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Friday, November 5th, 2010

Ban on Low-nutrition Kid-toy Meals Draws Nearer in San Francisco

Author:     MICHAEL MARTINEZ
Source:     CNN
Publication Date:     November 4, 2010 10:28 p.m. EDT
 Link: Ban on Low-nutrition Kid-toy Meals Draws Nearer in San Francisco
Stephan:   This is a very interesting approach to encouraging good nutrition. I live on an island and on the southern end, where we are, with the exception of a small Dairy Queen down near the ferry that was 'grandfathered' in we do not have any fast food chains. As a result one of the things visitors comment on is that we have almost no pubescent manatees. Twenty five per cent of our island population are on food assistance -- 1 in 8 Americans across the country are in a similar situation -- and those on assistance are given organic freshly grown produce harvested from our food bank gardens, which teens who have gotten cross-threaded with the law help grow, in lieu of jail time. It changes their lives, yet another benefit for this compassionate life-affirming approach.

San Francisco, California (CNN) — San Francisco city officials are readying to ban most of McDonald’s Happy Meals in current form because they offer toys to entice kids to buy meals not meeting nutritional criteria.

Under a proposal given preliminary approval this week, McDonald’s and other restaurants would have until December 2011 to improve their meals’ nutrition with fruits and vegetables — if the chains want to keep offering Captain America figurines or toys tied with latest films.

The proposed ordinance is part of a ‘food justice movement’ and is designed to address how about 50 of the city’s restaurants use giveaway toys to sell fast food whose nutritional content is being challenged by the city.

Officials said they hope their measure, the first of its kind for a large city, would encourage similar standards across the country. The San Francisco proposal was modeled after a similar law for unincorporated Santa Clara County, California,

San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar, who initiated the proposal, said the ordinance would be ‘a tremendous victory’ in fighting childhood obesity. His fifth-grade daughter is in the 6-to-11 age group in which rates of obesity have quadrupled the past 30 years — coinciding with the life span of the Happy […]

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