They buy our kids for life for 10 cents

I was sitting there working when suddenly I felt like a Big Burger with a lot of fries from one of the fast food chains around. While talking to my wife, I told her about my craving, and she told me that she felt exactly the same. Having been both of us following some good eating practices lately, the fact that we both felt like eating that crap struck me.

The images of the fast food chain setting full of colors, with big pictures of Burger and fries, and the soda counters where you can fill all you can drink are so appealing. But being health wary, and knowing about all the unhealthy stuff that is wrapped in their meals, we cannot but ask ourselves where does that appeal come from? Why is it that we feel the need to indulge in eating that zero benefit, all fat meal that has disastrous effects both on our health, body and morale?

While thinking about that, I came across the fact that children adore these fast food chains. Everything is done there to attract families, and children ask to go there, both because there are playgrounds where they can play all they want, because they get their meal in nice flashy boxes, and because they get that extra toy with every meal. They even become collectors of these cheap 10 cents items, and sometimes just for the sake of getting that extra item that is missing in their collection, they make the whole family go to a fast food chain.

Parents want their kids to be happy and entertained. Their choices are dictated by those of their children. The children choices are in turn dictated by their attraction towards places where there are playgrounds, and where they give them extra stuff, even if that stuff only costs 10 cents for the piece, even if these same places sell crap for 10 dollars a piece, and most importantly even if they load you with fat and long term health problems and diseases.

So, the answer is there. No wonder if we crave these fast food chains as adults. We have grown up as children with pleasurable feelings towards these places. No wonder that we like these salty fries, we have come to accept them as the standard of good fries from our young age.

With this in mind, our reaction today should be not only to fight the craving feelings we have towards eating a big burger accompanied with crispy fries, it should be to instill in our children some good sense about eating good stuff and not eating bad stuff. We should from now on educate our kids to know what is good for them and what is not. We shouldn't allow these fast food chains to buy our children with 10 cents for their life to come, like they bought us years ago.