San Francisco's Happy Meal ban

San Francisco legislators are outlawing kids' fast-food meals that come with free toys. Gutsy strike against childhood obesity or intrusive Nanny State move?

San Francisco is the first major U.S. city to pass a law requiring that kids' meals meet nutritional standards before they can be sold with toys.
(Image credit: CC BY: franzconde)

Earlier this week, San Francisco's board of supervisors voted to ban the majority of McDonald's existing Happy Meals. Under the new measure — the first of its kind put forth by a major city, though nearby Santa Clara county enacted similar legislation earlier this year — San Francisco restaurants will be forbidden from offering free toys with meals that exceed certain limits on calories, fat, and sugar and do not include fruits or vegetables. A McDonald's spokesperson says it is parents' "right and responsibility — not the government's — to choose what's right for their children." Who's right? (Watch a CBS report about the ban)

The ban is ill-conceived: "There are many causes of childhood obesity, including genetic and lifestyle ones." says Elisa Zied, R.D. at MSNBC. It "takes more than just axing fast foods" to encourage healthy eating patterns in kids. I worry that "ostracizing fatty meals that come with plastic promotional toys could have the unintended consequence of making the product even more appealing."

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