Childhood Obesity and Fast Food Essays -- Obesity in Children

In recent years there has been a growing epidemic of obesity, especially in America. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey posted on the Center for Disease Control website there are 12.5 million children from ages 2 through 19 that are obese. Many people are starting to complain that the commercials and ads for these restaurants are the result of such an incline in obesity. Although there have been current ad campaigns aiming at children to live a healthy life style there are still hundreds of advertisements that are putting restaurants in a sort of ultimatum position. Either restaurants change their advertisements or they improve their menus. In 1979 McDonalds debuted their world famous Happy Meals to the public. It included a hamburger, soft drink, French fries, and do not forget a toy, which the happy meals have become so famed for having. To this day McDonald's as well as Taco Bell, Burger King, and Wendy's all offer a kid's meal that accompanies a toy . Children of course don't seem to mind the free gift they receive with every meal; however parents are becoming enraged that the free toy is a lousy gimmick making kids unhealthy. Most of these advertisements use current children's movies and already existing toys. The ads are also not limited to games and prizes that are usually attached on the bag or box of the meal. Pretty much the more popular the toy the more likely children are going to ask their parents to buy the meal. Well some parents and advocates have had enough of the promotion of toys and have taken strides to no longer have toys in their child's meal. One county in particular, Santa Clara in California, has already started the movement to ban toys. In April of 2010 6 county officials vo... ...move.gov/ ? About McDonalds_2011. McDonald's Corporation. Web. 26 Apr 13 2011 http://www. aboutmcdonalds .com/ mcd Fast Food facts_2011. Rudd Center. Web. 26 Apr 2011 http://fastfoodmarketing.org/ ? 10 Webley, Kayla. "A Brief History of McDonald's Happy Meal-TIME." Fri. 30 Apr 2010 5 Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews-TIME.com. Web. 27 Apr 2011. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599, 1986073,00.html 4 "Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Childhood: Data |DNPAO| CDC." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web. 27 Apr. 2011 http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/ data .html 9 "san Francisco Bans The Happy Meal." Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. 2 Jan. 2011. 27 Apr. 2011. 8 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/02/san-francisco-happy-meal-ban- mcdonalds_n_777939.html