More News To Eat Up: THE Future To Fixing The Fat

I apologize for the heavy flow of posts at the moment, but as I have been sifting through food in the news, more great stuff has been brought to my attention.

Lenore Skenazy, a columnist for the New York Daily News, has just written an article titled "Supersize kids' fast-food smarts." Within this article is what I believe to be the answer to fast food troubles, and I honestly think this will work. This beast of a problem in the U.S. is inspected from its routes, childhood, inside Eric Scholosser's new book, "Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food."

Skenazy wrote:

"Because the guy behind the book is Eric Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation." That best-seller breathed new life into a stale topic: the fact that fast food is — surprise — bad for you (and for the animals getting nuggetized, the farmers getting 2 cents for every order of fries, and the
world getting ever more homogenized). "Fast Food Nation" may have given some grownups pause before ordering their Big Macs, but McDonald's profits never took a hit. A kiddie book, though, that's another story."

What Skenazy writes is true. "Fast Food Nation" likely received little time in the children's eye, but a book geared for the growing boy and the self-conscious (or not) maturing girl is sure to hit a home run.

I was never given a fast food lesson growing up. And don't get me wrong. I had all the talks. Good Grades. Drugs. Alcohol. Sex. Women. I was told to eat healthy and why, but I was never sat down to talk about the rat, mouse and cat intestines that made up my six nuggets at Icky D's. I had heard stories, and those stories have kept me away from most fast food throughout my life. I probably eat McDonald's, Burger King or Wendy's less than once a week on average. And what if I had been read the horror stories of the fast food process instead of Good Night Moon before bed as a child? I would cringe at the site of a fast food joint for the rest of my life. My nightmares would guide my diet.

"Kid readers may or may not care that in the 1970s, the average American boy drank twice as much milk as soda," wrote Skenazy.

I am still that kind from the 70s, thanks to my mom, and my nonexistent love for soda. It's just not that great to me. It's not smooth. It makes you have hiccups. And it's not healthy. Yes I drink my soda, but I don't understand how people think any soda tastes better than a natural beverage like milk or OJ.

I know there have been other efforts to slow the fast food industry's domination over children and practically the entire U.S., but I think this shock effect for children is the best stuff yet. I know when my kids go to bed, and I am singing, "This little piggie...," or some other nursery rhyme related to fast food, I will add in my own verse at the end. And the first three books on my kids' book shelf: Good Night Moon, Supersize Kids' Fast-Food Smarts and The Polar Express.

Click here for McDonald's reaction.