Another 'Happy Meal' Ban

[SSLFan]

This time straight out of San Francisco.
http://sfist.com/2010/08/11/sf_to_ban_happy_meals.php


*sigh*...

 

[Drtooth]

I've absolutely had it with the Health-stappo. I have. They KILLED American TV animation, they're killing fun little treats, and now they want to kill the only right of childhood we have left, kid's meal prizes. Meanwhile that stuff isn't even helping to curb the childhood obesity hypa-demic! Hey granola nuts, pay your stupid taxes so kids have after school activities, a decent health program in school and edible school lunches. How come NO ONE is doing anything on the front that COULD help them?

Who do we have to go to to shut these do gooders up? They need to be stopped. They have WAAAAAY too much power, they wield the "Someone please think of the children" way too often, and their results are taking things away when ADDING things NEEDS to be done.

Above all, this is a treat, not something you shove down your kids esophagus to gain their friendship. Kids don't need friends, they need REAL parents that say no, and not a Watchmutt group telling the well behaved kids they can't have it either. Hey, kids DON'T like vegetables. Never have. I don't remember the Leave it to Beaver where the mother said "hey, Beave! Here's a treat... raw bran and soy milk." They aren't going to eat healthy until you FORCE them to with guilt and punishments. That's how kids are! They need to know when it's time to have fun, and when it's time to work.

I believe in freedom of choice... and I believe it doesn't protect us from freedom from bad choices. Lessons NEED to be learned, temptation NEEDS to exist. And this does nothing but punish the GOOD kids that earn their kids meals with good grades. You don't reward a report card with a trip to Whole Foods to pick out a 5 dollar carrot.

I hate these self serving little brat parental groups. They HATE fun, they HATE kids, they HATE being parents over all. Get your hands OFF kids meals, candy that turns your tongue blue and cartoon shows that might give little 2 year olds nightmares, if they ignore the glowing large box that says TVY-7. Parent your own ill behaved kids before all the other snot nosed parental groups do the same.

And besides... kids don't even EAT kids meals anymore. They eat the biggest dang thing on the menu. A kid's meal is what they SHOULD be eating. Just not every single day 3 times a day.

 

[Nick22]

ugh. i swear to God. it's like kids aren't aloud to have fun anymore. nothing is aloud anymore. everything's either dangerous, unhealthy, against the rules, blah blah blah.

 

[dwmckim]

I'm just still waiting for the inevitable news report of someone suing McDonald's because the meal didn't end up making them happy.

 

[frogboy4]

As much as I hate the fast food industry I don't think this is quite right. Happy Meals don't make kids fat and unhealthy. The lack of exercise and activity combined with too many Happy Meals of food treats does that. An active kid should be able to naturally burn off the calories in a hamburger and fries with ease, but that takes getting out of the house and doing something.

Still, the fact that this proposed law is only restricting a particular kid’s meal to 600 calories isn't that far-fetched.

I've long said that if the government taxes cigarettes and alcohol, they should also tax fatty foods. They should also provide subsidies for healthy food options in restaurants if American's health is truly the goal. Too many people are economically forced into fast food and vending machine meals because nutritious options are too expensive and hard to locate. There are also many terrible foods masquerading as healthy alternatives and that leads many people to just give up trying.

I live in San Francisco and there are many wonderful things about this city. These few fringe crazies don't represent everybody else. We're really a melting pot of a lot of ideas here. The one thing I do like that this city forces chain stores to do is to decorate each one slightly differently and to blend into the neighborhood rather than the nondescript branding that many chains look like almost everywhere else.

 

[Drtooth]

I've long said that if the government taxes cigarettes and alcohol, they should also tax fatty foods. They should also provide subsidies for healthy food options in restaurants if American's health is truly the goal. Too many people are economically forced into fast food and vending machine meals because nutritious options are too expensive and hard to locate. There are also many terrible foods masquerading as healthy alternatives and that leads many people to just give up trying.

