I confess. When my children were young I brought them to fast-food restaurants a couple of times a week (at least). How could I not? There was always the kids' meal in a box with the toy-of-the-week, and each toy was often part of a series being offered over a period of weeks and aimed at getting us all to come back at least once a week. A choice of milk or orange juice with the meal eased my guilt over the french fries; and although my oldest son would eat his entire meal, my youngest son would leave about half of it. My daughter would take the bun off the burger, take two bites of burger, have two french fries, and reach for the milk (which was what she seemed to care about most). All lhree children remained slender throughout their childhoods; and while I have my guilt about the fat and filler content in those kids' meals, I can't say they contributed to any weight gain in my children. Neither can I say that I understand the blaming of fast-food restaurants and only fast-food restaurants for increasing childhood obesity.

Obesity in younger children and obesity in older children don't always have the same causes, although they sometimes can.

YOUNGER CHILDREN

It is true that the sodas were a little smaller fifteen or so years ago when my children were young, but since I told them their choice was orange juice or the low-fat milk available at fast-food restaurants the size of the soda didn't matter. Its true that the french fries in those kids' meals were not low-fat, low-calorie, high-nutrition, items; but because I had helped my kids generally be accustomed to healthier food, eating french fries wasn't just an automatic thing for them. The point is that parents have a tremendous impact on the eating habits of young children; and even if they don't manage to cultivate a taste for the healthiest foods in their child they do have the power to require the youngest of children to select milk or juice over soda. Today fast-food restaurants offer fruits as an alternative to french fries too. Orange juice and milk are obviously not low-calorie beverages, and fruits aren't without their sugars, but helping kids understand that any calories they take in should offer nutritional benefits is part of the overall healthier-eating-habits picture too.

Normal, healthy, children usually prefer to be active. Playing outdoors with friends, riding bikes, jumping rope, playing tag, swimming, climbing - these all come pretty naturally to most children, but if they don't parents need to encourage their children to find some type of active play they do enjoy.

Parents of younger children also have the power to decide how often children will be allowed to get those fun meals from fast-food restaurants, and they have the power to provide healthier foods for all those other meals that are eaten at home or school.

PRE-TEENS AND TEENS

Pre-teens don't (or shouldn't) need to, have the freedom to visit fast-food restaurants more than a two or three times a week; but even the pre-teen with allowance money in his/her pocket may make better choices if he/she has been raised to care about health, fitness, and nutrition. The same is true for older teens, although once a child has reached his teen years parents no longer have control over how often or how much that teen eats at a fast-food restaurant.
Teens often enjoy fast-food eating as a social activity. Teens who aren't involved in activities outside of school are more likely to meet friends at fast-food restaurants more often.

There are two types of teens who may eat too much fast-food and drink too much soda: Those who have not been raised with an awareness of healthier eating habits, and those who have but who can't or won't adhere to them. Fast-food restaurants cannot be blamed for teens who have not had an awareness of healthier eating patterns. When teens are well aware of health and fitness and nutrition, though, and eat too much fast-food anyway, why would they do that? Can fast-food restaurants be blamed - at least - for this particular group of overweight young people? Exactly what it is that would make the well informed, well educated, teen choose to eat fat and calories that will lead not only to poor nutrition but to obesity?

Many teens may choose high-fat meals and high-carbohydrate meals for the same reason adults often do: High fat and carbohydrates can make a stressed out person feel better. The changes in brain chemicals that results from eating fats and carbohydrates have either a calming/sedative effect (fats) or an increase in energy level (carbohydrates). Under stress the adrenal gland causes increased levels of cortisol, which increase hunger and which cause blood glucose levels to rise. Under severe, long-term, stress the adrenal gland can actually "run out of juices" and no longer be able to secrete the levels of cortisol required to keep a person feeling as if he/she can keep going. This condition, known as "adrenal fatigue", can be misdiagnosed as depression and can include symptoms such as craving salt or craving sugar.

Teens have, however, always had stress of one sort or another. What makes today's teens different? Why is it they may be under more stress than teens of previous generations? One explanation could be our culture. Teens are people who are still, essentially, children - albeit children on the "high end of the growth process". Today adults have often allowed the natural inclination of young people to want to do grown-up things to define the culture in which our teens now must function, rather than defining for kids what it appropriate for their age and what is not. As a result, teens today are thrust into adult situations and required to deal with adult issues for which they are not emotionally (and sometimes intellectually) ready. The situation that may or may not be stressful for an adult to handle may be extremely stressful for the immature teen to handle. (Teens' brains are not completely developed and won't be until their early- to mid-twenties.)

So, all things considered, is fast-food REALLY the only villain when it comes to the increase in rates of childhood obesity? More to the point, can fast-food really be blamed at all?