In times of crisis, the weak shirk responsibility and blame the other guy.
As the problem of obesity trickles, rather, rushes with massive flood like pressure towards our children, McDonald’s shrugs their responsibility, instead, saying “we don’t market unhealthy products to children. Parents are able to choose whether or not to feed McDonald’s to their kids.”
To my dismay, this blogger agrees in her article “Don’t Blame McDonalds”.
What follows is my emotionally charged rebuttal.
Are parents really FREE to choose?
You state that the proposal put forth by Corporate Accountability International, to limit McDonald’s marketing towards children presented facts that we already know, as in, you don’t need to be a health expert to understand how bad McDonald’s is, or moreover that we have a serious health crisis. You neglect to explore why it is that society as a whole continues to purchase unhealthy, poor quality, ‘imitation’ food despite our wealth of knowledge. You instead place blame on parents without resolving the fact that parents love their children and want to do what is best for them.
Therein lies the crux of this debate. Why would parents willingly harm their children and perpetuate a culture of obesity? Like you said, WE ALL KNOW better, but do we really? Is this a simple matter of education?
This is a complex issue and to place blame on parents stating that it is a simple choice is short sighted and ignores the fact you also stated yourself, there are many other variables at play.
Children are being raised in a culture where parents can barely hang on. While they may ‘know’ fast food isn’t good they aren’t necessarily equipped with the right tools to make a free choice. We live in a culture that detracts from quality, depth, meaning and promotes doing what makes us happy in the short term no matter how its done or what the longterm consequences are.
McDonald’s commercials portray a view of life that on the surface is about freedom, enjoyment, and value but in reality has roots in a self-centered indulgence that is starving for true meaning. Eat a burger and a milkshake for little more than a dollar, ‘treat’ the kids, get home faster and plunk ourselves in front of the television, alone, to unplug our life? Fuel our bodies with manufactured unhealthy food? Is this freedom?
You are placing blame on parents without supporting them in a solution. What we really need is meaning, conversation, togetherness, to rid ourselves of the corporate slavery that pollutes our lives. Perhaps if we had community gardens and potlucks? Perhaps if we encouraged all the benefits of whole health versus the harmful effects of a poor lifestyle or the easy fixes to solve the problem at large (ie: lose 20 lbs without even trying). Maybe if life was about more than money, convenience and appearance, we would have those meals we used to…perhaps if McDonald’s wasn’t the only viable solution to ‘getting through the day’.
You stated that if there was formal legislation, you would support it. As in you won’t adjust your behavior without a governmental stamp of approval? Does the government form your sense of right vs wrong? In reality, regulations lag much behind the needs of many situations and it seems it does here too. You’ve already stated we know its bad and contributes to a serious and growing problem, so why wait to take action?
There was a time was smoking was considered acceptable too. With actions like warning labels on the package, restricted advertising, product placement, and clever commercials that displayed a realistic raw portrait of cigarette’s harmful impact on our lungs, teeth, and health, the social attitudes supporting smoking began to change for the better. Eventually smoking earned a reputation that matched it’s reality.
We are still in a place where its fun to mock healthy eating, be flamboyant with our acts of mistreatment to our bodies, and accept poor health as the sign of a good life. Clearly we have figured out clever ways of living with the dissonance we feel in doing what we know we really shouldn’t.
So without relying on government or education, the best option it seems is responsible business. But save McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner suddenly having a crisis of conscience, consumer demand is the only thing that can give McDonald’s a reason to change. So how do we create enough momentum to shift the balance from 1200 calorie cupcakes, buckets of bacon, and supersized fries with a milkshake, to honest grown food that tastes good and nourishes and maintains our bodies health?
In Ray Anderson’s, ‘Confession’s of a Radical Industrialist’, he describes industry and business as the strongest institutions in the world with the power to take the lead and reverse the tide of overusing the Earth’s resources to leave a better future for our children. We’ve seen his business Interface increase profits while respecting and replenishing the environment with it’s zero waste program.
We clearly recognize industry as harmful for the environment. With a large oil spill in the ocean we immediately recognize error and sense the gravity of the situation as we all cry out with pleas for better regulations and change. But we seem to accept an industry that slowly poisons us, our children, and our culture to disease and death. Why? What are fighting to keep this industry healthy? In what kind of situation would it ever IDEAL to eat at McDonalds? What value do they really offer us at all?
Having pedometers and a healthy choice menu, please, that is hardly a step in the right direction! 10, 000 steps a day is hardly relevant when you’re putting garbage down your throats. Most people don’t order the healthy options and in what context are they healthy except compared to the other garbage that is offered?
Can McDonald’s do the same as Ray Anderson’s Interface? Can they remain in business while respecting and properly nourishing our health? Are we really to believe that McDonald’s is going to teach us about healthy eating?
Truth needs to stand above all else. And where there is truth there must also be illusion and the fact remains that we continue to get sicker and sicker as a society for the benefit of McDonalds’ pocket books, a twisted version of healthy culture, and for our own laziness and instead of fighting back at all we blindly continue to stand behind the excuse of moral relativism and support it.
Give me a break. Maybe we would reconsider the drive-thru if McDonald’s didn’t spend billions skewing our brains to believe that our lives will be better eating their food. If there cheeseburgers came wrapped in labels such as ‘may lead to disease and early death.’ Maybe if they offered us truth and real value instead of junk, maybe then, we would be freer to choose.
