While parents should always be responsible for making sure their children eat healthy foods, the burden, I feel in this case, is on McDonald's, because they are a large, fiscally healthy and powerful corporation, they have the wherewithal through U.S.-wide advertising to market to children and have an enormous amount of influence over the minds of children, affecting a child’s health. Yes, parents should make their children abstain from McDonald's foods high in fat, calories and additives such as MSG which serves only to be addictive. But McDonald's is making parents' jobs most difficult by using predatory advertising such as Ronald McDonald to reel-in children, while they continue to make and serve unhealthy foods. I believe both parents and McDonald's should be involved in the protection of the nation's children. 1) McDonald's has to drop the predatory advertising using Ronald McDonald; and 2) Parents must resist -- or at the very least -- limit McDonald's for their children and make an effort to cook healthy meals for them. This helps educate our children by example, and also, once they are accustomed to home cooking, McDonald's won't be as irresistible to their youthful taste buds.

McDonald's is raking in the cash while hurting our children. They should stop the predatory advertising. While every person has a right to eat wherever they want, we should not be patronizing McDonalds, because in doing so, we are complicit in destroying our children's – and our nation’s -- health.

We all have a mind. We all make choices. You know what you are eating and giving your kids when you go there. It is choice. Good Choices Bad Choices...we all choice our life styles. It should not be dictated by govt. THey really think we are too stupid to live our own lives. Shame on us for letting them.

It is lazy parenting that makes kids fat. NOT some burger joint.

Is anyone holding a gun to parents heads and saying.. FORCE THE McNuggets down your children's throats ? Oh yes... stuff that BigMac down.. now eat the french fries. Whatever happened to personal responsibility and appropriate choices. McDonalds is a business. their goal is to make money. Get it. Your goal is to make choices that either support the marketing and products of a company... or not.

These "people" need to get a life and leave Mc Donalds alone. If one decides to have a BigMac, that's a personal decision. If a parent buys their child have a Happy Meal, that's THEIR decision. Other than the "special sauce" they use, what's the difference between a BigMac and a buger I cook/eat at home?! NONE, so I guess these ignorant bored self appointed do-gooders, who apparently believe we're too stupid to know what/how to eat, will next try to police MY kitchen. I won't, but I COULD tell you how that'll work out for 'em. And NO, their "concern" isn't appreciated by me. They're just people who live to stir the pot, keep c_ap going, and would argue with a lamp post. So, go eat a plant (perferably posion ivy), then hug a tree, while I chow down on my BigMac.....with a side of hot GREASY fries.

In dealing with children, somebody has to take a astand somewhere. If we got rid of McDonald's, we'de still have Hardees, Burger King, and yes, grocery stores.
If we want to improve the food intake of our children, we will have to realize that fattening foods and foods that might lead to TypeII diabetes are sold everywhere all over the globe and not simply at McDonalds.
The problem with childhood obesity is occurring all over the world, whether a McDonald"s franchise is present or not.
So, if we really want to improve the lot of todays children and young people, should we not look at what is happening all over the globe and not simply what is happening to those who eat at McDonalds.
Obesity occurs in people who never eat at McDonald's.

Are we not stupid in blaming McDonald's for what our children eat.
To eat McDonald"s food, one must pay for it. I have never heard that McDonald's add appetite exciting substances into their food. It is mostly parentsw that pay for McDonalds foods.
Whether McDonalds food is so bad really depends on how much these children eat.
Could it just be that the parents are providing as much junk food in the home than that eaten at McdDonalds?

It seems to me that we continue to follow health awareness information protocols that are not getting us anywhere in winning the battle over childhood obesity. Really, do our grocery stores not sell far more foods thhat leaqd to obesity than does McDonald's.

And to take this farsety of ionformation further, how many of our nutreition experts are at their target weight?

Do we not pay fortunes to football and basketball players as well as professional wrestlers who exhibit skills that require massive obesity even though we know these individuals will die early because of the wear and stear on their bodies the obesity will cause.

At the end cof the day, it seems that you cannot have your cake and eat it to.

McDonald's not at fault here as people have a choice; no one is forced to eat the ****, yet people do. it is all about personal responsibility. parents that have fat and or obese children, that is their fault for how they choose to feed their children. common sense ought to tell you that eating McDonald's on a regular and or daily basis will lead you on the path to obesity.

Oh for heavens sake!! Will these Nutrition Nazis give it a rest already!! Stop trying to control the lives of everyone else and dictate how we CHOOSE to live!! I am perfectly able to look after my own children and myself without you self appointed "Saviors" stepping in!!

It's not McDonald's fault if Parents today are ignorant aholes!

My Mother regulated what candy, cookies, etc I could eat. McDonalds was for special occasions like trips or occassional weekend lunches after a movie. Why does a company have to become a health food outlet because parents are soooo dumb they dont know how to care for their children?