Fast Food and Childhood Obesity

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Advertisement and Childhood Obesity
ENGL/101-B25

Would you feed your children lard? The answer for most all of us is “No Way”. Most parents can safely say that they want healthy choices for their children and would never want to give them something that is bad for them. However, with many of the foods on fast food menus this is not far from the truth. We have all heard the statement that childhood obesity is on the rise, and has been for quite some time now. We have seen the heartbreaking stories of overweight children being bullied, made fun of, and even being subject to more diseases. According to the center for disease control the childhood obesity rate rose from 7% in 1980 to an unbelievable 20% in 2008 (CDC, 2011). Parents …show more content…

This means that fast food companies are advertising to people who cannot tell that it is simply an advertisement, yet will remember that the other children on television were eating the food (APA, 2011).
Fast food companies obviously direct advertising towards children. They also happen to be the cheapest and probably closest restaurants for parents. While they have shown some effort of moving in a better direction by offering a few healthier options, it is not enough. These companies need to seriously rethink their menu options or gear their advertisements away from children altogether. We always speak of how impressionable young children are. From birth they are looking to their surroundings to learn anything and everything. When these types of advertisements are geared towards children, it is teaching them bad habits before they are even old enough to know better. We all know and realize that these advertisements are actually louder than the program you have tuned into. Can we expect the fast food companies to change? No, probably not. So what do we do? We have covered how much time that children spend in front of media outlets in this paper and the numbers are scary. Parents it is time we take action. Turn off the television, get out, go and do activities with your child. Be a living example. You cannot expect a child to want to eat healthy if you do not as well. Get together as a family and have fun cooking healthy meals. Let your children learn

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