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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
My point is that your comparison contrasts what is vs. some long shot.
I don't think the fear about Happy Meals is the same as the fear about guns. With the Happy Meals, I'm not sure you could even call it a fear. Maybe more of a concern for the well-being of other people, especially impressionable minors.
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My point was not a fear of guns. Some people fear of life without guns.
Children don't buy Happy Meals, adults do. The concept of the food police (spreading across this nation in various forms) is something I don't understand, it has never been logically explained - I consider it an irrational fear.
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Sure you can pass off a Happy Meal as a part of one's diet, but the issue isn't that they contain fat, salt, and carbohydrates, it's that they contain an unideal amount and unideal types.
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One size does not fit all. Ideal to one child may not be ideal for another.
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Any nutritionist will tell you that the amount of salt in a Happy Meal is high enough to warrant making it only a rare treat, rather than "a part of a balanced diet." The animal fat and refined carbohydrates are another matter. They're okay in moderation, I suppose, but too much isn't ideal.
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The sodium content ranges in Happy Meals depending on which on it is, the highest is about 700 mg. Depending on age the daily recommended allowance is about 500 mg. Given the nature of the way some children eat, some will only eat a few select foods perhaps sacrificing protein, to get a child to regularly eat a Happy Meal hamburger may be well worth the extra sodium that they might be getting. Then if you take an extremely active boy in the summer in a hot and humid climate - they may very well need extra sodium. Any nutritionist who make blanket statements without qualification for individual assessment and individual needs is not worth a grain of salt.
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I don't even know why I'm going into this. Are people really afraid of Happy Meals, or are they afraid of childhood obesity and the long-term effects of diet on such things as heart disease and cancer?
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Why do they want to outlaw happy Meals? Why is there the chatter about setting legal limits on salt? The issues are judgment, knowledge and the availability of cost effective alternatives. The target of the fear is incorrect. the target is irrational. Such is the case with other fears, and I am just using this to illustrate a point, I think you see it.
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What's more reasonable to fear? The top actual killers in America or some totalitarian fantasy?
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That is not how gun lovers would frame the argument. I have never been a good judge of what is a reasonable fear for others, I have started taking the time to understand them. For example I know some black southern gun owners who lived through the "Jim Crow" era in the US, thousands were lynched, as government did nothing, they will never give up their guns. Are their fears reasonable for 2011? Who am I to say.
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If you were just using these examples as metaphors, then do away with them because they're distracting. Are you instead asking what's more reasonable to fear between corporations and governments?
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Distracting? Excuse me, feel free to get back on the real issue.