For super-sized kids, a McGym is new on the US menu
GG2.NET NEWS [14/12/2006]
US FAST-food giant McDonald`s, often accused of catering to expanding waistlines, has a new item on its menu for kids - gyms.
The company is testing R Gyms - in-restaurant mini-gyms with stationary bicycles hooked to video games, obstacle courses and aerobics exercises - in seven of its restaurants to help customers aged 4-12 fight flab as they ingest calories.
‘The number of calories that a child is likely to burn in one of those gyms is quite small compared to what they can eat, even in a small meal,’ said Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
Specialists like Brownell warn the gyms could have an adverse effect in that they could lull people into believing they can eat more since they`re exercising.
According to health experts, about one third of children in the United States are either overweight or obese and trends are showing the numbers increasing.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently identified fast food as a significant factor in the country`s obesity epidemic. According to the CDC, nearly 19 per cent of American children between the ages of 6 and 11 are overweight and some 14 per cent are in that category before the age of 5.
Exercise at McDonalds to fight Childhood Obesity
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