McDonald's Doesn't Make Us Fat . . .

 . . . It just makes it easier. And taking the toys out of Happy Meals won’t do much to prevent kids from getting fat. I suppose it’s a nice gesture in this world of government intrusion, but really, when most school lunches don’t meet the standards politicians have used to target McDonald’s why do they continue to intrude into private business?

The easy answer is that McDonald’s and other fast-food chains are, well, easy targets. Changing the way our children eat, however, is not an easy task. With school lunches, if you change one thing you have to change another . . . do this or that and it costs tons of money, runs into piles of silly government regulations or, in the case of removing vending machines from schools (another popular topic), costs schools revenue.

The San Francisco ordinance says restaurants will only be allowed to offer free toys or other fun stuff with meals containing fewer than 600 calories, fewer than 640 milligrams of sodium, less than 35 percent of calories from fat, and less than 10 percent saturated fat. The meal must also include at least a half-cup of fruits or veggies, and can’t come with fatty or sugary drinks.

What surprises me is how many people have embraced this Happy Meal toy tactic.

“McDonald’s is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children,” said Stephen Gardner, litigation director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a non-profit health research and advocacy group based out of Washington, DC. In June, CSPI threatened to sue McDonald’s if they didn’t stop using toys to woo children. “McDonald’s use of toys undercuts parental authority and exploits young children’s developmental immaturity – all this to induce children to prefer foods that may harm their health. It’s a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction.”

CSPI has done a lot of good things (though they do come across at times as anti-food terrorists), but as one can see, they have no hesitation to plop themselves in the middle of a family, tell parents they aren’t doing their jobs and then give them a set of rules to follow. Doesn’t work for me. First, government has no place telling parents how to raise their kids, and second, government has no place telling businesses how they should be run (excluding general safety rules etc.).

I  think having CSPI tell me how to raise my kids is creepy. And “undercuts parental authority?” Wow, there's a statement, especially since this type of legislation does exactly that. Ahh, but the difference, of course, is that politicians and organizations like CSPI see themselves as white knights slaying the beasts that are evil and bad. Oops . . . does that mean parents, too.

Fast food places work because they are easy and cheap. And I’m guessing that busy parents with a mini-van full of kids will still pull through the drive-up and buy a bunch of Happy Meals even without the toys.
The responsibility does and should rest with parents. Don't take the kids there all the time. Simple. And if your kids are screaming they want Happy Meals, then it's your responsibility to say no. Sheesh.

Give them the tools they need (nutritional information and education) and start teaching kids how to eat good, not just easy, stuff. And parents and schools need to educate kids on a greater scale that crap food may be ok every once in a while, but certainly not as a steady diet. The good food should be at home, and that’s a parental responsibility, too.