Originally Posted By TheParsec I think this is interesting. When I was a kid I always loved getting Happy Meals for the toys. "Happy Meals are soon going to come with a sad surprise for children in the US. Lawmakers in California have voted to ban toys from being served up with McDonald's burgers and fries. Officials claim the free goodies, often promoting a new film or popular cartoon characters, lure children into eating foods with high sugar, sodium and fat. The measure is the first of its kind to be proposed to battle an obesity epidemic sweeping California and the rest of America. While supporters insist the ban will force restaurants to offer more nutritious food to children, critics complained on Wednesday night that it was just another case of the government getting too involved in parenting decisions. Ken Yeager, county supervisor in Santa Clara, the hi-tech Silicon Valley district south of San Francisco that agreed to the clampdown on Tuesday, claimed it "breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes". "This ordinance prevents restaurants from preying on children's love of toys to peddle high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium kids meals," he added. McDonald's helped build its demand for its "Happy Meals" by including free toys, and the giveaways are now common in many fast food chains. But while McDonald's has introduced healthier meal options like allowing drinks like Coca Cola to be swapped for milk or juice to help battle childhood obesity, the lawmakers say it isn't enough. Childhood obesity in the US has tripled in the last 30 years. Two-thirds of Americans - about 190 million people - are now said to be medically overweight. California was the first state to ban fizzy drinks from schools and other councils across the country are now considering instituting the toy ban. Under the new bill, restaurants will only be allowed to offer free gifts with meals if they meet basic nutritional criteria. It would not allow the inclusion of a toy in any children's meal with more than 485 calories, 120 calories for a drink, 200 calories for a single food item, 600mg of salt or high amounts of sugar or fat. These guidelines would caused all McDonald's happy meals, even those with apple sticks instead of fries, to be served without a toy. Fast food bosses are being given 90 days to come up with a better solution before the proposals go into effect. Voting against the measure was supervisor Donald Gage, who claimed parents should be responsible for their children. "If you can't control a three-year-old child for a toy, God save you when they get to be teenagers," he said. "Ultimately, parents decide what their children eat and whether a meal includes a toy or not - that is the role of a parent," added Jot Condie president of the California Restaurant Association. "The county government does not need to serve as the parent of the parents." - Daily Mail"
Originally Posted By Marlin Perkins If I don't want my kids to have fast food...I don't buy it for them. I pretend like I'm a grown up, and I tell them what to do and junk. It's fun! And, it's a pretty simple plan, really. Plus, it doesn't interfere with other people living the life they choose to lead. Why on earth would anyone in a free country want more government control?
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<Why on earth would anyone in a free country want more government control?>> Ask investors whose retirement accounts got wiped out the past few years. Ask the wildlife and residents of the Gulf Coast who now face decades of devastation because of the oil well failure. Ask the surviving family members of those 29 miners who died in a coal mine that should have been shut down years ago for safety violations. I could go on and on with this stuff, but you get the idea. Wanting or desiring a totally "free country" is corporatist brainwashing. Without controls and regulations, the corporations and insanely wealthy in this country would seize complete control in a heartbeat to maximize their profits at the expense of the health and safety of all citizens and the environment we live in. This is NOT Colonial America, dude. The vast overwhelming majority of us cannot escape our technologically enhanced modern lifestyle and get off the grid and return to the land. We have virtually zero control over our environments outside our dwellings (and some of us in apartment buildings don't even have that). We have almost zero control over the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. We need the government to regulate these things because private for-profit has proven time after time after time that they will not do it themselves. They only care about profits and do not care ONE IOTA about anything else, no matter how much damage they inflict in pursuit of those profits. Quit drinking the RNC kool-aid. Government control has been systematically lessened year after year across the board in all sectors of our lives since the Reagan administration, and we have all paid dearly for it. America needs to return to more government control and regulation to stop the unbridled greed that is destroying our country and our planet.
Originally Posted By Marlin Perkins ^^ You're right...I NEED the government to tell me not to buy a Happy Meal. I can't make good choices on my own. LOL
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<I can't make good choices on my own.>> Have you seen the number of obese people in this country? Obviously, most Americans CAN'T make good choices on their own and actually COULD use some help. I'm not saying this was the best thing they could have done, and probably won't help, but doing nothing is also not the answer.
Originally Posted By Marlin Perkins You're right...Please, All Powerful Government, take my children and raise them the way you see fit. I thought I was doing okay but, I guess not. I have bought them Happy Meals before [hangs head in shame].
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Santa Clara County is simply attempting to address the issue of multinational conglomerates who peddle garbage fast food specifically targeted to growing kids. Are they going about this in a good way? Probably not. But at least they are trying. I applaud them for making an effort. Too many kids get these meals as a regular part of their overall diet, because they're cheaper. Better, healthier, more nutritional food costs more, so their parents don't buy it. Plus, the parents cave into the kids' whining for the toy, which doesn't help. Requiring the restaurants to offer the toy with more nutritional food isn't such a big deal. If the kid really wants the toy and the parents have no willpower to say "no" to their spoiled brats, then at least they'll be eating better food for their growing bodies because of it. I'm guessing the anti-regulation posters in this thread would also like to see the restrictions lifted against free cigarette giveaways in shopping malls the tobacco industry used to conduct. And while we're at it, let's remove the cigarette excise tax which is helping to fund health education programs. Where does it stop? At what point do you allow uneducated adults to inflict their ignorance on their kids? << I NEED the government to tell me not to buy a Happy Meal. I can't make good choices on my own. LOL>> If most American adults could make "good choices" on their own... then explain why we have an epidemic of obesity in this country. Go ahead... explain away.
