Press Release

We are here today because we are facing a crisis. Recently researchers estimated that if present trends in diabetes and other food-related diseases continue, our children and grandchildren will have shorter life spans than the current generation, a reversal of more than a century of public health progress. In the past 30 years, the percentage of obese children has doubled in children ages 2 to 5 and tripled in children ages 6 to 11 and in adolescents. Today one in three kids in the U.S. is overweight or obese. Unfortunately, overweight kids are likely to become overweight adults. One study found that approximately 80% of children who were overweight at aged 10–15 years were obese adults at age 25 years.

Food-related diseases are not only a health problem, but also an economic and social justice problem. Today diet-related health problems already cost at least $147 billion each year. And these food -related chronic diseases are widening the already unacceptable gaps in health between the better off and the poor and between Whites and Blacks and Latinos.

While childhood obesity has many causes, most researchers agree that the major reason that rates have sky rocketed is that our children eat too much, especially too much high fat, high calorie and low nutrient food like that served in McDonalds. In addition, a growing body of research shows that television advertising encourages kids to eat more unhealthy food, that children who live or go to school in places with many fast food restaurants are more likely to be overweight or obese, and that children who eat more fast food meals are more likely to be overweight than those who do not.

If a nanny sought to persuade our children to eat more food that makes them overweight and at risk of serious disease and premature death, we would rightly fire her and perhaps charge her with child abuse. In the 1990s, public health advocates succeeded in forcing the tobacco industry to stop using Joe Camel to entice our kids into smoking. Food-related chronic illnesses are now the second leading cause of death in the United States and catching up fast with tobacco. That’s why McDonald’s needs to retire Nanny Ronald now so that more of our children can enjoy healthier futures.