I was invited to be part of a corporate accountability campaign that ran yesterday called Mom’s Not Lovin’ It. The campaign calls McDonald’s to stop their predatory marketing practices aimed at children. To drive home their point, they created this graphic:

The truth is that the email with the info on participating got lost in my inbox, so I missed the big day. However, as I looked at the graphic, I had some mixed feelings. While I can’t deny that McDonald’s deliberately targets children with through its advertising and marketing efforts, and I can’t deny that it comes at a cost to children’s health, I remain somewhat ambivalent.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m reading Michael Moss’s fabulous book Salt Sugar Fat right now, all about processed foods. While the book focuses primarily on the sorts of convenience foods that you’d find in a grocery store, like soups, cookies, crackers, frozen dinners, chips and pop, there are some points that apply equally well to McDonald’s. For instance, Moss discusses the fact that people buy food that tastes good to them, and that makes them feel good (in the short term). When you eat sugary foods, for instance, bliss signals are sent to your brain, so you experience a sense of enjoyment that surpasses simply pleasant flavour.

The truth is that I, myself, like McDonald’s food. I eat there almost never these days – I would say I average once or twice per year, usually when I’m on vacation. But when I do, their burgers make my mouth feel very, very happy. It isn’t surprising, when you look at the nutritional facts for one of my favourites, their Angus Burger. One burger contains 41g of fat (63% of recommended daily amount), 1640mg of sodium (68% of recommended daily amount) and even 10g of sugar.

Here’s my question: if this food tastes so good to everyone, does the marketing make a difference? My kids eat at McDonald’s as a treat with their grandparents, maybe once a month or so. While they like the toys and the Play Place and the colourful boxes the Happy Meals come in, the truth is that they mostly just know that the food tastes good. And while McDonald’s takes steps like offering plain milk and apple slices and yogurt in their kids’ meals, we all know that the main attraction isn’t the healthier options. It’s the McNuggets and the cheeseburgers and the fries.

I remember breaking the news to both my kids at around age three or so that McDonald’s food wasn’t good for them. This was the age when they were old enough to start asking for things that weren’t immediately in front of them, and so they started asking to go to McDonald’s on a whim. They would pose the suggestion as if it were brilliant, and there could be no possible objection, because everyone loves McDonald’s. As I explained that McDonald’s was a rare treat that wasn’t actually good for them, they reacted with incredulity. How could it be? After all, it just tastes so darned good!

Our bodies are simply predisposed to seek out lots of the ingredients that make us feel good. Processed and fast foods play on that, and so from the time we’re babies we can be tricked into gorging on foods that aren’t good for us. My children’s incredulity about McDonald’s is an example of that.

There are many concerns I have with McDonald’s. I don’t like the vast amounts of trash that their food – and all fast food – generates. I am concerned about the chemicals in their food, about the way that the animals raised to produce their food are treated, and about all the salt, sugar and fat in their meals. This is why I rarely eat there, and why I don’t take my kids there in our daily lives.

In general, I object to the idea of marketing to children. I have a four-year-old, and I know that he can’t really differentiate between an advertising message and an informational message. I also know that, most of the time, the advertising messages are far more engaging. I don’t want companies to make money on his back, by trying to hook him on their products while he’s still too young to understand what’s happening. So, yes, I would like McDonald’s to stop marketing to my kids, in the same way that I’d like other companies to stop marketing to my kids.

In the end, though, my biggest concerns around McDonald’s aren’t so much about marketing as about the processed food industry in general. We buy food because it tastes good (and I’m including myself in this), not necessarily because it’s the healthiest choice. As long as we keep doing that, we’re putting our health and our planet at risk. I think we need a much broader approach than simply toning back marketing to kids. It’s not enough to chastise consumers for eating this food. And it’s not enough to introduce a few healthier options. We need to take a broader approach to overhauling the way we eat.

So, no, this mom isn’t lovin’ it. Except for once and twice a year, when I really, really am. So, I can see the appeal. And that leaves me bewildered and uncertain about what to do, in the face of a food system that’s completely out of whack.