Teenagers speed to fast food

by Maggie Vink (Subscribe to Maggie Vink's posts)
Aug 22nd 2008 11:00AM

Categories: Healthy Kids, Nutrition & Supplements

I remember back when I was in high school (what my son would call the "olden days"). When my friends and I finally scored drivers licenses and cheap used cars, we smelled freedom. Almost every day we'd escape the school's cafeteria and go out to lunch. We wouldn't go home or bring healthy, packed lunches to an off-campus spot to eat. Instead, we'd hit one of the fast-food joints downtown. It was a terrible habit to get into -- unhealthy and expensive.

Not too many years from now, my son will have the same freedom. We live practically next door to the local junior high and high school. I hope, when he has the freedom to leave school grounds at lunch, he opts to come home more often than not. I'd rather have him leave fast-food as an occasional treat, and choose healthful foods more regularly. (Though, if he brings home several teenage friends for lunch, my grocery bills will skyrocket!)

I just read an article which proves that students going out to lunch is a health decision parents and schools worry about around the globe. Short of preventing high school students from leaving the school campus, all we can do is teach our kids the importance of good nutrition from a young age. Then, hopefully, when they're old enough to do so, they make good choices.

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u262f 8-22-2008 @ 3:28PM

I think the attitudes about "fast food is expensive" and "leave fast-food as an occasional treat" is entirely the wrong thing to be teaching children. I think the attitude that fast food is any sort of treat makes people crave fast food. The advertisements glamorizing fast food don't help.

To combat the obesity problem, people should be taught to see fast food for what it is: very cheap garbage. Due to the fact that it destroys our bodies and shortens our life span, it's punishment to eat fast food, not a treat. Poor people eat when they can't afford the time and money to eat anything better. People who beg for change on the street buy fast food with it because it's cheap. People with unrefined tastes like fast food because it's inundated with so much fast, salt, and sugar that you can't taste the food. Stupid people like fast food because they believe the commercials they see on TV. If we think like that, if children get fast food only when Mommy and Daddy are stressed, then our children will learn to associate fast food with stress and be less likely to choose it when they grow up.

As long as people think of fast food as a treat, they'll be training their taste buds to crave foods that make them obese. If they learn that the taste of fast food is the taste of poverty and stress, then they will change their tastes to appreciate better foods.