Today, the restaurant industry was given cooking advice by First Lady Michelle Obama. She said, "a little less butter and cream, and hold the fries." Obama gave her first address to the National Restaurant Association. She made fighting childhood obesity her primary cause. Her message included remarks to an industry widely viewed as a main contributor to the nation’s exceeding waste lines and rising diabetes rates. Obama called on restaurants to consider changing their kids’ menus with healthier ingredients and to encourage more nutritious foods in their marketing to children.
Some ethical issues that have arisen in the restaurant industry are dealing with the health of children. Obama thinks it would be wise to reformat children's menus in restaurants to make it beneficial for children's health. Michelle said, "I wasn’t calling for cutting so much as to sacrifice flavor, but just enough to make a meaningful difference in the amount of calories and fat." She cited a recent study that discovered only a small portion of kids advertising is aimed at healthy food.
The big concern of restaurants and other food companies is that Obama's push may lead to federal regulation of children’s advertising. The NRA responded to her speech by pointing out that two-thirds of U.S. fast food operators now offer healthier choices for children than they did two years ago. Michelle wasn't asking for restaurant industries to make drastic changes to every one of their recipes or to totally change the way you do business; but she was asking that industries consider reformulating their menu's in minor ways to create healthier versions of the foods that everybody loves.
Hopefully companies and consumers will respond in a positive way by starting to sell healthier foods so the nation will begin eating healthier. Obama said, "the healthier menu substitutions might not just be a sacrifice for kids."
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/09/13/michelle-obama-to-restaurants-cut-the-fat/
Child obesity is a haunting problem in this country. Parents may try to feed their kids as healthy as possible, but at a certain point it almost becomes easier to cave and let them have the unhealthy snack or meal. I believe that Michelle Obama is doing the ethical thing in regards to children's health by asking restaurants to create healthier choices. I don't believe this needs to drastically change the restaurant industry, but companies need to respond by choosing healthier ingredients as well as shrinking portion size. The key to this movement is teach kids healthier eating habits so that when they go to restaurants they know what to order as well as what is in their food and to show them that healthy still means tasty not tasteless.
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