McDonalds

SidB_2

jockettuk wrote:

mcdonalds and all the others are ok as a treat.. a well done for doing good at school.. etc.. once a month etc...if people want to live on junk food thats up to them but its nice to treat your kids now and again ..

Surelythe "treat" element is the problem. If we tell the kids that, they think it's something special.

wrote:

If we all avoided the rubbish,they wouldnt be able to keep selling it. Fact is, some people just cant be bothered.Anything for an easy life.

Fact is that there aren't many places on the High Street that aren't selling junk food. I believe the demand is there, but who can the consumer raise this with ? The only option appears to be your MP, but what we really need is a national campaign.

wrote:

Give the supermarkets & food retailers feedback. Tell them you want e.g. more local, fresh, seasonal, organic vegetables.

And why would they change their policies because a few people raised this ? What we need is a concerted organised effort.

This subject can be approached from many angles, eg educational, behavioural, health, commercial, agricultural etc. To start the ball rolling I'd like to see one of the big supermarkets only selling organic fruit and veg.

Perhaps I need to start a pressure group !

jockettuk

a treat is exactly that .. something special.. not a everyday something but a now and again something.. weather its mcdonalds a trip to the pictures a pizza... if we dont treat our kids now and again especially for doing something great, and letting them have something they want rather than something we give them everynight for tea then why should they bother to be good and get good marks at school.... its give and take they take and i give lol

needmoney

SidB wrote:

Surelythe "treat" element is the problem. If we tell the kids that, they think it's something special.

Fact is that there aren't many places on the High Street that aren't selling junk food. I believe the demand is there, but who can the consumer raise this with ? The only option appears to be your MP, but what we really need is a national campaign.

And why would they change their policies because a few people raised this ? What we need is a concerted organised effort.

This subject can be approached from many angles, eg educational, behavioural, health, commercial, agricultural etc. To start the ball rolling I'd like to see one of the big supermarkets only selling organic fruit and veg.

Perhaps I need to start a pressure group ![/QUOTE]

SidB as this is in a similar vein perhaps you would look at the thread 'harmful additives' on the Vent board and help putting the letter together. I have made a very tenttive start and it hasn't generated much interest, yet there are similar disgruntles regarding food etc in other threads.

VixxAnn

needmoney wrote:

as this is in a similar vein perhaps you would look at the thread 'harmful additives' on the Vent board ... there are similar disgruntles regarding food etc in other threads.

Needmoney - I have just posted on the other thread..

summary..
I don't know much about the exact workings of this forum but is there anyway we can get one big main thread going that EVERYONE will see? I am sure that so many MSE'ers will agree on this issue and we know that we can do something if we all club together (as has been shown with so many financial issues)

Also I have found this (sorry if link is too big - don't know how to shorten:o , if anyone else can, please do so)
To join the Children's Food Bill mailing list, and register your support for the campaign, please click here >>

come on folks, we are talking about improving the health and future of our children (& therefore our country - if you want to look at the "big picture":D )

jellyhead

jockettuk wrote:

mcdonalds and all the others are ok as a treat.. a well done for doing good at school.. etc.. once a month etc...if people want to live on junk food thats up to them but its nice to treat your kids now and again ..

i agree. it's not as if we eat in mcd's every day or every week. i don't buy sugary kids breakfast cereal, i don't buy crisps and i make a packed lunch for young spud. he isn't eating rubbish all day every day. the kids who do eat in mcd's too often are going to eat rubbish whether mcd's is on the high street or not. if mcd's closed down in this country those kids would be eating at another fast food chain or the chip shop, or would just eat crisps and pot noodles at home and they'd be drinking coke no matter where they were, supermarkets sell all that junk and their chicken nuggets contain a lot more rubbish than the mcd's ones. yes it's great that all this negative publicity is making mcd's think again about their food (and the fruit bags and carrot sticks don't contain sugar, i'm not sure that the salad does either although feel free to prove me wrong) because it means better food is available, we get choices of water, juice etc. without having to pay a premium on top of the ordinary meal charge but our kids still get their occasional chicken nuggets or whatever. we went last week and the happy meal toys were a little football and a little golf set, great because we were on our way to the park anyway.

