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McDonalds recently introduced a play food toy set which is being sold through Toys R US in the USA, with increasing levels of childhood obesity, is this being responsible?

The Australian Government has introduced the National Preventative health taskforce but has not regulated the marketing or the use of toys for promotional and advertising purposes, at this stage it is tabled to be phased out.

It is concerning that global icons such as McDonalds have many touch points to children around the world, in Australia they sponsor little athletics, have a restaurant at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, childrens birthday’s catering, branded Characters, ie Hamburgler, internet Games and have branded toy giveaways at their restaurants.

Now McDonalds can build brand awareness through their play food set which included hamburgers, french fries, soft drinks and Sundaes.

It’s strange that McDonalds have healthier meal options yet none of these products are included.

The danger here is normalising the experience of going to McDonalds or eating any fast food for that matter.
As a child going to McDonalds was for special occasions or a rare treat, now there is an expectation that eating fast food is something we engaged with on a regular basis.

I would like to see a survey of Children from the USA or Australia in age brackets from 3 -5 and 6 – 8 and show them the McDonalds logo and ask them to identify the company and secondly to go to a McDonalds restaurant and to see what the children order or point to.

Childhood obesity is a very complicated issue with numerous elements contributing to the overall growth.

All we can do is to evaluate what has changed in the past 10-20 years with the promotion of fast & junk food to help understand and change this global epidemic.

While no one is pointing the blame to any one person, company, school or business, we all have a role to play in helping to reverse the trend.

But there has to be a point where we have to ask if the McDonalds play food set toy is being responsible and what needs to change to address this issue.

Travel Tip –when you check in, order the vegetarian option before the flight, will not only get food first but will be less congested after a 12 hour flight.
With minimal activity for 8-14 hours, eating a heavy meaty dishes may just sit in your stomach so try order a lighter alternative.

We have also listed our top 10 travel tips that may be worth considering to ensure a healthier holiday.

So order vegetarian today for your next flight and feel healthier.

Masterchef – getting people cooking & having dinner parties.

It’s awesome the to see the positve effect that Masterchef is having on getting people cooking at home and entertaining friends.

The great thing is cooking at home can save you money as well.

With so many cooking shows, books and DVD’s on cooking, the kitchen has become more of a show piece than being functional, that is a kitchen.

One thing I found interesting was a few of the guys who attend our Melbourne fitness boot camp talking about how they had some mates over for a Masterchef dinner to coincide with the finals.
How awesome is that, cooking is traditionally not a blokey activity, so to see the guys cooking instead of ordering takeaway with their mates is awesome.

So start cooking at home and invite friends and family around for a dinner party.

Rather than eating the occasional treats on special occasions or the weekend, consuption has become the norma rather than the exception.
“We are eating more snack foods, fast food, takeaway foods and soft drinks. Says dietitian Dr Rosemary Stanton

“Foods children used to eat at parties, they now eat for snacks. Studies show 80 per cent of children take a packaged snack to school every day and this takes the place of fruit.”

Dr Stanton says both children and adults are presented with a distorted menu of foods that are available.

There is also a movement against the inappropriate marketing of toys with fast food. The gift with purchase promotions are allowed providing that the toy features in less than 50% of the advertisement .

kids are going for the toys, rather than the food, if the toys didn’t encourage increased consumption, I would find it hard to believe that a large multi national would continue with this additional cost unless there was a positive relationship to sales.

The Government should be doing more in the regulation of toy promotions within the food industry. Currently the industry is self regulated, we have seen what can happen under self regulation with Coke.

Very sneaky how juices which are made from puree and then vacuum sealed are in the refrigerated section of the supermarket, giving the illusion that they are freshly squeezed when actual fact they are like every other concentrated long life juice.

it’s a similar marketing ploy with Soya milk which is actually a juice from the Soya Bean, once again in vacuum sealed packaging.