I still don't think that's right. Taxing fatty foods winds up punishing people with really REALLY low incomes that are so unfortunate they actually have to survive on it. And I'm not just talking people who have to eat McD's every day because the parents can't cook, I'm talking people that have to gorge themselves on Banquet frozen dinners and Jolly Fun generic sodas to fatten themselves up so they don't starve. What would I Do? Tax the companies MAKING the stuff. Make THEM pay for the health programs.

The problem with those taxes, if the cigarette ones have anything to do with it, get caught up in an endless bureaucracy and don't really go to fund those wonderful health incentives they're supposed to go to, leaving the only anti-Smoking programs to be backhand funded by the tobacco companies themselves. If this stuff actually were better managed I wouldn't mind, but a lot of these places introduce taxes on junk food to close budget gaps that previous politicians left after cutting taxes and slashing budgets unwisely.... but that's another rant for another day.

Here's the problem exactly, and we ALL need to read this. This is not me being "Crazy" and "Ignorable."

Why is everyone so unhealthy? Desk jobs. Desk jobs that keep everyone sitting down all day, drinking sugary energy drinks and sugary coffees eating sugary snacks to keep awake during the long droning day of sitting behind the desk and not moving, coming home so stressed and tired from not moving all day that they refuse to move the rest of the night. And on the weekends, they're so wiped from not moving, they refuse to move.

The same thing is happening to kids. We force them to do so well in school because they have to learn to take standardized test after standardized test to get funding (another rant that shouldn't get left behind), they cut their recess, they feed them cheap junk that makes McD's food look like raw bran by comparison, they take away their gym and physical education classes thanks to said budget cuts. Even if they had recess, you can't play Dodgeball cuz someone will get hurt, you can't play tag, because that's somehow the road to sexual harassment, and all these other silly no nos from PC parental groups. Basically they're illegalizing them running around and playing too, and the schools are quick to comply to avoid lawsuits, because we live in lawsuit country.

Not to mention kids, as equally stressed out as mom and pop lock themselves in their rooms (after the endless hours of busywork homework so they can fill in all those little circles) with a carton of Doritos and a case of Red Bull and their X-Box and age inappropriate games.

And no one is trying to stop ANY of that, and that's the biggest problem we have. Face it, kids are pampered and spoiled today, they don't move at all, which is the trade off... You were supposed to be able to eat all that garbage, and run around for hours and pretend to be super heroes and actually be a kid, but then little Johnny might get a skinned knee. it's very VERY depressing and very very true.

 

[frogboy4]

In an ideal world those fatty food taxes would subsidize making healtier alternatives from fast food chains just as cheep as their junk food is now. That was the other part mentioned in my post. But if that sort of thing doesn't work then why not cancel all taxes on cigarettes, alcohol and other things too? There is nothing different between junk food and smokes or beer. It's all toxic and they're all favorite items of those with modest incomes.

I work in a shop frequented by tourists all over the world and Americans are a lot fatter and unhealthier compared to Europeans very slim and effortlessly healthy appearance. It's all due to numerous healthier habits. It's funny to see people of the same age from other countries look so much better than the average American. Trust me, it's not just the accent.

 

[Nick22]

The same thing is happening to kids. We force them to do so well in school because they have to learn to take standardized test after standardized test to get funding (another rant that shouldn't get left behind), they cut their recess, they feed them cheap junk that makes McD's food look like raw bran by comparison, they take away their gym and physical education classes thanks to said budget cuts. Even if they had recess, you can't play Dodgeball cuz someone will get hurt, you can't play tag, because that's somehow the road to sexual harassment, and all these other silly no nos from PC parental groups. Basically they're illegalizing them running around and playing too, and the schools are quick to comply to avoid lawsuits, because we live in lawsuit country.

Not to mention kids, as equally stressed out as mom and pop lock themselves in their rooms (after the endless hours of busywork homework so they can fill in all those little circles) with a carton of Doritos and a case of Red Bull and their X-Box and age inappropriate games.