Originally Posted By Marlin Perkins <<I could go on and on with this stuff, but you get the idea.>> I can also try to pull up the numbers of deaths caused over the generations by government choosing to send our kids into battle...Yeah, they're good at making the better choice for us and our children. They ALWAYS know best.
Originally Posted By Marlin Perkins <<Go ahead... explain away.>> Well, there's a nice set-up. NOBODY knows why there is increased obesity today. Isn't that the purpose in Michelle Obama's new committee? If it's all a matter of people making bad choices, why do we need to investigate? You just gave us the answer.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<If it's all a matter of people making bad choices>> You have to actually be given a true choice to hold someone at fault for making a "bad choice". If your only choice is cheap fast food, or expensive healthy food, what "choice" do you think someone poor is going to make? And that's exactly the "choice" that millions of Americans are given every day. Now, don't you think that's the type of thing that the government should get involved with? Making sure that its citizens actually have a healthy option to choose when making food decisions?
Originally Posted By Marlin Perkins << If your only choice is cheap fast food, or expensive healthy food...>> I spend probably $180 a week for groceries (food) for a family of five. That comes out to just over $5 a day per person (dinner, snacks, some lunches, breakfasts). I think we eat pretty healthy. A Happy Meal costs about $3. If I fed my kids a Happy Meal 3 times a day, that comes out to $9 a day. That's almost twice the cost. So, poor people may just need to be better educated on how to spend their grocery money--that would be a perfect way for government to get involved.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<So, poor people may just need to be better educated on how to spend their grocery money--that would be a perfect way for government to get involved.>> You need to educate yourself on how the rest of the country lives outside suburban white bread America. Poor people don't have ready access to the type of grocery stores suburbia enjoys. The local corner stores in the inner city do not have produce, fresh or frozen, more often than not. Therein lies the problem. Well stocked large grocery stores? Not accessible. Fast food eateries? Readily available.
Originally Posted By DAR A few years back one of the local grocery chains wanted to build a full blown megastore in the inner city. It would have provided an opportunity for not only for people to have healthier choices but even provide jobs. It was rejected and still standing there is an empty piece of land.
Originally Posted By Marlin Perkins Hmm, Well, first of all, you assume to know a lot about me. <<Well stocked large grocery stores? Not accessible.>> Are you sure? Where exactly are you talking about? There are almost 2600 Supermarket/Grocery stores listed in the Brooklyn online yellow pages. <a href="http://www.superpages.com/yellowpages/C-Grocery+Stores+%26+Supermarkets/S-NY/T-Brooklyn" target="_blank">http://www.superpages.com/yell...Brooklyn</a> Are you seriously trying to tell me these people can't get their hands on a few fruits, veggies, and whole grains? BTW, there are only 409 fast food establishments listed in the same directory: <a href="http://www.superpages.com/yellowpages/C-Fast+Food+Restaurants/S-NY/T-Brooklyn/" target="_blank">http://www.superpages.com/yell...rooklyn/</a>
Originally Posted By Mr X "NOBODY knows why there is increased obesity today" Really? You believe that? I know EXACTLY why. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/crn3xa" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/crn3xa</a> <a href="http://tinyurl.com/23nfeqd" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/23nfeqd</a> <a href="http://tinyurl.com/2bbrwpk" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/2bbrwpk</a> <a href="http://tinyurl.com/2a8ukqx" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/2a8ukqx</a> <a href="http://tinyurl.com/ykjc5bw" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/ykjc5bw</a> Now, I don't know how old you are, but for me growing up (full disclosure 1970's/'80s) we didn't have any "food" even remotely resembling this disgusting travesty. Oh sure, we had fast food. But not THIS.
Originally Posted By Mr X Wow, the mega-big-mac looks positively quaint among that rogues gallery doesn't it? Gross in its' own way though...how is it that McDonalds "food" (and ONLY McDonalds) never takes a bad picture? *shudder*
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Brooklyn? Home of Dr. Cliff Huxtable and his adorable upper middle class family? Seriously? You want to use Brooklyn as an example of a poor struggling impoverished urban inner city? LOL!!! Why don't you pull up the grocery store stats for Spanish Harlem then get back to us, OK? I'll even give you a head start: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Harlem" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...h_Harlem</a> "A lack of access to healthy food causes serious hardships to citizens of Spanish Harlem, a neighborhood considered to be a food desert. According to an April, 2008 report prepared by the New York City Department of City Planning, Spanish Harlem is an area of the city with the highest levels of diet-related diseases due to limited opportunities for citizens to purchase fresh foods[13]. With a high population density and a lack of nearby supermarkets, the neighborhood has little access to fresh fruits and vegetables and a low consumption of fresh foods. Citizens of Spanish Harlem are likely to buy food from discount and convenience stores that have a limited supply of fruits and vegetables, which are often of poor quality and generally more expensive than the same products sold at supermarkets[14]. Supermarkets in Harlem are 30 percent less common, and only 3 percent of local convenience stores in Harlem carry leafy green vegetables as compared to 20 percent on the Upper East Side.[15] Without access to affordable produce and meats, Spanish Harlem residents have difficulty eating a healthy diet, which contributes to high rates of obesity and diabetes[16] "Residents of ...East and Central Harlem ...are largely limited to fast food restaurants and small bodegas as food sources, which primarily carry packaged foods and have limited fresh produce options. Area residents have also identified the need for more fitness options, particularly for youth and seniors. These inequities have resulted in health disparities and high rates of obesity."[17]" Brooklyn... oy vey!
Originally Posted By dshyates There isn't a single chain grocery store in the city limits of Detroit. Chain grocery stores have the networks to bring in fresh fruits and veggies. Local independant stores don't. But let's all rail on Government intervention in the face of a true national health crisis.