I venture to say that we need action at all levels. It will require a complex solution because it is a complex problem. We can’t expect McDonald’s to do the work for us and we can’t depend on the government to catch up and impose a legislation that frankly would just piss people off, people who are wrapped up in the flawed logic of free choice.
With enough discussion, honesty, and engagement around this issue we can draw enough motivation to get people themselves to demand positive change. Discouraging a group of knowledgeable caring citizens from trying to do that, while placing the onus on parents as if all it requires is a simple health lesson and more self control isn’t going to do anything.
Get in on the dialogue and place your comments below.
Well thought out article but I think you missed the point by only focusing on McDonald’s. What about Burger King, Subway, Wendy’s, etc…..
The issue isn’t the fast food places. The issue is the education + the guidelines that are being given to us. It goes back to before McDonald’s existed. When the governments could have truly given us good guidelines but then the meat + dairy industry used their influence and instead of the guideline being “eat less meat + dairy” it was instead “eat more foods that are low in saturated fats”. And that’s what people have done – eat more food.
People do have a choice. There are many many parents who feed their kids properly. McDonald’s won’t change their marketing or their approach because they’re a business, and they make a lot of money at what they do. There are trends and as smart business people, they take advantage of that. It has to change the higher + lower levels. There has to be a pull from the governments with the proper guidelines and there has to be a push demand from the consumers who choose healthy food.
However, even people who think they eat healthy (ie getting fruits + vegetables) are mostly lacking. A recent study showed 80% of people don’t get enough fruits and veggies so people need to take supplements (vitamins +minerals + phytonutrients + fruits + veggies + omega 3). Only then will people be able to think clearly, feel healthier and be happier.
People need a reason to change. Change can be painful so the benefit of changing has to outweigh the costs. Which it does. We need to frame it better. Michael Pollan gets it. So does T. Colin Campbell. The rest of us need to start listening.
Agreed! People do need a reason to change and that reason is out there we just aren’t hearing it. The omnivores dilema (Micheal Polan) and the china study (T. Colin Campbell) are great books that do frame the situation well. I also realize fast food places are not going to change their business and that our only hope is getting people to demand better themselves. Thanks for your comments. I appreciate the dialogue. In my opinion it is the only way to generate clarity and momentum to move forward in a better way!
This is a great discussion.
On the one hand, I can speak from experience and say that I was that guy who spent years of my life wasting away in a fastfood addiction resulting in 80pounds of excess fat. Then, through the help of FM I realized that I was in control of what I put in my mouth, and I could make smart decisions based on my goals AND based on the fact that I HAD to change. So the reason to change was so I could live longer, healthy and see my future children grow up.
I also agree with the statement that the culture in which we live in – is extremely difficult for children & parents. The pace in which we live has almost eliminated families making meals together and enjoying it at a leisurely pace. It is much easier (as the McDonalds commercial shows) for two parents to grab a 1000 calorie meal and just hand it to their kid, than to buy the groceries, cook the meal and enjoy it. Oh – notice how every single person in the commercial is well: thin, skinny? even the kid?
And you are right Robert in saying that most people don’t even know what healthy is! For example – “don’t eat bread” I was told that eating bread was bad because it was a carbohydrate and you need to eliminate it. In fact, while your at it, eating an excess amount of protein is what is most important so for breakfast eat as much bacon and sausage as you can – but don’t think about having any bread??? Its diets like this that have messed up people’s thinking.
I recently watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution that is taking place in Los Angeles. Jamie determined that in the Los Angeles area, schools are serving children a total of 57 tonnes of sugar a week in the food they are eating. Students have cheeseburgers for breakfast – its almost disgusting. What is even more disturbing is that the burgers they get is made up of all the left over unwanted meat / cartilege etc from a cow that is separated, soaked in chemicals and acts as “filler” for the rest of the burger. The USDA knows this and approves it as a “healthy lifestyle”.
They know this – approve it – and say its not their responsibility?
And we wonder why this is the first generation where children are living shorter lives than their parents.
I don’t have the answers, but just trying to add my two cents.
Thanks for weighing in Jonathan. That is just it. Just because something is approved or legal doesn’t necessarily make it right. But when that is up against a difficult culture that is fed more confusion than it can handle, what are the chances things will ever change? Grass root organizations and passionate advocates (Jaime Oliver) who haven’t already sold their soul for money have the capacity to slowly chip away at the established notions of partial truths and accepted beliefs (don’t eat bread, my child won’t drink milk if it isn’t flavoured). With persistence and conversation I believe the momentum will build enough to create real change. For the first time, the new food recommendations in the US include how much food (measured in calories) people should eat instead of just general guidelines like eat more fruit less saturated fat. Over and above everything else it is the quantity of food that we intake that will make the most impact on our general health. This is not to say that quality doesn’t matter, of course what we eat will effect our wellbeing too, but the priority is now set in a way that will draw attention to food in a way that will prepare our population to make better choices overall. In other words, even though apples are healthy, eating 10 a day isn’t. And in that same vein, even high energy foods like chocolate can still have a place in a healthy diet if eaten in small amounts. Over time I think in order for big businesses (fast food) to remain competitive, with more educated and demanding consumers, they will need to increase their levels of responsibility and caring for our health and will eventually offer healthier options in a healthier manner with clearer information about their products nutritional value. Maybe I’m dreaming…but I’d like to stay optimistic.