At my house we’re radical unschoolers and we believe in food freedom; so although I HATE McDonalds, Cedar gets it sometimes. Because we’ve never made him eat any one sort of food his diet is very well balanced. I’d allow him to eat candy for breakfast but he very rarely would. I think when we allow kids to learn to feed their bodies themselves they learn when they need; an apple vs. bread vs. chocolate. Part of this, is of course having whole grains, veggies, and other ‘healthy’ stuff around and eating that kind of food yourself, but part of it is also allowing kids to learn to nourish themselves.

I can see the difference too. Cedar has tons of friends who have parents who say, “Candy (or whatever junk) is bad and you can’t have it unless you eat this broccoli.” I think it’s when you turn a food into a treat like that, that kids go crazy for it. How I can tell, is that Cedar has a snack shelf at his disposal with fruits, crackers, veggies, candy, cookies, and other items. I almost never have to restock the ‘junk food’ portions of the shelf.

BUT when his friends who are only allowed that stuff as treats come over that’s the first thing they go for. Cedar will be eating a red pepper and his friends are munching down all his candy. It happens over and over.

I don’t think everyone needs to live the same way. Still, in my home and the homes of others who have food freedom it’s always the same. Kids can and will make smart choices if they grow up being allowed to do so. I’m glad you said you’re not a tyrant about food because so many parents I know are and I worry that their kids are going to hit college and finally have food freedom and go nuts.

Sorry, whew, had to get that out.

But about the post, from a study point of view — I totally agree with your entire run down. I had no idea about the Shrek deal and I think it’s horrid. I also agree that why do they even need a study — McD is on TV kids are going to want it no matter what. Even if they don’t think it tastes good. They want the brand big time.

Cedar who voluntarily eats hardly any candy or treat items wants the stuff he sees on TV all the time anyway. Just today he said this about gogurts (or something) treats, “I want them because they have BIG watermelon taste” — right out of the darn commercial. We got them, but 10 to 1 they’ll be sitting on his shelf three weeks from now uneaten. They should have given the money to the head start program instead of using it for this study.

You know, you take up an awful lot of my blog reading time lately with such think-inspiring posts. I neglect other blogs — you must be a very good brand :)

When I was young, fast food (more than candy/soda which I could buy at any corner store) was like crack to me. We craved it! And in the end, I don’t really know why.

All studies must be done across the board, not just the low-incoming people.