Article I found... "Fast Road to Fat City"...

http://health.msn.com/dietfitness/articlepage .aspx?cp-documentid=100167999&page=1

 I just thought you all might like to read this article I found yesterday on MSN.

I put it here so I could tag it for future reference.  Please read - My jaw dropped when I read this! :)

Have a healthy day!

EDITED TO CLARIFY TITLE...

Holy crap.  When I have kids they are NEVER eating at those places.

Oh, wow.  Amazing ... it almost made me want to cry ...

I think what I read on the 2nd page hit me the hardest ...

 "For the first time in American history, experts predict, this generation of children may die at an earlier age than their parents."

That is a stunner.  Thanks for sharing.

Thanks.  I wonder how offended my obese friends with kids would be if I forwarded this...

Did anyone else look at the color coded map at the end?  It seems that obesity rates are almost directly correlated to income levels.  The poorest states are the fattest, and the richest states are the thinnest. 

yes, kat, there's another thread on here that addresses that also ... especially in regard to the news about the "hold" on building new fast-food restaurants in Los Angeles, where demographic studies show poorer neighborhoods seem to drowning in an ocean of them!!

The book Fatland by Greg Christer goes into depth about this.  Excellent read if anyone's interested.

Thanks for sharing this article.

A growing obesity epidemic coupled with a declining healthcare system is NOT a good thing.  I can't help but wonder what the future holds.

I wonder if this is like what happened to the dinosaurs!  lol

This was the part that hit home for me.  As a married woman without children - but still living on a REALLY TIGHT budget - I can verify that before I found Calorie Count and found the strength to change my life - I would have gone for the value menu before getting a $5.00 salad!

"The same value pricing that works for larger portions works against many of the "healthful" choices on the fast-food menu. "Look at the salads on one of these menus," Young says. "They sell for, say, $4.99. For the same price you can buy five hamburgers. So you're poor, you need to feed your family, what are you going to do, buy five salads or five hamburgers?" "

The salad I get from McDonalds is the Southwest Salad w/Grilled Chicken at 320 cals.  It's spicy, DELICIOUS and the only bad thing is that it's rather high in sodium so I only have this salad when I can allow for the 980mg sodium (I think that's what it has...) But - with tax, this salad costs me $4.50...

For that same $4.50 I could get 2 Double Cheeseburgers, a small fry and a small soda.  But that's more like 1100 cals (if not more...)...

Fast food has been made addictive with trans fats so you'll crave the bad stuff and they've made the bad stuff more affordable than the healthy stuff.

Personally - I feel that the healthy salads should be more like $2.00 each and that there should be a health tax on unhealthy foods to encourage more healthful eating - especially for our children - they are our future CEO's, Presidents, teachers, leaders etc... 

Please do pass this on to everyone you know - ESPECIALLY - those with children that you know frequent these restaurants.  I don't care how busy your day is - I feel parents need to be more responsible for their children's health and wellbeing!

Just wanted to bump this back to the top so everyone can see it. :)

I'm so glad my parents took me to McDonalds 2-3 times a day when I was a kid. :D

Okay, I agree with everything everyone said and the article pointed out a lot of truths, but where's the personal responsibility?  It's easy to blame fast food, but how about the lazy parents who are taking their kids there 2 or 3 times a day.

As well, I'm not a dietician or a doctor or any other type of health professional but I don't find the nutritional information at fast food restaurants any harder to read than the labels on any food you find in a grocery store.  This is not something you need to be a PhD to understand, as was suggested in the article.

I'm not a fan of fast food but I don't think we're going to help ourselves or our children until we stop playing the role of victim and start taking responsibility for our own actions.

Mosh, I don't know if there is sarcasm in your comment or not????

Bottom line NOW is: (unless you are still under your parent's jurisdiction) YOU CAN MAKE OUR OWN CHOICES.

From that perspective, it is up to you.....and me... and everyone who had meals from fast food chains that might have been inexpensive but ubhealthy.

A growing obesity epidemic coupled with a declining healthcare system is NOT a good thing.

Especially not when what health care there is left is oriented towards treating obesity, not preventing it.  I can't help but suspect there is a way to kill two birds with one stone here ...

It's a good article but the first couple of paragraphs made me laugh. So this guy walks in during the lunch hour when there are lines 6 people deep and starts dickering with the $7/hour Burger King employee about nutrional information? If I was behind him in line I would have kicked his ass.

what a sobering article

That is an excellent article.  I like the idea of taxing unhealthy foods.  It has worked well with alcohol and cigarettes and studies have shown that obesity is quickly rising to the top of the lists of causes of death in America. 

 I'm all about personal responsibility but I also think that parents don't have a chance with all of the advertising aimed at children.  I have a sixteen month old son and at this point in his life I can control his environment but eventually that won't happen anymore.  I can only hope that I have had a chance to teach him to make the right decisions.  With fast food in the schools and the advertising all around us, it's hard to know.  Unfortunately, many parents don't HAVE the information to pass on to their children about making healthy food choices.  What are they to do?

In the end we all have to be parents (I have a nineteen month old) and we control the money, at least until they get jobs in their teens.  So we largely control the choices (not completely, but enough to make a major impact).

I know it's difficult, but I guess the best we can do is limit tv, so they get less advertising and treat fast food and all junk food like an occasional treat.  If a parent doesn't take the time to learn the information, then whose fault is it?  We will never be able to get control of our lives, our health and our habits until we take control and lose the victim mentality.

Wow, a great article and one I will be forwarding to my daughter who had her first child in March of this year.

 Interesting quote from this article: :"A study published last summer by Ludwig and a team of researchers found that a third of all children eat at fast-food restaurants on any given day, and on those days they take in an extra 187 calories. If a child were to eat that way every day with no increase in exercise, over the course of a year he or she could gain an additional 20 pounds."

So by just cutting out the same number of calories would also lead to a twenty pound loss in a year. I can do that! 

Because of this article.  I"m starting a letter writing campaign to try to make a change.  At this time - I'm still in the beginning phases of organizing my thoughts and trying to gather supporting documentation (including pictures of the fast food menu that shows the salad at $5.00 and the burger at $0.99.

I was going to start a petition as well - which also would mention the "health tax" on unhealthy foods - but that was poo-poo'ed on earlier - I guess that was too much effort.

I also was told I have too much faith in our government.  I was beginning to think that one person CANNOT change the world - but I'm going to go ahead with my letter writing campaign in hopes that things can at least change here in Wisconsin - if not all of America.

Very interesting and so very true...thank you for the link...

Cece