{"id":4111,"date":"2010-11-03T04:56:36","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T02:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=4111"},"modified":"2015-02-15T09:34:18","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T14:34:18","slug":"sf-supervisors-place-restrictions-on-toys-in-fast-food-childrens-meals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/sf-supervisors-place-restrictions-on-toys-in-fast-food-childrens-meals\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Supervisors Place Restrictions on Toys in Fast Food Children’s Meals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors just passed an ordinance that requires fast food meals marketed to young children\u00a0to meet nutritional guidelines… or no toy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors was at it again today, banning toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals that contain over 600 calories and more than 35% of calories from fat. Sorry kids, this encompasses most McD’s Happy Meals offered these days. The measure makes San Francisco the first city to ban restaurants from offering a free toy with meals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition, toy-containing meals would have to contain either fruits or vegetables.<\/p>\n

Naturally, it’s controversial, with opponents (which includes McDonald’s, of course) insisting that\u00a0the ordinance\u00a0encroaches on personal freedoms. Proponents, on the other hand, view it as a sensible public health measure that’s long overdue. According to AOL’s Alex Salkever<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Old-school Californians see San Francisco’s move as overly restrictive, heavy-handed and disgusting. Such a ban would rob Californians of free choice and substitutes responsible parenting with government supervision, critics say. For more conservative voters, the proposed ban is more evidence that California is becoming a Nanny State.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, California’s more liberal progressives see the mere existence of Happy Meals as cynical, unhealthy and disgusting. Advocates decry the use of toys to market often-unhealthy meals to young children who aren’t mature enough to make well-informed dietary decisions. After all, they say, we’re living in an era where a 24-ounce, 800-calorie Slurpee constitutes a typical after-school snack.<\/p>\n

For their part, public health advocates say that Happy Meals make a powerful impression on young minds and ultimately costs society untold amounts of money to care for obese, sedentary, sugar-addled adults raised in a culture of frenzied fast-food consumption.<\/p>\n

In a state where residents often shrug their shoulders when asked for their thoughts on Meg Whitman versus Jerry Brown in the gubernatorial race, nearly everyone has froth-at-the-mouth opinions about the Happy Meal ban. The issue highlights the tremendous political and ideological divisions in a state filled with disparities and contradictions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A copy of the “Healthy Food Incentives Ordinance” is here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Personally, I’m not sure what the fuss is all about… for one thing, kids don’t seem to be getting too upset about it<\/a>; and for another, no one is stopping the restaurants from selling the toys separately (and for a nominal amount, natch). Thus, I expect the overall effect of the ordinance is likely to be nil – although I suppose that won’t stop people from squawking about it. Some people love to argue, after all.<\/p>\n

[youtube:http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=teMlv3ripSM]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors just passed an ordinance that requires fast food meals marketed to young children\u00a0to meet nutritional guidelines… or no toy. The San Francisco […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,14,17,28],"tags":[368,631,1397],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4111"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9217,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4111\/revisions\/9217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}