Yeah, yeah, the headline was kinda mean. Suck it up buttercup. Or, if you are one of those fatties, don’t suck up that double chocolate shake with whipped cream topping
The McDonald’s Happy Meal is bummed.
The decision of San Francisco city officials Tuesday to crack down on restaurant meals that include free toys unless they meet particular nutritional guidelines is — depending on whom you ask — either taking away a parents’ right to choose what to feed their children, as some msnbc.com readers have commented, or a gift to frazzled parents up against a massive marketing machine.
What it most likely isn’t, however, is a solution to the childhood obesity epidemic.
Let’s face it, Happy Meals and similar type fast food offering aren’t exactly the best of choices for anything other than now and then. Heck, I remember Dad running to McDonald’s to get me a cheeseburger, small fries, and a chocolate shake ever few Saturday’s as a treat when I was real young, when they were either hosting a party or going to one. I’m sure we all have stories like that. But, more often, we would have good food, and, here’s the kicker: we went outside and played. Mom and Dad would kick my butt outside after a few Saturday daytime monster movies (the local NYC TV stations always used to show 30’s-60’s monster movies on Saturday’s. Friggin’ awesome, dudes and dudettes!) Now, they go play computer/console games.
It’s doubtful that the Happy Meal measure will do much to reverse the tide of overweight children. There are many causes of childhood obesity, including genetic and lifestyle ones. Decreased physical activity, too many sugary beverages and increased overall calorie intake are factors.
Bingo!
In fact, ostracizing fatty meals that come with plastic promotional toys could have the unintended consequence of making the product even more appealing to kids, says Chicago-based nutritionist and msnbc.com contributor Janet Helm, R.D., who writes a blog called Nutrition Unplugged.
Oops.
Psssst, hey, government, GET THE F OUT OF MY DAILY LIFE!
My God when will it ever stop?
They intrude on everything. If a parent shouldn’t be a parent, ie they feed their kids fast food all of the time- where do we stop-just by punishing fast food places, or do we go further? Children’s services will get mighty busy removing kids from parent’s evil grasps, if government begins to decide what is and isn’t good for the “children”.
Ok, this is just stupid. Consumers make choices based on many factors and marketing is complex. This marketing tool has been in use for over 40 years and now it’s causing a problem? On top of that the stated band is for meals with 600 calories or 35 percent of its calories from fat. Did anyone on this board do any research? If you look at the happy meal choices about half of them are under the required amounts of calories and fat. So if I order one of those options will I still get the toy?
Children aren’t getting fat because there’s a toy being offered with a meal. While poor eating habits can attribute to weight gain, the lack of exercise is also a major factor.
Turn off the TV or video game and go for a run!!!
To correct some concepts, fatty meals are probably better for you than a lack of fat, especially in kids. Kids need the fat and cholesterol, that is what their brains are made of. Actually, the effort to exclude fat from the diet is one of the reasons for the world-wide obesity that we are seeing. Studies have indicated that fats do not increase your likelyhood for cardiovascular disease, thus the ban is stupid. Also, eating fatty foods causes you to have a feeling of being full and decreases the overall intake of food and less of a tendency to snack.
Otherwise, get the creepy kids up and make them work!!
hahaahahah Kevin: “Children aren’t getting fat because there’s a toy being offered with a meal. “
Exactly. True Dat!!
David: “fatty meals are probably better for you than a lack of fat, especially in kids.”
Yep. Kids need lots of food energy to grow and develop properly. If all they do is sit around all day every day, their amount of intake wont be their only problem.
ostracizing fatty meals that come with plastic promotional toys could have the unintended consequence of making the product even more appealing to kids,
If I were McDs, I would remove all toys from the happy meals. They are crap and tend to lead to choking and toxic chemical poisoning incidents.
McD’s has already done too much to counter these food-nazis. What kid whats milk and apples with their happy meals??? Seriously? Damn-it.. give me those best fries in the world and a chocolate shake in summer. During winter, gimme a hot chocolate with extra marshmellows.
Leave the company alone. They don’t force people to buy their food. They don’t force parents to stuff their products down the kid’s throats while they hold a gun to gma’s head while she tries to get up off the ice after being pushed down, breaking her hip and having her “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” alert system’s battery removed.
