27 December 2005 CHEW ON THIS! EVERYTHING YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT FAST FOOD by Eric Schlosser & Charles Wilson, Houghton Mifflin, May 2006, ISBN: 0-618-71031-0

"We are more popular than Jesus now."

--John Lennon, 1964

"The Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross."

--CHEW ON THIS!, 2006

"According to one survey, more than nine out of ten American kids know who Ronald McDonald is. There's only one make-believe character better-known than Ronald. His name is Santa Claus."

--CHEW ON THIS!, 2006

Such recognition and popularity might not be of concern if consuming the food that the clown is pushing were as healthy for kids as crunching on carrot sticks, jogging in the park, or dancing all night to Beatles' albums. But, as detailed in CHEW ON THIS!, a book for middle school audiences that is co-written by the author of FAST FOOD NATION, the fabrication, sale, and ingestion of the high-fat, high-calorie fare from McDonald's and their competitors have certainly proved to be detrimental to growing children, teen employees, factory-farmed animals, and to the resources and biosphere that are supposed to support our children's children's children.

There is little difference between the food and business practices of McDonald's and those of the vast majority of other fast food corporations examined in CHEW ON THIS! But it is evident here that McDonald's is the ten-ton gorilla of the industry, and in consuming this book it becomes quite clear that when it has been necessary for them to make changes in order to protect their trillion-dollar company image, McDonald's has more power than the US government in being able to force both suppliers and competitors to instantly do a one-eighty on the way in which things are done.

Speaking of images, CHEW ON THIS! reveals how so many kids and parents have gotten sucked into regularly eating and drinking such unhealthy stuff:

"During the course of a year, the typical American child watches more than 40,000 TV commercials. About 20,000 of those ads are for junk food: soda, candy, breakfast cereals, and fast food. That means children now see a junk-food ad every five minutes while watching TV--and see about three hours of junk-food ads every week. American kids aren't learning about food in the classroom. They're being told what to eat by the same junk-food ads repeating again and again."

"Most of the ads aimed at kids have one simple goal: getting kids to nag their parents. 'It's not just getting kids to whine,' a marketer once explained to Selling to Kids, 'it's giving them a specific reason to ask for the product.' Ads often try to turn children into little salespeople, since kids know their parents better than anyone else does. Advertisers want children to bug their parents and keep bugging them and bug them really well."

"Almost one out of every three new toys given to American kids each year comes from McDonald's or another fast food chain."

"Companies now plan cradle-to-grave advertising strategies, hoping that childhood fondness for a brand will lead to a lifetime of purchases. They have come to believe what Ray Kroc and Walt Disney realized long ago--that a person's 'brand loyalty' may begin as early as the age of two. Indeed, researchers have found that children can often recognize a company logo, like the Golden Arches, before they can recognize their own name."

But CHEW ON THIS! is far more than a rant. It is also an entertaining look at the evolution of the fast food industry over the past half century and how America's love affair with these corporations has long tied in with the trends that have shaped the housing, transportation, and economy of America. Not to mention how it has shaped the waistline of America:

"A study conducted by the federal government predicts that if American kids continue to become obese at the current rate, one out of every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes. Among African-American and Latino children, perhaps one out of every two will develop diabetes. The life of a ten-year-old child who has Type II diabetes is, on average, between seventeen and twenty-six years shorter than that of a healthy child."

Here in California, where the state government is now phasing in a ban on selling soda in public high schools (but stupidly ignores highly-sugared "sports drinks"), CHEW ON THIS! will be a great resource in support of the state's department of education's health and physical education frameworks. It is imperative that it be added to all middle school and high school library collections. Our children's lives depend on it.

Richie Partington

http://richiespicks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com