Written by PETA
San Francisco's Board of Supervisors has voted to require restaurant kids' meals that come with free toys to contain fewer than 600 calories, include fruits and veggies, and exclude fat- and sugar-laden beverages. And (surprise!) McDonald's Happy Meal doesn't make the cut.
As a kid (before I went vegetarian "cold turkey" at age 10 after realizing that meat comes from a living, breathing being), I would beg my parents to take me to Mickey D's for the latest cheap plastic doodad. I couldn't have cared less about the fat-and-cholesterol bomb in a bun that came with it, but the toy lured me (and my parents) to the drive-through month after month.
With 15 percent of American children now classified as overweight or obese—putting them in danger of serious health problems including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer—stopping restaurants like McDonald's from using "kid bait" to market unhealthy animal flesh to children seems like a pretty good idea to this former Happy Meal lover.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
Ecstatic about this news! GO SAN FRANSICO!
why don't they just ban mcdonalds alltogether? that would make me very happy (:
I just loved Daniel's comment up here, it is soooooooooooooooo American. Well, I do not know how it works there, but here in my country, Hungary, you can buy just the toys without the meal. My kids don't like chips e.g. so if we like the toy, we only go for them and buy something to eat or drink if we really want to. I have educated them in a way that there is no way for them coercing me into buying junk food or junk toys incessantly, we couldn't afford it anyway. I think buying such toys 2 or three times a year is OK. It is fun for the kids. I find it very odd that such a ban should happen right there in California, USA. On the other hand, I am not surprised. As a direct consequence of the great idea of "people should have the freedom of choice " parents seem to lack the courage and wisdom of preventing their own children from that when necessary!
You can eat anything you want, as long as it's in moderation. Not all 15% of the overweight children were cause by McDonald's. It may be a disorder they have or something else. Obesity is not the only reason people suffer from diabetes and cancer.
PETA: Kids have been finishing their happy meals for a long time. Long before I have been around. Do you really think it is the foods fault?
When I was a kid I would spend every free minute I had outside playing with my friends. I would ride my bike from one side of town to the other everyday during the summer. I would play sports or go play in the woods after school in the fall and winter. I hated having to go inside at the end of the day.
I didn't have an Xbox or Playstaion. Texting didn't exist and laptops were not yet a reality. Kids today are freaking lazy. I could have eaten a happy meal a day when I was a kid and I still would have looked thin.
Nothing pisses me off more when I see my 12 and 13 year old nephews inside on a sunny day playing Call of Duty. How many of these overweight children do you think are not physically active? How many of them are participating in sports or extracurricular activities? I would bet not many.
Our socieity blames everybody and everything for their problems, but never themselves. Parents don't want to accept that they are failing so they blame food, or the school or McDonalds. It is sad what we have become.
I pity our future generations. This ban is just placing blame on someone else.
Re: Miss Boogalo. Kids seem to be finishing their Happy Meals--the proof is in the startling statistic that one-third of all American children are overweight. "Healthy" meat consumption doesn't exist. Meat is linked to heart disease, cancer, and strokes. To read more about how meat wreaks havoc on our bodies, please check out: www.peta.org/.../eating-for-health.aspx. - PETA
SO just fries and lemonade are alright because they are vegetarian.? And a slice of real good cheese contains about three times more fat than the same amount of lean beef.
I am not a vegetarian, but a healthy eater. meat consumption needs to be done carefully and fish is still high on the list.
BTW. Most of the kids don´t eat their Happy meal, they just have a nibble, the rest gets eaten by the parents. I think Happy Meals are just an excuse for the grown ups to have a burger and fries too.
Even if they reduce the calories. 600 per meal are still quite a lot.
This is nothing more than the government playing big brother. The city of San Fransico just anounced that they know better than the people living in the city. Leaving all other issues aside, this should frighten the crap out of every citizen in the US and especially in California. So much for our citizenship right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
If they can do this then they will try and ban something else. This is just the beginning unless we the people stand against such tyranical beginings.
yikes! i must have hit a nerve. or something.
"Our culture is full of bad things...true."
let's see... i'm with you so far, description is rather loose, the "fuzzylogic" card, but i feel you don't quite have a handell on the issues here..
"but one happy meal a month isn't killing a Nation"
wait, actually that's a lie. an humongous one at that. while we are here, tell me how you could "kill" a nation, lousy metaphor, cheap window dressing. and it appears that your biased, insensible renderings are illogical and make no sense. take a peak at the insane and barbaric slaughter rates of animals the next time you get a chance. or read fast food nation if you have any questions.
but more to the point... little pieces of plastic and cute fluffy toys served up with hopelessly non-nutritional synthetic junkfood and dead animals is a _very bad thing_.
"Do you bike/walk to work? I doubt it."
i don't know, you seem to have already made up your mind about me. actually mass transit and my trusty beater bike, are my only means of transporation, and have been for approximately the last two decades. my last car was a 1973 ford LTD, it died a horrible death, served me well.
but your point about me being a hypocrite, even though nonsensical and beyond irrelevant, isn't exactly off the mark. if i could get a real job driving a vehicle doing various things, into wood grab it in a minute. one of my siblings has a *real* nice car though, but unfortunately she ain't veggie, it's a foreign language too her. how sad.
"even so this has nothing to do with parents and/or fast food outlets "bribing" children and slacker adults into buying/eating non-nutrituous fast food meals"
So If I work 10 hours a day and am too exhausted to be able to cook a meal because I'm a single working mom, I'm a slacker? How is that statement in any way true or even remotely respectful? Some of us dont have the luxury of being able to spend the time to cook a meal. I work full time and then have to come home and care for my disabled mother and autistic daughter. Cooking is not something I have time for. So if I want to buy my daughter a happy meal on the way home from work, That is my choice. No one else's. Again this is America and I believe in personal freedoms and if you dont want to eat meat or fast food that's fine. I dont judge and think it's fantastic that you have your own beliefs and stick to them. Just allow me to do the same without judgement.
P.S. My daughter is not obese and is in fact a normal skinny active kid.
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