They are crap and tend to lead to choking and toxic chemical poisoning incidents.
Sorry Cap’n, but the toys are tested for being a choking hazard and the last batch of “toxic toys” was imported by Mattel, who, interestingly enough, applied for and got a waiver for third party testing under the CPSIA.
nah, there HAVE been recalls due to choking hazards and you just admitted there were toxic toys that had to be recalled.
THUS, to save our children from obesity we must eliminate choking and toxic toys that make our kids eat, eat, eat, and eat.
nah, there HAVE been recalls due to choking hazards and you just admitted there were toxic toys that had to be recalled.
Yes there have been toys recalled to choking hazards. That is not the issue. The issue is whether those toys were included in “Happy Meal” type meals.
And I did not admit that toys in “Happy Meals” had been recalled. The last one was a toy from Mattell, which does not make toys for “Happy Meals.”
Shrek glasses recalled due to Cadmium
Happy Meal “Scooter Bug” choking hazard recall
at same link.. “In 1982, McDonald’s recalled nearly 10 million Playmobil toys after the company found the toys failed to comply with CPSC’s regulation designed to prevent choking hazards to children under three. ”
Chick-fil-a toy recall
Burger King recalls kid’s meal toys.
Lego Happy Meal choking hazard
Recall of potential choking toy
I am not attacking McDs. I am only suggesting a potential economic saver for McDs in California should they acquiesce to this nanny-state bill. I was being rather sarcastic about it.
I can’t believe people actually believe little kids are wondering off the streets, demanding to eat the most unhealthy food that fast food co’s sells just to get a toy. These 2-4 year olds are mindless little zombies being “lured” in to spending their own hard earned money.
This bill is ridiculous, ludicrous, and entirely uncalled for. Can’t believe it is legal either. Telling a company what they can sell as part of a package meal.
If this is ok, then they need to ban sodas, they need to ban shakes, they need to ban fries, they need to ban meat, they need to ban sauces, they need to ban their cheese, they need to ban their play-gyms as those cause more unhealthy conditions than the food.
If this is ok, they need to ban the car that the kid drives to the drive thru. Course, they are attempting to ban drive-thrus. They need to ban childbirth as it could possibly lead to the death of the mother.
Cap’n,
At least try and use links for the stories within the last five years.
There has been a great deal of safety put into the toys since those days.
(And just to be clear, the Shrek glasses were not a part of a Happy Meal.)
As I said, the last batch of toys that were contained toxic materials was manufactured in China by Mattel. That batch brought forth the insidious CPSIA, which has cost people their businesses and billions of dollars in tax revenues.
But here is the bigger problem. In cases like these, the government does not have to prove that there is a link between one thing and another. They do not have to prover that there is a link between Happy Meals and obesity.
Progressive courts from the Wilson era ruled that the government only has to believe that there is a link. In other words, the Happy Meal is not “guilty until proven innocent” of causing obesity. The “Happy Meal” is guilty because the government believes it to be so.
That means that there is no defense to this accusation that McDonald’s and other restaurants can mount because the government’s belief trumps all.
This bill is a bill in a long list of subtle attacks on the liberties of Americans.
The Founding Fathers believed and wrote that rights of men were given to them by a Creator (or Nature) and it was the primary job of government to protect those rights. Today, those on the left and progressives have turned it around where the rights of men are granted by the government and protected only as long as the government seeks to do so.
Why do timelines matter? I was just pointing out that there have been issues like those I raised earlier.
Also, I didn’t say the Shrek glasses were part of a happy meal. I was making a point that things get through the so-called “testing”.
One of my subtle points was that if McD’s acquiesced and came out on top of this, they could save the money on toy production and litigation.
Or, they could disperse the toys via an online process. Buy a Happy Meal and get a special code to enter online to have a toy shipped to you. Totally bypass this law.
But, overall, I agree with your point about the encroachment and brutal takeover of our individual and state’s rights by the Fed Gov’t. Hopefully this current election cycle will help reverse that for most of the US.
Several parts of the US, like CA, are beyond hope of saving. People need to flee as fast as they can.