California trying to ban the happy meal toy

I agree completely that the responsability lies with the parents . Unfortunatly there are far too many parents who either do not fully understand the effect that this food can have on their kids or are just too lazy to cook proper food for their children ,

I am good friends with a nutritionalist and she gave me a deeper insight into the issue of childhood obesity and poor diet as a child . She said that when you think about it in the long run this kind of irresponsible parenting is a very damaging form of behavoir because if the child is fed fast food a lot when it is younger even if it does not become obese straight away (as is the case with most children especially younger ones who can easilly burn off the calories from a happy meal playing and running about) further problems can come when the child grows up old enough to make its own food choices as it will think that it is perfectly normal to eat this kind of food all the time and as it grows into adulthood this poor diet can lead to the obvious problems we see everyday .

Personally i dont think banning the toy from the happy meal is going to make a great deal of difference as that tactic is aimed at reducing the childs interests in the food whereas in many cases it is down to irresponsible parenting that that the kid eats the food . I think a much better aproach would be educating the parents about the effect they may be having on their children,even if appropriate giving the parents cooking lessons . Im not saying these parents mean their child any intentional harm however if they carry on ignoring advice then maybe in some cases it would be apropriate to take the children from the parents

Dont get me wrong im not saying never feed your kids food like Mc donalds but obviously its got to be in moderation or as a special treat not the norm ,I understand everyone has their busy days when there just arent enough hours in the day to cook and in that case fast food is a savoir but if your having more days like that than you are cooking maybe its time to rethink your lifestyle .As a child I rarely ate at Mc donalds and for that reason now it is not something that I eat that often

I agree completely. It needs to be taught to people. In high school. Seriously now, lets think about this. Sure, world history, calculus, knowledge of the differences in the worlds of the athenians and the spartians and interpreting poetry might make you a well rounded person, but knowing how to do stuff like, manage your health, take care of your finances (stuff like getting loans for a house, college, car, opening savings accounts, cds, PAYING TAXES, yadda yadd is all important to know) and similar stuff would actually create a class full of information that students would actually have a use for in life, and really wouldn't take much time from learning about Alexander The Great.
 
Well, after reading through all the responses, I heard a number of interestin points. The 'arresting parents for child abuse' is a bit overkill in most cases, they would only need to do it for the ones whose kids are just completely obese and do not have any medical problem causing it. My brother has a friend like this. He weighs at least 250 pounds, and I am not exaggerating. my mom brought a box of fried chicken to my brothers birthday party a couple years ago incase someone hadn't eaten lunch, and this kid sat there and ate eleven thighs, that I counted before my mom told him to stop. After that, he went on some sort of rage because he wanted more fried chicken. The worst part was that he had eaten lunch already (a large big mac meal is what my brother told
me) and his mom just sat there watching him eat all this, and had no problem with it. This is the type of parent that I think should be charged with child abuse.

Also, I think once this passes in one county, the rest of California will adopt it. The next state will most likely be new york which is currently trying to ban salt. After that, quite a few states will adopt it most likely, but not really the ones where it is a big issue, such as down in the south.
 
... I am good friends with a nutritionalist and she gave me a deeper insight into the issue of childhood obesity and poor diet as a child ....

As am I. It should be a law that everyone should know a nutritionalist. Just some of the stuff she has told me has made me more concise about what I eat.

Everyone should also have to attend a yearly visit with a nutritionalist (like you do the doctor).

I think Education is going to be the solution to this problem.
 
Personally I think that any step is a good step...
being overweight is a massive problem in America, and it's becoming a massive problem in the UK too.

trying to stop fast food appealing to kids by reducing the appealling factors is a good thing...

I guess that what I'm thinking is this;

corporate responsibility: this is something that corporations should have.
corporate responsibility should have stopped banks selling loans to people who had no hope of paying it back.
corporate responsibility should stop McDonalds activly marketting fast food to kids.

I think that it's astonishingly obvious in todays society that you can't trust people to look after themselves, you can't trust corporations to act in the best interests of their customers...

it's like with banks and loans, the banks couldn't care that they sold people loans that they couldn't aford, they were happy to take the money, then take the houses, then continue to chase for the money.

it's the same with McDonalds, they don't care that kids don't have the capacity nor education to know what's good for them, they'll reel them in with the promise of toys. give them food loaded with fat and sugars.

They'll honestly keep selling to kid until they are too fat to leave the house, and after that I hear that some McDonalds restaurants in the states will even deliver!

I know it's the parents that decide what their kids eat, I know it's the parents that decide to drive there, and I know it' the parents that pay for the meals, (it's not like kids are taking themselves there!). but you can't underestimate the power of pester-power!
you can almost bet on the fact that the kids are pestering their parents to be taken there, and a lot of adults lack the education to even know that it's bad for their kids to eat there often.

there are 550 calories in a kids cheeseburger happy meal.

when you look at the nutritional requiremnts of children http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/children/nutrition_calorie_needs.htm
that could be as much as almost half the daily requirements for a child of 3...

heck it's more than a quarter of a days intake of calories for a fully grown adult woman! (and it is a patheticall small amount of food)...

back to the point, McDonalds appear to lack tohe corporate responsibility necessary to run a business.
I don't think that you can in any way consider it responsible to actively market to kids almost half their daily nutritional requirements of calories, (with very little actual nutritional benefit).

thus, just as it's probably right to slap the banks around and force them into order, it's probably also right that McDonads also need a bit of a slap!


I don't think that government should intefere with every aspect of life and society, (quite the opposite, I think that society generally functions a lot better when left to it's own devices).
but sometimes any government is going to have to step in and say that enough is enough...

By all means McDonalds should have a kids size portion, but to activly market to kids, in the hopes that they pester their parents into buying them food that just plain isn't good for them. fully aware that the kids have no concept that it isn't good for them, then I think that's wrong...



and I don't think that just telling kids that McDonalds is bad for them is the answer.
because frankly, it's not,
over indulgence in McDonalds is the problem.
 
Also, a little intriguing point, that happy meals constitute 40% of profits raked in by Mcdonalds. (this figure probly isnt accurate, but still shows a large slice of their profits is coming from there)

To make a huge company change such a winning formula is hard to do.
 
I agree, to ask a company to change such a winning formula is difficult.

same as the banks, they've made loads of money selling loans to people who just can't afford them and ruined a lot of lives in the process...

that's where the government comes in, you can ask, but the copany may not listen.
the government can tell, and the company has to listen.
 
Y know the reason kids get the happy meal is for the toy. Once the toy is gone, they will have no incentie for getting the happy meal over one of the larger meals. If parents already do not give a damn about what their kids eat, then they will most likely buy it because they asked.

Idk, I have a feeling that there will be less purchase of happy meals, more of double cheesburger meals and the likes.

same as the banks, they've made loads of money selling loans to people who just can't afford them and ruined a lot of lives in the process...

you are missing most of the story on this. The government made the banks give all those loans. Of course it is blamed on the banks now, but that is just the bs that the media reports.
 
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