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Citing Obesity of Children, County Bans Fast-Food Toys

Part of the problem is we are biologically programmed to seek out foods like junk food because they are high calorie foods that give lots of short term energy.

Which probably explains why the other day, when I went to the local video game arcade to play In the Groove 2 I downed a box of Hot Tamales to push me through the last 1/2 hour I played that day, on top of the 10 bottles of water consumed the 4 total hours I played there that day.

For those of you unfamiliar with ITG/ DDR, a video of some dude playing one of the hardest songs in the game:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vrVpbpVuTc"]YouTube- Lordd_Magus Pandemonium Expert 99.06[/nomedia]
 
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I save money by not getting fast food - the argument that fast food is affordable food is bull. I can serve up a yummy, healthy meal for $5.00 for my entire family of 6.
How on earth can you do that? I can scrape by for a group of 6 on nine bucks at the dollar store if I cut corners and dont do vegetables or meats.
 
How on earth can you do that? I can scrape by for a group of 6 on nine bucks at the dollar store if I cut corners and dont do vegetables or meats.

I can usually make my lunch for 4-5 days on $6-$12 week with meats and veggies.
Look for good deals on bulk items that carry over to next week.
 
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Children respond to a reward system. Food comes and goes and a child's taste buds are quite low, one of the only real mechanisms to make fast-food "sticky" to a child is to present a toy everytiime they get a happy meal.

Soooooo
What the county should have mandated was a law whereby the counter assistant at McD was required by law to punch the kid in the face and kick the parents in the nads when they buy a happy meal....
 
How on earth can you do that? I can scrape by for a group of 6 on nine bucks at the dollar store if I cut corners and dont do vegetables or meats.

Huge bags of plain frozen veggies are just a few bucks - one large bag can go for 2 or 3 meals for my family. . . ideal if you're tight on money. About a 1/2 C serving is adequate for children's nutritional needs.

A weeks worth of fruit and veggies that are standard in my house:
Broccoli, eggplant, bananas, snap peas, green beans, carrots, yellow onions, dried beans. I might spend $15.00 on fresh veggies/fruits each week. . . maybe less. Anything beyond that is luxury.

Wheat pasta and white rice are heavy with vitamins and nutrients, as well - they balance a meal out.

Divide out what I buy and the meals I cook and the number of people I cook for - I spend less than $10.00 per meal and usually it's around $5.00. Money doesn't grow on trees but I pull off affordable and healthy every night.

How on earth could I possibly buy fast food and feed my entire family for around that little money per meal - it's careful planning and careful budgeting. I know how much each child can eat and I don't fix extras - if I do I'm sure to save and reuse them in some way.

The way I see it: 6 $1.00 burgers from McD's doesn't fill a belly, they'll be hungry an hour later. Fries - I can fry up some fries if I felt it important. Soda - we've been off soda for almost a year, now, and as a result I've lost a lot of weight (and none of my kids have had cavities in 6 years - which saves money, too.) Apple dippers - it's cheaper to just buy some apples and slice them up. A salad big enough to feed my whole family can cost as much as those tiny salads they sell.

I'm not saying, though, that home cooked meals are always going to be healthier than anything you buy at a fast food joint - it takes effort and knowledge to figure it out and, well, when we started eating more veggies it took a firm hand on my part and experimentation (lots of it) to figure out the best way to flavor veggies so the kids will eat them without adding a lot of fat or calories to the dish.
 
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I save money by not getting fast food - the argument that fast food is affordable food is bull. I can serve up a yummy, healthy meal for $5.00 for my entire family of 6.

Same thing with time. When I'm taking a full semester of classes I cook only one day a week - Saturday. I spend the entire day pre-cooking meals so when it comes time to have dinner on Wednesday all I have to do is thaw or bake.
please explain how you can do that consistently. 83 cents per person per meal?
 
please explain how you can do that consistently. 83 cents per person per meal?

Maybe it's also location which nets some foods to be more affordable? But I don't live in a fresh-farming environment (central Arkansas), we're surrounded by cattle so beef is what's cheap. . . some times of the year veggies are more expensive and I resort to more frozen.

But when we went on our trip cross country to California the thing I noticed that, especially out West, veggies and fruits were SO freaking cheap (like .88/lb for oranges, $1.50/lb/grapes) but fast food was expensive as hell.

We went to McD's in Barstow and it cost us $40.00. Locally that same meal would have cost us just under $20.00.

