Do 'Happy Meals' toys make kids fat?

A Silicon Valley county wants to ban the plastic trinkets in fast-food kids' meals — claiming the toys seduce children into gluttony

Should Happy Meal toys be banned?
(Image credit: Flickr)

Are children craving fatty fast food just because it comes with a negligible plastic toy? Yes, says Santa Clara County board member Ken Yeager, who wants to ban the bonus toys included with 10 out of 12 high-calorie kids' meals. (Santa Clara was the nation's first county to force local restaurants to list calorie counts on menus, a policy that may go nationwide with Obama's health care bill.) Are Happy Meal toys exacerbating the childhood obesity crisis? (Watch an ABC report about banning toys at fast food chains)

These toy bribes should be banned: It's about time someone dealt with this, says Patty Fisher in the San Jose Mercury News. Fast-food chains "dangling trinkets in front of children" may be "one of America's most sacred traditions," but it's literally killing us. Rewarding kids with a toy for ordering a cheeseburger and fries shapes their "lifelong eating habits."

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