McDonald's

Bad parents -- not Big Macs -- are making kids fat

You know what we should do? Let's ask our politicians to pool every red cent of our taxes together and build a solid gold Badminton Hall of Fame.

They'd do a bang-up job, too. Because nobody -- and I mean NOBODY -- spends more time and money on crap nobody cares about better than politicians. Just look at our government's absolute obsession with blaming the fast food industry for America's overweight children.

We've got middle school kids selling crack on street corners and the Chinese are running laps around us in math and science -- and all folks seem to talk about is how fat our kids are, and who is to blame. We're spending MILLIONS and enacting nanny states bans on large sodas and Happy Meal toys... heck, the way they talk about him, you'd think Ronald McDonald was playing Hitler in some fat kid Holocaust.

It's all nonsense, so I wasn't surprised when a study out of North Carolina proved fast food isn't making our kids fat. But, lo and behold, bad parenting may be.

In the research just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, scientists found there was almost no correlation between kids' occasional trips to McDonald's and their weight. The problem was what the kids were eating in their homes the rest of the day -- you know, when parents are supposed to be watching what their kiddos are cramming into their pie holes.

No question about it, irresponsible parenting is the single biggest health risk to our kids today. Lazy moms and dads are letting the boob tube and video games raise their kids, so it's no wonder our youth are stuffing their faces with the same garbage they see in commercials.

So the next time we want to obsess about our chubby kids, parents should stop pointing fingers at the McDonald's drive-through window and start looking in the mirror instead. That's where they'll find the real villain.

The worst diet ever is...

The McDonald's Diet? The very phrase makes me want to hurl -- but an Iowa science teacher claims to have lost 37 pounds by eating nothing but crap from the Golden Arches for 90 days.

Naturally, the mainstream media is eating it up the way a kid gobbles down chicken nuggets, giving this guy his 15 minutes of fame and practically encouraging everyone else to give this daffy diet a shot.

(Could this have anything to do with the fact that McDonald's is also a major advertiser? Hmmm...)

But the secret sauce in this diet isn't the junk on the McDonald's menu. It's not the fact that he often ate the supposedly healthier options on the menu at least some of the time. And it's not even the fact that he balanced out each burger and fries with a "better" choice like a salad at another point in the day.

No, he lost weight for one reason and one reason only: He cut his calories to 2,000 a day.

This isn't rocket science. If you're overweight and cut calories, you WILL lose weight no matter what garbage you eat -- whether it's McDonald's, Burger King or Subway. (Are you listening, Jared?)

But if you think eating garbage to lose weight will make you healthier, you'll be as disappointed as a kid who finds a broken toy in his Happy Meal -- because these junky diets are loaded with refined carbohydrates and low in essential nutrients.

Eat them for any period of time, and I don't care how much weight you lose -- you will be on the road to diabetes, heart disease and an early death.

That's the bad news.

The good news is, following a truly healthy diet isn't nearly as hard as it sounds. All you need to do is ditch the carbs (especially sugar) and load up on all the fresh animal fats you can handle.

You don't have to count calories. Once you break the chains of the high-carb lifestyle, food cravings will vanish and your own body will tell you when to eat and when to stop.

Ready to get started? It's easier than ever -- read this free report from my Daily Dose archives to learn more.