English

Fama 1

Apolonio Fama

English 108A, section 71519

Professor Varbel

16 April, 2009

Obesity in America and Children targeted by McDonald’s

Americans are generally overweight and some internet sources use statistics to represent this problem. Fast food restaurants are to blame for these overweight problems, but the monster of all fast food is McDonald’s. Many McDonald’s restaurants have included a playground for children and advertising geared toward children. These advertisements are not beneficial to the consumers as they target our children causing obesity across America. It is stated by ronaldmcdonaldusa.blogspot.com that “60% of all Americans are either overweight or obese.” Vincent Iannelli, M.D. of About.com said “Experts estimate that 15% of kids are overweight and another 15% are at risk of becoming overweight, with two-thirds of these overweight kids will become overweight adults.” I have a 2 year old son and through experience have fallen into these statistics. As a parent, I blame my self for feeding my son unhealthy food provided by McDonald’s. A documentary film Super Size Me in 2004 suggested that “McDonald’s food was contributing to the epidemic of obesity in society and that the company was failing to provide nutritional information about its food for its consumers.” Due to the failures of McDonald’s not labeling the nutritional facts on there products, Americans overlook the fact that its absence may cause consumers to eat more.

Below is a calculation of a normal intake of calories a teen can consume. The normal intake of a 13 year old at 5 feet tall with the weight of 100 lbs, the daily consumption is 1616 calories per day, calculated by freedieting.com. I tried calculating numerous ages and weight, with the conclusion that the younger and smaller you are the less the normal intake. According to the McDonald’s USA Nutrition Facts one McDonald’s cheeseburger meal adds up to 1,110 calories. Unless this...