SidB_2

I can think of dozens of ways to treat kids without having to feed them JUNK food. All you're doing is reinforcing their perception that it's OK to eat this type of food, and at an early age they don't comprehend the inherent dangers, particularly long term. Kids are like adults in that they can have an addictive personality.

Re the sugar in salad. This was stated in "Super Size Me". MacDonalds would have gone through this documentary with a fine tooth comb and taken the matter to law had it been untrue. Maybe I'm wrong.

It's not only MacDonalds that are at fault here. We're responsible for allowing our diets to be manipulated by retailers, food outlets, multinational corporations and big business.

Judging from some of the comments here some kids get junk food very occassionally, and you provide them with a healthy diet at other times. Well done, you have my respect. I'm sure that most of us are aware of children who don't get breakfast, have lunches of heavily processed, high additive food, and are fed dinners with little nutritional benefit, and who never eat fruit or vegetables. These are the kids we should be really very concerned about.

Reading back through this thread I sound like I'm on a very high horse, and have a wonderfully well balanced diet. I don't and I know I should. I do like my food, but just wish that more healthy food was more widely available, at a reasonable price.

I've signed up to the food campaign and will be writing to my MP.

jellyhead

hi sidB, okay i'll get off my high horse too then, although i do think it's okay for my boy to eat at mcd's because i am very strict about him eating healthily the rest of the time. incidentally i realised last week he doesn't see mcd's as a 'treat' as such, just as laziness on the part of adults. he was at his grans along with his cousins while i was at the hospital for a checkup and she offered them a choice of KFC, mcd's or wimpy and while his cousins chose mcd's mine said he fancied eating at home and could he just have a banana to tide him over until we cooked for him. so i don't think he has an unhealthy fascination with junk food, he sees it's convenient sometimes but he doesn't always jump at the chance to eat it.

i know lots of kids who don't have breakfast in the morning, and the same children only have a packet of crisps for lunch, then chip shop for tea, or something out of the freezer, no veg. some of spud's friends were waiting for me to walk them all to the park recently but spud was finishing lunch and they asked that the green stuff was - they had never seen broccoli in their lives. isn't that sad :-(

mcd's have changed the salad dressings (but only in response to negative publicity) and made them all low fat. it was reported that a salad with croutons and dressing contained more calories than a big mac so now the dressings are much better. there's also the choice to eat salad without the dressing, or to have the balsamic vinegar. i'm sure you're right and the old dressing did contain sugar (as does ketchup, etc.) but they've changed now. i also noticed lots of food in supersize me that they don't sell over here, there were biscuit-type muffins on the breakfast menu, isn't that just a muffin with added sugar? their portions were massive too. i think we need to keep on the case, we need lots of negative publicity about mcd's to ensure that we don't creep into a situation where our portion sizes get as large as those in the states, and the menu gets as sugary as theirs. chips and coke are cheap, salads and bottled evian are not, mcd's would rather we all ate the junk options because they have higher profit margins so the negative publicity is important. i just reserve the right to eat there sometimes, and i get on my high horse because the people i've met in person (not those on here) who criticise us for going to mcd's are NOT feeding their children well, they are stuffing them full of crisps and coke and school dinners, i therefore don't feel they have any right to criticise my sons diet at all.

SidB_2

jellyhead wrote:

incidentally i realised last week he doesn't see mcd's as a 'treat' as such, just as laziness on the part of adults.

WOW. This kid has been educated well. Congratulations.

jellyhead wrote:

i get on my high horse because the people i've met in person (not those on here) who criticise us for going to mcd's are NOT feeding their children well, they are stuffing them full of crisps and coke and school dinners, i therefore don't feel they have any right to criticise my sons diet at all.

Sorry that's me too. I promise to try harder !