Mcdonald's: Games to blame for childhood obesity

[HEXUS]

The chief executive and president of McDonald's UK, Steve Easterbrook, has pointed his finger at videogames and blamed the industry for contributing towards childhood obesity.

Read more.

[Prime]

i beg to differ Mr Chief Executive

[MadduckUK]

[Saracen]

I have little doubt that he's right that videogames and computers in general are contributing, but it's contributing that's the critical word. A government report recently claimed that kids spend, on average, some 14 hours a week playing video games. It wasn't all that long ago that kids spent zero hours playing on computers or video games because they didn't exist. And in those days, there were far more parks and playing fields for kids, and they'd be out kicking a ball about on the green at the corner, or exploring the woods, or playing in the street, or riding their bike, or .... well, you get the idea.

Of course, healthy exercising outdoor activities aren't the only activity displaced by computer games (and computers), and nor is that displacement even entirely a bad thing. Among other things, books have been displaced to some extent, and computer literacy and familiarity certainly has a positive side to it, just like sitting quietly reading a book does, despite it not "burning off" energy.

Overall, obesity is caused (IMHO) by several factors. Videogaming is going to be a part of it, but so is the type of food we eat, and whether it's via fast-food joints like MacD's or heavily processed garbage from supermarkets, our diet is probably the single biggest factor .... and probably by a large margin.

[Shooty*]

Shooty* Jnr is 21 months old. He can't read yet, but he loves getting his books (and he has LOADS of books for someone who can't read ) and flicking through the pages, pointing at words.

...

Sorry, had a "dad overload" moment there. Damn, want to get home and play Thomas The Tank Engine with him. But I'm stuck at work

[[GSV]Trig]

Stupidity and lazyness are the causes of childhood obesity.

/end

[Shooty*]

what about laziness?