Column: Children should be taught self-control to avoid obesity

By Rachel Allred

Published Oct. 22, 2010

It’s OK. Admit it. You love fast food. Sure, it’s greasy and fattening and a heart attack waiting to happen, but those salty fries, creamy milkshakes and burgers lathered in cheese and ketchup create a taste sensation that’s hard to beat.

Understandably, fast-food chains have been getting a lot of criticism from diet specialists, physicians and consumers. Encouraging healthy lifestyles and nutritious eating holds great importance in our society, but some, such as certain health advocates in San Francisco, are taking it too far.

A full-page ad printed in the San Francisco Examiner showed support for the Healthy Meal Incentive Ordinance and asked District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty to endorse the ordinance in the upcoming vote.

In part, the ordinance would prohibit toys and other incentives to be given with meals, unless those meals meet certain nutritional criteria. Essentially, bye-bye, Happy Meal toys. The intent of the ordinance is to discourage kids from eating unhealthy foods and to decrease food-related health problems in children. According to the ordinance, at least 17 percent of Americans between the ages of 2 and 19 are considered overweight or obese. Certainly the epidemic of obesity and unhealthy living is a problem that needs to be addressed, but banning toys from kids’ meals seems like a stretch.

According to the ad, these toy giveaways help sell more than 1 billion unhealthy meals to children under the age of 12 every year. Obviously, it’s usually not adults going after the decorated cardboard boxes and running zebra toys. Children under the age of 12 don’t have jobs, can’t drive and can hardly order for themselves, so they sure aren’t taking themselves to McD’s every week to get those McNaughty nuggets. It’s the parents, guardians or siblings who take these kids to the fried-food-filled restaurants.

Sure, kids see a commercial on TV for the newest Happy Meal toy and insist they have to have it. They don’t really have to have it, and they shouldn’t have their request granted every time they want a fast-food meal, just like kids shouldn’t be taken to the mall every time they see an ad for a shirt they like. Is fast food healthy, especially for young folks? Hecks no. Is one Happy Meal every once in a while going to condemn them to obesity the rest of their lives? Absolutely not.

I’m lucky to have a pretty health-conscious mom who taught me about eating right. In elementary school, however, I despised how nutritional savyy she was. I always envied my classmates who had Pepsi, Cheetos and Nutty Bars in their lunch, while I had 100 percent natural fruit juice, Goldfish crackers and carrot sticks. While some of my friends went to fast-food restaurants weekly, such an outing was an occasional treat for me. Whenever we made a trip to the local McDonald’s or Burger King, I always looked forward to the food and the toy. There was something magical about opening the bag to see what toy I got. Often my brother and I would be so consumed by playing with our toys that we lost interest in finishing our pile of French fries. Although the toys were often silly and broken, lost or forgotten after a week, they made the short and infrequent trip to fast-food places something a little more special.

The rise in unhealthy weight is certainly discouraging and shouldn’t go unnoticed. But it should be more about learning good self-control and good habits than trying to ban everything that might create a risk. It would be like leaving Santa tomatoes instead of cookies or having fiber bars instead of cupcakes at a birthday party.