McDonald’s uses a clown and playgrounds to attract children to their restaurant, serving their happy meals as presents with toys. Eric Schlosser whose article explains the marketing of children says, research shows that “a person’s “brand loyalty” may begin as early as the age of two. Indeed, market research has found that children often recognize a brand logo before they can recognize their own name (Schlosser, 190). So if from childhood we are conditioned and aimed at by marketing advertisements can we ever break free? Food can be an addiction and with fast food corporations literally telling us to eat their food how can we resist?
Children in America have bad habits and food choices, which are influenced by their parents hereditarily and environmentally such as my little cousin Grecia. Due to poor knowledge of all the foods sold and advertised children are getting obese, “where they eat; what their friends and siblings eat; what parents eat and drink and bring into the house; what is served at school; and, of course, what they like (Risks for Youths Who Eat…).” My little cousin Grecia has been like that for several years and can’t stop eating all the unhealthy products she is used to. She needs to live and eat healthier. Healthier lifestyle is choosing to live everyday doing things that will benefit your overall health. By decreasing childhood obesity and living a healthier lifestyle it will help lower any risks of health problems in the future such as Matlaga says that he and his colleagues aren’t sure why
When a family goes out to eat out at McDonalds, they buy meals that are extremely over portioned or "meals that can easily make up to half of their recommended daily intake of calories"(Brownlee 1). Restaurant's commercials appeal to the much younger generation. It makes them want to go eat there and usually get the toy that comes along with that Happy Meal. That's where parents need to step in and say no, instead of giving in and taking them to go eat since it's an easier option. According to David Barboza, author of "If You Pitch, They Will Eat", "increase in food marketing to children has closely tacked their increase in weight"(5).
Going to fast food restaurants to prove his theory about how horrible fast food restaurants are for the human body. After going to a few restaurants David found that many employees at the establishments asked him "Would you like to super size that?". The super size option available is excessive amounts of food and drinks that people do not need in a single sitting for their breakfast, lunch, or dinner regardless of the circumstances. Zinczenko had a diet consisting a lot of the time fast food as a young child growing up and claimed that "by age 15, I had packed 212 pounds of torpid teenage tallow onto my once lanky 5-foot-10 frame." Sadly many Americans these days depend on fast food throughout their daily lives whether it is between not knowing how to cook, its fast easy
Personal Responsibility This article is titled “Don’t Blame the Eater” and is written by David Zinczenko. He writes about how the fast food industry takes advantage of the younger generations because of their ignorance and their lack of parental supervision. He talks about how he can sympathize with the fat people who are suing the fast food industries because he himself was obese as a child. He writes “By the age of 15, I had packed 212 pounds of torpid teenaged tallow on my once lanky 5-foot-10 frame.” He blames the fast food industry for the weight he obtained while he was young complaining about the lack of choices he had. He argues that kids, especially teenagers, have no other alternative claiming
"The campaign, 'Rethink Your Drink,' takes aim at sugary drinks like soda, sports drinks and fake ‘juices’.” A 2012 survey of over 600 Hawaii teenagers revealed that 93 percent reported consuming sugary drinks every week, and 48 percent said they had a sugary drink every day. (Twenty-seven percent of teenagers and over half of adults in Hawaii are overweight or obese.)" Led by the Department of Health, Hawaii hopes to reach out to 100% of its teenagers to educate about the sugary drinks being consumed. In the effort to teach as opposed to restrict, this campaign has shown a greater decline in obesity rates. The secret is using a 'gross' method which depicts teenagers drinking bottles of lard with fat flowing down their faces.
Today, we live in a consumerist society where cheap high-sugar and caloric foods are easily accessible everywhere you go. Many people who eat these ‘foods’ on a regular basis don’t realize the repercussion it has on their life and most importantly, on their children and their diet. Child obesity is a growing concern that has been getting much more serious throughout the decades. There have been several studies conducted in Australia to see why these children are making such poor food choices that cause their obesity. Several factors, of course are quite obvious such as the foods that are accessible to them at home and fast-food chains that swallow their attention with toys and other things they market in commercials.
I can see the concern, but I have also had lunch at school with my kids and seen the reality. One of the main reasons behind these changes to school food regulations is to promote healthy eating habits in school age children. The reality is that children do not eat their food, and they throw it away. Parents, who visit their children during lunch, take in fast food for them to eat. At the end of the day, the child is hungry, and most parents stop by the favorite fast food to get dinner as part of their busy lives.
Cynthia Torres Don’t Blame The Eater This short reading was mainly about how teenagers and young children are always eating unhealthy food verses eating healthy food then turn to become obese, ill, or even gaining diabetes. In response to this issue angered parents are then pursuing a lawsuit against fast food restaurants for their children in having these issues. I believe this is utterly ridiculous, only because I don’t think it’s the child fault that they are getting in these sticky situations. I believe it is the parents’ fault only because people do not all of a sudden get obese from eating one hamburger, it takes time, and over that time there is a visibility in the body that changes. Parents should see these changes and realize
The easy way out to being healthy and eating right for ones body, fast food has plagued the nation especially with diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and even strokes or heart attacks. A question is now posed of whether or not fast foods should be fed to children, in substitute of their regular lunches at school. These kids are what seem like innocent victims because of their naivety towards the real problems with fast food. The problems with this quick fix in school cafeterias are that students would become obese, they would develop bad habits, and that the school would be advertising for these companies. “More than 70 percent of obese adolescents retain their overweight and obese condition even during their adulthood” (What Are Children Munching On?).