Full disclosure: Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me didn't completely turn me off of fast food. They did help encourage me to dial my consumption back a notch, and they did make me appreciate living in a region that has In N Out Burger, but we still get the odd Happy Meal now and then, and as the rainy season impends, we'll probably be logging some time at the Play Place (whither the indoor playspaces in the Bay Area? Why so few and far between? But that's another post).
That said, I plan menus weekly and I cook dinner pretty much from scratch almost every night of the month. That said, I'm a stay at home parent, I don't have kids old enough to have a heavy schedule of events in the late afternoon and evening (or, at their ages, any schedule at all), so it's hard for me to get my head around a calendar so busy that I feel I have no choice but to go out for fast food five nights a week. Yet such busy parents exist, and actually have to write for advice to get out of their ruts. And the expert's answer is, well, DUH, don't do it so much.
I'd have taken my response a little further. What, you can't make a stack of (fresh-ground, sugarfree) peanut butter and (natural all-fruit) jelly (on whole grain bread) to bring along? You don't have a crock pot? You can't cook up a pot of spaghetti sauce or chili on Sunday afternoon and freeze half of it for Thursday? You're the only living person in North America who has somehow avoided knowledge of Rachael Ray? Get a wok! Have big salads for dinner! Freakin' Taco Night, lady! It takes five minutes to open a can of beans and heat it! Save your damn dinner, at least most of the time! Yes, your kids' sports activities are important and it's great that they're active, but one of the most crucial jobs we have as parents is to provide our children with healthy and nutritious food. If your schedule prevents you from providing a basic need, you need to revisit it!
"Skip the fries and ask for extra lettuce and tomato" is practically giving this mother a pass to carry on as she's been doing, despite the rational advice that preceeds it. Those kids are still going to be eating food laced with high-fructose corn syrup every night, and they're athletes. They need to be eating healthy foods. Fast food, if it must be anything at all to your family, is a treat or a last resort. It's not what's for dinner.