When we stayed at Half Moon Bay some veggies were still incredibly cheap, cheaper than what I pay for them here. . . I was shocked and actually ticked that I couldn't load up and bring them home :D

But in other areas where the veggies and fruits must be brought up from the southern states - or the west - I imagine it makes the cost go up even more. . . but, even then, frozen veggies or even canned would be ideal even if fresh is luxury - cost is cheaper because shelf life is longer, transportation can be slower.
Dried barley and garbonzo beans, peas and other such dried goods are a stellar way to slip nutrition into an otherwise so-so meal (like spaghetti w/ sauce - cook/blend up the garbanzo beans and add them into the meat, etc).

But, I admit that since I'm a stay at home Mom I spend a lot of time cooking - but that's not so much because I'm home, that's because I just thoroughly love to cook.

If I hated to cook I'd probably be singing a different tune right now :D
 
Maybe it's also location which nets some foods to be more affordable? But I don't live in a fresh-farming environment (central Arkansas), we're surrounded by cattle so beef is what's cheap. . . some times of the year veggies are more expensive and I resort to more frozen.

But when we went on our trip cross country to California the thing I noticed that, especially out West, veggies and fruits were SO freaking cheap (like .88/lb for oranges, $1.50/lb/grapes) but fast food was expensive as hell.

We went to McD's in Barstow and it cost us $40.00. Locally that same meal would have cost us just under $20.00.

When we stayed at Half Moon Bay some veggies were still incredibly cheap, cheaper than what I pay for them here. . . I was shocked and actually ticked that I couldn't load up and bring them home :D

But in other areas where the veggies and fruits must be brought up from the southern states - or the west - I imagine it makes the cost go up even more. . . but, even then, frozen veggies or even canned would be ideal even if fresh is luxury - cost is cheaper because shelf life is longer, transportation can be slower.
Dried barley and garbonzo beans, peas and other such dried goods are a stellar way to slip nutrition into an otherwise so-so meal (like spaghetti w/ sauce - cook/blend up the garbanzo beans and add them into the meat, etc).

But, I admit that since I'm a stay at home Mom I spend a lot of time cooking - but that's not so much because I'm home, that's because I just thoroughly love to cook.

If I hated to cook I'd probably be singing a different tune right now :D
i love to cook as well, at this point i can afford to buy whatever. my husband, however, is a meat and potatoes guy, so my culinary expertise is wasted on him.........so i cook for my friends.

when we are out cruising the islands, however, it will be lots of fish and rice and beans, and local produce. cheap and delish. oh, and rum. ;-)
 
please explain how you can do that consistently. 83 cents per person per meal?

I don't often have a choice - I splurge on things like steak and so on time to time, especially around the holidays, but usually the basics are the same.

i love to cook as well, at this point i can afford to buy whatever. my husband, however, is a meat and potatoes guy, so my culinary expertise is wasted on him.........so i cook for my friends.

when we are out cruising the islands, however, it will be lots of fish and rice and beans, and local produce. cheap and delish. oh, and rum. ;-)

Sounds yummy!
I wish there was decent local produce around here - but Arkansas just isn't the place to get things like that. We're such a swamp land. Too much water makes the veggies loose their flavor.
 
I think Obamacare should provide personal trainers for poor people, it's only fair. What sort of society are we anyways?

That would be very inefficient and a huge waste.

If they are going to provide free trainers, then it should be exclusively for the fat people.


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I think that it was the promo of some fast food restaurant that making such activities. Because they want to catch many customers. It is not bad for making that things. However, we could see those effects for our kids.
 
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I think the law is ridiculous. As others have states it's up to individulals and parents in the case of minors.

McDonald's tastes so good. That's why it's a very rare treat for me.

As a youngster when I did eat McDonald's I liked it because it's tastes good. I didn't give a rat's ass about the toys.
 
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I think the law is ridiculous. As others have states it's up to individulals and parents in the case of minors.

McDonald's tastes so good. That's why it's a very rare treat for me.

As a youngster when I did eat McDonald's I liked it because it's tastes good. I didn't give a rat's ass about the toys.
You'd be amazed how crappy it tastes after you dont eat it for a while and you have REAL burgers.

Stuff makes me gag now
 
You'd be amazed how crappy it tastes after you dont eat it for a while and you have REAL burgers.

Stuff makes me gag now



Of course real burgers are better. Real anything is usually better. :)
 
I do not understand the idea that more laws will solve problems. People taking "actual" care of their children would remedy child obesity. The problem is that people do not want to be bothered by their children so they put them in front of tv's and video games, feed them junk and are surprised when they get fat!
 
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