Obesity and fast food - is there no hope?

Nothing wrong with feeding a child a ham butty and a banana but fries are not unhealthy is all I'm saying. We've been indoctrinated to regard such "fast food" (which is only fast because we haven't had to cook it ourselves) as bad food. It isn't bad food. People are just hung up about it.

Whether I personally happen to like McD fries and burgers is beside the point, by the way. I don't particularly, but it is perfectly edible and nourishing food.

I can think of lots of reasons why not. It's not so much the content of the meal but the context of stuffing a child with food to keep it quiet.

If you are weight watching a child eating some high calorie burger and chips is not going to help other slimmers to keep their resolve.
What is wrong with feeding the child a ham butty and some banana.

"Calories in Mcdonald's Happy Meal Cheeseburger, Fries, Diet Coke
Nutrition Facts Mcdonald's - Happy Meal - Cheeseburger, Fries, Diet Coke

Servings:
Calories 528 Sodium 790 mg
Total Fat 23 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 7 g Total Carbs 61 g
Polyunsaturated 0 g Dietary Fiber 5 g
Monounsaturated 0 g Sugars 7 g
Trans 1 g Protein 18 g
Cholesterol 40 mg
Vitamin A 6% Calcium 20%
Vitamin C 3% Iron 15%

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
and .......
Another source says.
"Depending on their age, size, and activity level, toddlers need about 1,000-1,400 calories a day. So in one meal as described above a child would have half it's daily calories in one meal."

Now once in a while that's not going to do any harm, but it appears a lot more people nowadays are eating more calories than they need and many of those appear to be from fast food in a generation who have had greater access to such food than we ever did.
Which sits with the thoughts above about less people having a clue or the enthusiasm about how to prepare a meal.

I did do A level Chemistry. There was quite a bit about mixing chemicals together in the right proportions and heating them up.

Does that count?

Yes, I think you do need to be taught. DD would never let me teach her when she was at home. She just wasn't interested.
She made what was supposed to be a chocolate sponge at the weekend despite using a recipe it looked nothing like any sponge I've ever seen "well I couldn't tell when the mix was ready, cos you never showed me". #runsfromroomscreaming

Sadly I came from a family that didn't cook and I never had a cookery lesson at school either loopyloo. I thought carrots and peas always came in a tin, and Vesta Chow Mein was the height of exotic cooking. Seriously.

But my Grandmother-in-law gave me a copy of Mrs Beaton for a wedding present and I took it from there. Now I love cooking, but rarely bake.

I think you need someone to begin the process at a young age in my opinion. I'm not sure I'd have picked up a cookery book from choice, more to find out about something specific like baking a cake or how to cook venison, for example.

So.... what's to complain about? The fries are made of potatoes, little dextrose is sometimes added to ensure consistency (depends on when the spuds are harvested, I think) and the fries are fired in non-hydrogentaed vegetable fat.

I prefer my own oven-baked potato wedges cooked in a small amount of beef fat because I think they taste better and I don't peel the spuds but, other than that personal preference, I don't see what the problem is with McDonald's fries, nor why anyone need be amazed when a child is given them to eat. The problem is not in the what but in the how much.

I know it's not fashionable to say that if you don't eat too much you won't put on extra weight but that is the bottom line.

It is fashionable to speak negatively about fries and burger. It's all a load of nonsense imo.

Do you have to be taught to cook? Isn't that what cookery books are for?

Having known of nursery toddlers fed liquidised pizza and chips nothing surprises me .
Is cookery still taught in schools (Home Economics in my day)? I wonder how many young mums and dads were taught to cook by their mothers, or has the best part of a generation missed out?
My son's a better (more imaginative) cook than me!

At your slimming group

This has been doing the rounds on facebook etc (How McDonald fries are made):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfLtSFxDjtk