Big Macs - and big trouble for healthy kids School Lunch Special: McNuggets and fries! I've spilled a lot of ink in this forum talking about childhood obesity in America - both the good and the bad aspects. Unfortunately, there's not enough of one and a whole lot of the other. On the "good" side of the equation, an increasing number of public schools are, at least in theory, attempting to encourage healthier eating among kids. How they define "healthier eating" varies (some school systems' plans aren't much better than the cafeteria's pizza and mac-n-cheese) but for the most part, there has been a trend toward eliminating soda, candy bars, chips, crackers and other universally acknowledged junk foods from the school environment. However, what remains a problem is this: Kids aren't always eating IN school while they're AT school. And boy do the fast-food restaurants know it. Here's what I mean… According to a recent Reuters health article, kids in major metropolitan areas of the country often have access to fast food joints within easy walking distance of their schools. The article's marquis study - conducted by researchers from the Children's Hospital in Boston - focused on whether fast-food restaurants were disproportionately concentrated around schools. Using the Chicago metro area as their study zone, they found that these slop-shops were erected near schools at a rate 3-4 times higher than if randomly dispersed. They also found that 80% of schools had at least one fast-food establishment located within ten minutes' walk. Multiply this times every metro area in the country, and mix in the facts that fully one third of all American kids and teens eat fast food on any given day and that 3 times more fast-food calories are being consumed by the 12-18 demographic now than in the late 70s, and you've got the makings of a health disaster - one we're already living. What's really funny is that next thing you know, the do-gooders (who are mostly overweight themselves) will be squawking at state legislatures to enact "McDonald's-Free Zones" around schools, rather than placing the responsibility where it belongs: On parents. It's very simple - if we want our kids to eat right, we should start be FEEDING them right. And instead of sending them to school with a five-spot every day to buy lunch wherever their peers pressure them into going, we should pack them a healthy lunch of tuna, chicken breast, or rare roast beef, and an apple for dessert. If we did this, the Wendy's, McDonalds, Taco Bells, and Burger Kings of the world would HAVE to relocate, because they wouldn't be making any money where the kids are hanging out. And speaking of healthy childhood eating starting in the home… **************************************************** Roly-poly role models? As if kids don't face enough trauma to their dietary habits every time they turn on the brain-rotting boob tube. On a typical Saturday morning of cartoon-watching, they're bludgeoned with as many as 200 commercials for junk foods (Daily Dose, 8/29/2005)… But now, according to a recent UK survey of parents reported by the BBC News, the characters on TV shows kids watch are also promoting bad eating habits in ways they seem to absorb. Cited most often in this regard was the deplorable Homer Simpson, the dimwitted prime-time patriarch of the eponymous Simpson family that drools as he inhales doughnuts and "Duff" beer. Others include reality show contestants. Of course, we already know that TV has a profound impact on kids' lives - especially their eating habits. But what's really scary is the degree to which TV (or schools or parents, or SOMETHING) has eroded children's basic understanding of food. Case in point… An unrelated survey of 1,000 kids found that 20% of them thought beef came from pigs, 12.5% claimed cheese came from butter, and just under 17% thought broccoli sprigs were BABY TREES! Lamenting the lack of parenting - and weeping for the weighty future, William Campbell Douglass II, MD | 
