Taking Toys Out of Happy Meals and Cafeteria Food

The new way to fight childhood obesity is to take the toys out of Happy Meals.

I heard this garbage on the news this morning. Come on now, just because the toys aren't in them doesn't mean the kids won't eat the food. That is about as dumb as taking the prize out of the sugary cereal boxes. Kids eat this stuff because of the sugary prize they get, the delicious way it tastes, because Mom doesn't feel like cooking and this is the quickest thing for dinner, i could go on and on.

Since the government has decided that our kids are too fat, why not fix things on their end? Have you seen the trash that is called school lunch? If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing what the offerings are, go to your local elementary school (where there are no vending machines for kids to get chips from) and see what these kids have to eat (or not). Mind you, this is the only meal some students get in a day. Pizza and black -eyed peas, tacos and green beans, vegetables with more sugar in them than fruits have naturally, chocolate/strawberry/vanilla/blueberry flavored milk (of which they get a legally-mandated choice). Watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution if you don't believe me.

These kids are eating poorly prepared, processed food every day at school, supplied by the USDA and our good ol' federal government. When I questioned the menu choices once, I was told, "We cook what they send us." What is "THEY" thinking? "THEY" are sending out the message that cheaper is more important. The food sent to public schools is cheap, processed junk. That hamburger patty is no more hamburger meat than the chicken patty is chicken. The food is tasteless, limp, dry, just plain old nasty.

Then you go to middle and high schools where students have vending machines from which to choose their lunches. They select chips and candy and soda, but hey, they have to eat something. They run about on a sugar induced high after lunch, but at least they have eaten something. So, the solution to this is take out the vending machines. In the words of the immortal Charlie Brown, "GOOD GRIEF!" THEY don't want students eating unhealthy foods, so THEY remove the vending machines, and the students eat nothing. What a fix to the problem! Once again, if the cafeteria offered healthier food that the kids would eat, that would solve a piece of the problem.

Exercise, or lack thereof, is also an issue. We are a TV/video game/electronics society. Parents, instead of plopping your kids in front of the TV or shoving thee PSP in their hand, make them go outside for at least 30-45 minutes every day (weather permitting). Even if they walk around the yard and do nothing else, they've gotten Vitamin D from the sun and have gotten up of their butts to get some fresh air. Might not work at making them skinny, but it won't kill them either.

I seriously wonder where these law-makers get their lofty ideas about fixing things. It seems to me that they are random, train-of-thought thinkers and just spout off whatever comes out first. They get so fired up about it and run with it, not thinking about how stupid it sounds or how little it solves the problem.

Watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on Friday nights. He is trying to help with reasonable solutions that can stick with a little push. God forbid what we do to solve our problems makes any sense!