I agree wholeheartedly that there is a world of difference between a fast food burger, and one that is prepared with fresh ingredients. In fact I distinctly remember my freshman home economics teacher telling us that hamburgers were a well balanced meal, in terms of the five food groups, if they were correctly prepared, in a clean environment, and we went without the fries! While I have consumed too many fast food burgers to count, in the last year, I have shunned them completely in favour of fresh foods. We just don’t do take out anymore, unless it’s the occasional pizza, or good old fish and chips, and where we might have had take-out once a week, now if we have it once a month, it’s a lot.

A researcher at the U of R along with others released a retrospective study (although the methods are vague and I am not sure I agree with all the conclusions but I digress) that said 40% of the calories kids consume are ‘empty’ calories. YIKES!!!!!

Burgers are not inherently evil true, but most people can’t tell the difference between well prepared and fast food… Pizza too is not inherently terrible, but again, it is all in the prep….

As for Halloween, we let the kids pick 10 pieces of candy (double their age) to keep, then we buy the rest at a nickel/candy. This way they still get something, and I can eat I mean throw out the rest .

I saw this video too, and I agree, a food other than a hamburger would be more realistic. I don’t eat beef, but I don’t think a hamburger is like an illegal drug.

I think the point of the video isn’t to demonize a particular food, but rather to illustrate that junk food/fast food can indeed become addictive. Many parents are woefully uninformed about what’s in the food they feed their kids on a regular basis. So I think the video’s creators are trying to shock people into seeing that.

Not sure it’s very effective, though, since there really needs to be some additional information in order for the targeted audience to actually get it.

(Thanks, Kristi, for mentioning Spoonfed and the JO nod. It’s been fun, that’s for sure!)

I’ve recently really cracked down on the foods that I buy. Every single label gets read, even the finest print, to make sure I’m not literally poisoning my family. A friend recently got diagnosed with MS, and her doctor (a highly renowned Neurologist) told her that it was probably caused by the high amounts of diet products in her diet -that contained aspartame. So while, strictly speaking not directly related to this post – I just wanted to say that when it comes to food we need to be awake about what we put into our and our kids bodies. Did you know that apparently Donald Rumsfeld was one of the politicians who put forward some bill that allowed the use of aspartame in so many products? Let’s chew on that for a minute eh?

@Vanessa-I was a vegetarian for a number of years, and even though I started eating chicken and turkey over 10 years ago, I haven’t eaten beef or pork in about 15 years. I agree-hamburgers can be healthy. However, I can’t imagine that anyone who has seen Food Inc. or Super-Size Me would eat fast food hamburgers anymore. They’re just revolting.

@Kellie-I read that same study, and I totally believe it. And yes, all burgers are not created equally, but a lot of people think they are, and that’s a problem.

@Christina-I totally agree. The idea of feeding kids “kid food” (fast food hamburgers in a “Happy Meal,” mac-and-cheese in a box, etc.) is one that’s accepted by so many parents, and unfortunately, those foods are often the worst ones available.

@Ness-Ah, aspartame. I try to avoid it, but it’s really, really hard to do, given its prevalence. I had no idea about Rummy! Interesting.