Christina Pirello On Who’s Responsible For Kids’ Food Choices
Written by Vegetarian Star on May 28th, 2010 in Chefs, Children, Food & Drink, Nutrition-Health-Fitness.
Vegan chef Christina Pirello took to the Huffington Post to discuss how fast food companies like McDonald’s have lured children into their restaurants through the use of clever, cheerful marketing and a few plastic toys here and there.
“Since the Happy Meal hit the menu under the Golden Arches, childhood obesity has ballooned from 4.2% to 17%, according to the Centers for Disease Control. This hugely successful public relations brainstorm, linking cheap food with cheap toys (which actually dates as far back as free junk toys in Cracker Jacks and cereal boxes and on top of Ovaltine jars) led corporation after corporation to see the opportunity to make money off your kids’ desires. Before long, all that disposable plastic junk found its way into almost every bag of high-fat, high-sugar meal while hawking the movies your kids are dying to see.”
“And yes, I get it. I get the Pavlovian promise of free toys with lunch. It’s a sickness that plagues us all through our lives in this modern world. Our kids grow up from Happy Meals and graduate to live a life in the “Buy One, Get One Free” mentality that has created profits for the very corporations that are stealing your health.””
It’s easy to blame these companies and start the campaigns to ban them from our neighborhoods, like some cities have already done. But most children aren’t walking themselves into McDonald’s and ordering Happy Meals three times a day, and as Pirello points out, it’s ultimately the parents’ choice to keep driving past the arches.
More at the Huffington Post.
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