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Loading...Santa Clara Bans Fast Food Toys; Now Let’s Give Kids An Incentive To Eat Healthy
On Tuesday, April 27, the board of supervisors in Santa Clara County, which is south of San Francisco, approved the nation’s first ordinance preventing restaurants from using toys to peddle unhealthy food to children. Ken Yeager, who sponsored the initiative, believes the ordinance will help level the playing field by taking away the incentive for kids to choose fatty, sugary foods over healthier options.
Banning the toys that come with Happy Meals or other items that contain excessive amounts of fat, calories, salt, and sugar may help curb childhood obesity, but I think there’s an even better solution: Replace the unhealthy fast food with more nutritious options and give children an incentive to eat that.
Kids who get hooked on hamburgers, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, cheese pizza, and other cholesterol-laden foods are more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Childhood weight problems are a precursor to adult obesity, which drastically reduces life expectancy.
If we tempt kids to eat healthily now, they’ll be more likely to grow into fit, healthy adults. We tend to show them pictures of diseased lungs to warn them about the effects of smoking, and photos of grisly car crashes to illustrate the effects of drunk driving, yet we often fail to teach them the consequences of eating an unhealthy diet.
Restaurants have long used toys and other gimmicks to promote their unhealthy food to children, rather than marketing healthy options, and they’re finally starting to incur the wrath of parents. McDonald’s has not only been under fire for tempting youngsters with toys, but for using Ronald McDonald to make children associate unhealthy food with fun and happiness.
In a blog about Corporate Accountability International’s campaign to “Retire Ronald,” Care2’s Ann Pietrangelo pointed out that nearly half the public wants Ronald McDonald to retire, and close to 60 percent of Americans blame the fast-food industry for childhood obesity.
In another “Retire Ronald” blog, writer Gina-Marie Cheeseman notes that children are much more susceptible to advertisements than adults, and just one 30-second commercial can influence the preferences of children as young as two. Dr. Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, predicted that, if the food and restaurant industry didn’t change how they market to children, the government would step in and then require them to. It seems that’s starting to happen now.
I certainly won’t miss Ronald if he’s forced into retirement—and I know that kids don’t need more throwaway toys and trinkets—but I also wouldn’t find it nearly as objectionable if McDonald’s and other fast-food chains used their persuasive tactics to promote truly healthy options. If they replaced their typical fatty foods with veggie burgers, soy hot dogs, faux chicken, and, even more importantly, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, they could help kids develop a taste for more wholesome foods and perhaps even get in the good graces of parents everywhere.
Read more: health policy
WesClark.com
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
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Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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121 comments
+ add your ownGood luck parents! If you can't keep the tots off Happy meals, it's not going to get any easier.
Banning the stupid toy will make no difference whatsoever. Free enterprise, no bans. Let the kid have a darn toy. It will keep him occupied for a while in the car.
All this comes down to one thing. Weak Minds. IF a parent does not say "NO" then it is THEIR fault. Not a restaurant, and certainly not the toy. Leave Ronald McDonald alone also. My Goodness, all these weak minded individuals want to blame someone else for their mistakes. And that group, "Center for Science in the Public Interest", like they have nothing better to do? Why not start 'Watch Dogging" all the places that are allowing diseases to get through and poison the country? And 60 percent blame the Fast-Food for their child being Fat??? OMG!!! That is like saying, "My child is stupid, because the teachers aren't doing their job, by making my child do their homework."
the ban toys for unhealthy food? they should ban because it is children who work for low pay, poor condition, etc. I read in year 2007 that Disney has ended its partnership with McDonalds. No disney toy in happy-meal and you can not buy their food at Disney World and Disneyland, Paris unless they started again
It's all about moderation. I don't want the government thinking that they can legislate anything they want to. I am concerned about our personal freedoms. Is a fast food restaurant the only place a kids has access to unhealthy food? Not even close - studies even show that most kids only eat out about 2 to 3 times per month. It's about educating parents, not legislating fast food restaurants. I'd like to stop this legislation from spreading - ANY IDEAS??
I don't think this has anything to do with toys and fast food, this is all about choice.
I do not want things being banned! I want to decide to buy something or not, I want to make the choice, I do not want to have a company or a government make that decision for me!!
I think parents need more education about fast food. It should be a treat and not something to consume daily. My children loved their trip to a fast food restaurant and getting their toy BUT we only went a couple of times a month and then not even every month.
Let's just ban everything...
Let's begin with camera phones, and anything like them as they just encourage sexting.
Wait, let;s make it all cell phones, and anything like them as they just encourage people to use them and be rude to those around them, get into vehicle accidents, etc..
Let's ban makeup, because men like pretty women and pretty women just encourage men to cheat on their girlfriends/wives.
Let's ban gyms because people in good shape encourage the opposite sex to cheat.
Let's ban alcoholic beverages because they just encourage drunk driving.
Let's ban...
Idiots...
from breeding because they need to ban everything as they can't parent their children...and the last thing we want to do is propigate their "species".
i thnik toys should be given with healthy foods
i think toys should be given with healthy foods
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