And no one is trying to stop ANY of that, and that's the biggest problem we have. Face it, kids are pampered and spoiled today, they don't move at all, which is the trade off... You were supposed to be able to eat all that garbage, and run around for hours and pretend to be super heroes and actually be a kid, but then little Johnny might get a skinned knee. it's very VERY depressing and very very true.

thank you adults are FAR too protective these days. in MY opinion. i mean, we aren't aloud to do anything that has any type of possibility of leading to injury. my school has no recess. only certain lunch monitors will take us outside for TEN FREAKIN MINUTES. so we all have to scarf our lunches down in 10 minutes if we wanna go outside. and out school used to have recess in the WINTER! we don't even get it when it's WARM! and they say "oh well you can go outside when you get home!" and it's like, no. you gave us so much homework, so we won't have time for that. my school gives hours of homework. i've had 4 hours of homework at a time. and it's not fair. and at my school, anything below a 90% is unacceptable (welcome to Catholic school ) and then they tell us "oh well you can do yer homework outside or read a book outside." and we're all "uhm, no." that isn't the point. ugh....just..people! people! people are annoying

 

[Drtooth]

In an ideal world those fatty food taxes would subsidize making healtier alternatives from fast food chains just as cheep as their junk food is now. That was the other part mentioned in my post. But if that sort of thing doesn't work then why not cancel all taxes on cigarettes, alcohol and other things too? There is nothing different between junk food and smokes or beer. It's all toxic and they're all favorite items of those with modest incomes.

Yeah, if that were to actually happen, I'd support it. But again, an ideal world. Though, quite frankly, you'd think the health food places would try a little harder. Thankfully we're getting more and more stuff like community gardens, but it's still a long way to go. But as I said, those sorts of taxes just sit there, or wind up filling up some budget gap someone left behind (which, again, I won't go into). I still say we tax the pusher, though... the only way you can get big business to behave is to force it to. I agree with what they say in Food Inc, we'd be healthier if we paid more, but that's the problem right there. No one really makes enough to feed a family on that under a certain income. THAT needs to be fixed first and foremost.

But by far we ALL need to remember it's all habits. I still highly suggest they give workers a paid half hour-hour long period of calisthenics as part of their health plans (other countries do). But hey, that would mean an hour of work lost, and they basically want to turn everyone into drones. But we all know they only get an hour of work done and spend their entire work day goofing off and falling asleep. Maybe that could help productivity. Same deal for schools. Again, had those sorts of taxes gone to make sure kids get food that's edible and can actually have gym classes and any excersize of any kind. Something kids desperately need.

Above all, there's NO need of McD's being a cafeteria for all their kid's needs as you said.

thank you adults are FAR too protective these days. in MY opinion. i mean, we aren't aloud to do anything that has any type of possibility of leading to injury. my school has no recess. only certain lunch monitors will take us outside for TEN FREAKIN MINUTES. so we all have to scarf our lunches down in 10 minutes if we wanna go outside. and out school used to have recess in the WINTER! we don't even get it when it's WARM! and they say "oh well you can go outside when you get home!" and it's like, no. you gave us so much homework, so we won't have time for that. my school gives hours of homework. i've had 4 hours of homework at a time. and it's not fair.

Parental groups never ACTUALLY care about health. They just hate things, and band together to make sure they don't have to raise their kids. And oft times they'll get a high priced quack of a Child Psychologist to try and rationalize the fact they don't like certain things, and make it sound like they're killing or corrupting kids some how. Parental groups had their eyes on cartoons and junk food for decades now. And all because they can't tell their kids no. Cartoons should have a reasonable amount of violence and even mention someone died off screen like every other country is able to do. And the thing about banning tag and dodgeball? Bull! Pure bull!

The rest of that post is all my problem with the education system. Again, we're basically training kids to fill in circles so they can get funding that they'll pilfer for the teacher's lounge or to line their really disrespectfully thin paychecks. They have hours of busywork homework because the teachers no longer teach (try babysit) and they have to learn stuff on their own. Being a kid sucks now, and they can't even give them something to look forward to. Thanks. If you want to help kids, destroy standardized tests.

 

[frogboy4]

Healthier options seem to close down fast because people are so used to fattier food franchises. It's about flavor and money in a very harsh economy. We need some sort of game plan, but banning toys is never an option in my book. Toys are good for you!