would allow McDonald’s every day?
I know back when the golden arches offered “super size” meals how easy it would be for people to overeat and why there might be people protesting it. These people and groups were successful in getting McDonald’s to take those options off the menu.
However, that doesn’t means people won’t order twice the amount of food off the dollar menu to accommodate the desire to eat more for less money.
So, why don’t these group just go ahead and force McDonald’s to eliminate the dollar menu now. Why stop there? While we’re at it, why don’t we contact Little Debbie and have the company to make their boxes smaller, ask Lay’s and other chip makers to do away with the “Family Size” bags.
It appears that we obviously cannot make any decisions without having someone or some group trying to dictate how and what we eat.
Yes, we need to take responsibility for our own habits and eat healthier, but we can’t continue to blame fast food restaurants for our overeating.
My family doesn’t make McDonald’s or fast food restaurants a regular part of our life, but I want them there and I want to order whatever I want if and when I go there. To be honest, if they depended on my money, they’d be bankrupt.
Anthony
What's Peeps Thinking About Now? It's Probably Random! 
Posted by Jeremy Brockert on April 18, 2012 at 7:14 am
This just goes back to “parent responsibility” and the lack of it. Parents have fat kids because they are the ones who buy the meals, not the kids. And if a parent is caving in to their child’s every wish and desire, then they are failing as a parent. That child is going to learn absolutely nothing and never know what a “boundary” is.
Posted by anthonypeoples on April 18, 2012 at 7:36 am
Jeremy,
I agree. There’s nothing wrong with splurging, but it can’t be all the time.
In the documentary, “Food Inc.”, it showed a family that was financially strapped and they made it a practice to buy high fat, cheap meals from fast food restaurants because they felt it was cheaper than cooking.
That is the easy way out. Growing up in the 1970s, my mother barely made enough money to feed a family of four. However, we did it with beans and potatoes. We didn’t have meat every meal and eating out was a rare treat. I never had a “Happy Meal” growing up. And, I have no complaints about it.
Peeps
Posted by karen mckee johnston on April 18, 2012 at 8:40 pm
not ronald’s fault it is parental choice families need to eat healthy meals not use the drive thru to provide meals when we were kids mc donalds was a rare treat