Worry about what you serve your kids in your own home, not about what they might get at the new McDonald's that just opened up, say IUPUI researchers in Indianapolis:
It was found that the addition of fast food restaurants to neighborhoods did not have a significant impact in children's obesity rates. Restaurants located within one tenth of a mile from home were associated with slight elevations in obesity rates within certain high school ages.
After a shopping excursion Sunday, we had lunch at a Steak & Shake, which was wonderful as always, but it just reminded me that the only fast-food place I have within walking distance is the Wendy's at Oakdale and Broadway. It's a fine place -- I stop there on occasion -- but a little boring in the long run. It seems to get a lot of traffic both from downtown and from people coming across the Bluffton Road Bridge.
So the corner across Oakdale from Wendy's would be just perfect for another restaurant, the only slight drawback being that the space is now occupied by a dentist's office. But I bet the office barely gets 20 or 30 visitors a day rather than the hundreds a restaurant would get. Therefore, I would like it if city planners would please condemn the dentist's office through eminent-domain proceedings and arrange for a Steak & Shake to go in there. It would be a logical economic-development move, and it would keep me happy.
It wouldn't even add to the obesity of neighborhood children, so there is no excuse for the city not to act, as far as I can see.
