McBesity: Who's to blame?

by Steven A. Melnick -- There is no question that childhood obesity is on the rise and it has serious consequences.  Now don't get me wrong.  I'm all for making school meals healthier.  At school, for example, children are a somewhat captive audience when it comes to cafeteria food and we need to offer the very best choices.  But at home, parents need to make good choices on behalf of their children. In that light, I think the recent action by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is simply ridiculous.  By an 8-3 vote, the Board decided to substitute their judgement for that of parents by voting to ban any meal that included a kid's toy and didn't meet their specific nutritional requirements.  This action is arguably targeting McDonald's Happy Meals.  The new requirements are:

• Calories: Less than 600
• Sodium: Less than 640 milligram.
• Fat: Less than 35 percent of calories from fat; Less than 10 percent from saturated fat (with exception for nuts, seeds, eggs or low-fat cheese).
• Fruits & Vegetables: At least half a cup of fruit or three-quarters of a cup of vegetables

As admirable as that goal is, we have sadly become a culture that sheds responsibility in order to lay blame on others.  Fast food doesn't make you fat; eating too much fast food does. And actions such as San Francisco's is yet another example of legislating parental decisions that belong in the home.  Are we really so weak-willed as parents that there needs to be laws to feed our children well? It really isn't the fault of McDonald's that 83% of the parents of young children take their kids to McDonald's at least once a week.  It is the parent's choice.  Not McDonald's and not the child's.  Call me crazy or naive, but I haven't seen too many 8-year olds take the car keys and drive to McDonald's for a Happy Meal by themselves.  As parents, we need to make the healthy choices for our kids. Do we really need legislation to force us to do so?

Having your kids eat a healthy diet merely takes a commitment to do so. The American Heart Association (AHA) dietary recommendations, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, are fairly straightforward and can be easily found online and in print.

The general dietary recommendations of the AHA for those aged 2 years and older stress a diet that primarily relies on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat and nonfat dairy products, beans, fish, and lean meat.  Specifically, the AHA pediatric (age 2 and above) include:

• Balance dietary calories with physical activity to maintain normal growth
• 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous play or physical activity daily
• Eat vegetables and fruits daily, limit juice intake
• Use vegetable oils and soft margarines low in saturated fat and trans fatty acids instead of butter or most other animal fats in the diet
• Eat whole grain breads and cereals rather than refined grain products
• Reduce the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and foods
• Use nonfat (skim) or l0w-fat milk and dairy products daily
• Eat more fish, especially oily fish, broiled or baked
• Reduce salt intake, including salt from processed foods

We should stop blaming places like McDonald's and take responsibility for the choices we make as parents.  McDonald's wouldn't be in business if you weren't going there.  Make good choices and see to it your child eats healthy.