Taking Away Toys To Help Fight Obesity
Here is an article from The New York Times written by Daniel Weintraub about the ordinance Santa Clara County seeks to ban toys in children fast-food meals. Jot Condie, president of California Restaurant Association, suggests that the county’s toy ban ordinance is unethical by trying to control parents when its priority should be on the county’s finances. Condie also said that there is no proven research that fast-food causes obesity in children.
Taking Away Toys To Help Fight Obesity
In their quest to fight childhood obesity, California politicians have required chain restaurants to post nutrition information on their menus, banned trans fats from restaurant meals and taken soda vending machines out of the schools. Now they are turning their attention to fast-food marketing.
Santa Clara County broke ground last week with an ordinance that seeks to stop restaurants from giving away toys as a way to lure children into eating meals that might be bad for them.
The ordinance is largely symbolic. It applies only in the unincorporated area of the county, and will probably affect fewer than 15 restaurants. But Supervisor Ken Yeager said he hoped it would set a standard that other jurisdictions would adopt.
“The fact that so many kids are going to grow up having a lifetime of chronic illness related to obesity is just something I couldn’t stand by and do nothing about,” Mr. Yeager said in an interview. “As an adult, you realize the path kids are going to get on. If you can get them off that course, you want to do that.”
The ordinance bans toy promotions linked to meals that have more than 120 calories for a beverage, 200 for a single food item or 485 for a meal. Toys are also banned in connection with meals that have more than 480 milligrams of sodium in a single item or 600 in a meal. The rules also apply to meals with more than 35 percent of their calories from fat or 10 percent from added sweeteners.
The Board of Supervisors passed ordinance by a 3 to 2 vote after vigorous opposition from the California Restaurant Association.
Jot Condie, president of the association, accused Mr. Yeager and his colleagues of trying to distract voters from the sorry state of the county’s finances.
“When things get tough, they seem to change the subject,” Mr. Condie said. “They are under so much strain and pressure to provide services for the needy in their county, and they are focusing on things like this. It’s mind-bendingly curious.”
Mr. Condie said parents, not the county government, should be making food choices for their children
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