To be perplexed at why people feel the need to be ashamed of giving their DC fast food?

[speedymama]

This morning, I was in the children's section of the library with my DTS and there was a woman who was with her son who was between 3 and 4yo. She spoke with a very posh accent which I overheard as she and her DS were deciding which books to borrow. After choosing the books, as they were going to the counter,her DS said on top of his voice

"Are we going to McDonald's now?"

She bent down quickly, said "Hush, we don't say that in public", looked around furtively and then scurried to the counter with a rather crimson face.

I just thought that it was really sad that she would feel ashamed of something as trivial as that. So what if she takes her DS to McD? She was very slim and her DS had rosy skin so on the outside, they looked healthy.

My attitude is that as long as you eat healthily most of the time, the occasional fast food is no big deal. My parents use to treat us to fish and chips about once a month and we are all healthy! I admit that I don't buy the DTS McD (I don't personally like it) but we occasionally have KFC or fish & chips.

Is this an indictment of the over-judgment of parents in our society? I wonder how many people who knock fast food drink copious amounts of wine which contains nothing but empty calories?

This middle class prejudice about Mcdonalds is pathetic. I know people who boast that they would NEVER let their kids eat a McD and yet host birthday parties at children's soft play areas where the food is grotesque and undoubtedly inferior in quality to McD. There's more calories in a tuna and mayo baguette from Pret a Manger than a Big Mac and not much in it nutritionally either.

I shop local and preferably organic and cook everything from scratch. If we're travelling though or on our way back from a long outing we'll stop there. They now do grilled chicken and salad on a wholegrain bun - what's wrong with that?

well i dont give a stuff about calories, but id be surprised if there really was 'not much in it nutritionally' between a maccas and something made of fresh ingredients.

i dont have a class prejudice aginst it. ive eaten tons of the stuff. ive got a 'ive seen the bloody movie and now could never think of it again' prejudice. based on the info conveyed therein. does informed decision count as prejudice?

course, having typed that, it occurs to me you might not mean me. doh.

agree tyhat the food in soft play places, well, many of them, is yukkity yuk. and mcd's is possibly nutritionally superior, and no doubt tastes better.

I guess the Mum was embarrassed in case the people who overheard thought she went there all the time. That is embarrassing because a diet of McDonalds is not a nutritious diet to feed a child, just an easy meal to get the child to eat.

It's maybe based on how judgemental she thought the people around her were. How quick to assume they were.

We go to a McDonalds/Burger King when we are travelling on the motorway. It is cheaper and cleaner and faster than the other service station options. My 19 month old will have her own food that I've packed but also some tastes of our 'junk food'. When she's a little older I'll let her have a meal there, especially if there's peer pressure with her friends but it will be infrequently.

Nutrition is something I try really hard at with her and I want her to develop on a diet of healthy foods and grow healthily. Nothing to do with size, just her health and wellbeing.

I'd have no qualms if she shouted 'Let's go to McDonalds' when we were out. As it is she shouts 'Cream!' (meaning ice-cream or Mini-Milk) whenever she's at the beach and more often than not, we buy her one.

In a nutritional sense, there is little difference between a Pret Tuna Mayo Baguette and a Big Mac. Both have similar levels of protein, the Pret sandwich has more fat (due to the mayo) and both are white bread. 'Freshness' is largely irrelevant as neither relies on fruit or vegetables for its nutritional content.

I don't really see the relevance of 'supersize me'. If you ate such a restricted diet of pretty much anything in the quantities he did for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a month, you'd feel horrendous.

Nobody would every recommend a McD as anything other than an occassional meal but it's certanly no worse nturitionally than most Indian etc takeaways.