Sunday, October 3, 2010

You Are What We Tell You to Eat


From KSDK, San Francisco...

"San Francisco supervisors will wait to vote on banning toys from fast food meals.

The vote was scheduled for Monday, but was postponed after a few amendments were made."

Darn choking hazards. Can't the Chinese make our toys a little bigger than our airways...

"If the ban does pass, it would require meals for kids meet certain nutritional requirements in order to also have a toy."

That didn't just happen...

"'Meals must contains fruits and vegetables and must not exceed 600 calories and must not have beverages that have excessive fat or sugar,' said Eric Mar, San Francisco Supervisor."

There goes pizza night...

"Health advocates say fast food restaurants use these promotional toys to lure low-income children into diets high in sugar, fat and salt."

Aren't all children "low-income?" How many 12 year-olds fill out 1040s? Justin Bieber notwithstanding...

"'The youth in my community are getting diet-related diseases like diabetes and hypertension at younger and younger ages,'" said Jamilah Toops, a San Francisco Resident.

Well, Jamilah, the youth in your community need to make better choices for themselves.

"'We can use the toy in our advertisement to promote and educate on nutrition. We advertise our all white meat nuggets, our apple dippers, our low-fat white milk,' said Karen Wells, VP of nutrition for McDonalds."

"The McDonalds corporation flew in executives from Chicago to tout what they describe as healthier menu options and to oppose the measure. 'I'm a parent. I have two small children. I decide what my children will eat and what toy or what the environment will be..."

Wait. Your saying that parents are responsible for their kids' diets? Ha! Next you'll be telling us we have to instill virtues or a basic set of values. I'm too busy blogging.



6 comments:

  1. OK, look. The problem is not the toys people. The problem is lazy parents who can't bother cooking for their kids. Kids only know about McDonald's because they have been there before. Who takes them? Their parents. Can somebody please take some responsibility!

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  2. When I was young, food was something we respected. We ate when we were hungry and sometimes not even then. The whole concept of fastfood is beyond me. Yes the food is cheap, but it is also harmful and unhealthy. As Americans, we are so caught up in commercialism and convenience, that we let our children suffer. It is upsetting that we are passing the buck and focusing on toys and not parental behaviors.

    I am not sure if it is just me and my lack of experience with the internet but I had a hard time posting a comment today.

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  3. Irving - sometimes blogspot.com can get a little twitchy, though it doesn't usually last long.

    The biggest issue for me is the fact that the government, in this case, San Francisco, feels obligated to intervene in what should be solely a parental choice.

    It's this notion that has given parents sort of an "out."

    "See, it's not my fault. McDonalds puts toys in their happy meals. As a parent, I'm powerless against that."

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  4. Hey Joe Cool- I am totally with you here. A couple of things. 1-My mom and dad let us have McDonald's once every few months...if we were lucky. None of this every other day bologna. 2-McDonald's is doing what it does best-which by the way is not cooking hamburgers. They are marketing to the right crowd and making gazillions doing it. 3-We are like a flock of ignorant sheep letting some legislation regulate how involved we should be in our children's dietary behaviors. I understand that both parents have to work...but taking 30 minutes out of the day to make a healthy lunch/dinner isn't that hard. We sure find time to surf the net and shop for clothes and whatever else we "think" we need.

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  5. Thanks for visiting my blog. I don't get as much time for this as I would like but will come back here and comment when I can. I noticed some of the comments become long running debates and that is great, hope I get some opportunities to stay online and jump in.
    On this food issue I can tell you that if parents or grandparents do nothing but feed their kids hotdogs and pizza the governments part in this is pretty much neutralized.
    Anyway, again thanks.

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  6. Doug - thanks for taking the time.

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