I am beyond sick of this evil “marketing to children” crap. McDonalds is not marketing to kids, McDonalds is marketing to adults (you know, the people with money) who HAVE kids. Will the government then look to ban crayons in sit-down restaurants that have nuggets on the kids menu?
I feel like if I say it one.more.time I’m going to scream, but honestly, if the government wants to crusade against nuggets, fries, and burgers, for pity’s stupid sake, let the government first stop feeding them to kids in the school lunch program! I promise you, parents and kids are much more motivated by the ease of the cafeteria and (for low-income families) the fact that it’s FREE than they are by the stupid little toy in the Happy Meal.

I agree with the above comments. This ban is ridiculous. I’d like to add that counting calories is misguided, as not all calories are equal. Drinking a soda is not as healthy as eating the same amount of calories in, say, yogurt.

I’m definitely against this ban — I can make these decisions with my own family. When I was a kid there were no happy meals but we still begged our parents to take us to xyz restaurant because the junk food tasted good to us — shockingly, my parents almost always refused our pleas. And I agree with the above poster… fix school lunches. They are atrocious and make happy meals look like health food. Not a big deal for my kids because they brown bag it, but for some children, the school lunch is what they get every day.

Oh brother. People, why do you think that just because YOU have an experience, it is common? Jeez. Think you are representative of the whole population? There are a whole bunch of people who eat mcdonalds on a regular basis…people who do not in fact know that mcdonalds is not good food. People who live in communities where mcdonalds is one of the only local food resources. Kids grow up being force fed mcdonalds images and ask, even BEG to be taken to mcdonalds. Fatty meat, salty fries appeal to children who do not know better. Dress that up with a colorful wrapper, inviting toy, and what child can resist. Even worse, many parents do not resist. If Mcdonalds did not think that giving out crappy toys to children was an enticement to get kids to ask for their food….they would not waste the money! Think people. Marketing is there to sell. Mcdonalds is selling….to children. Even if kids do not hold the purse strings…they pull the heart strings, and we all know that THAT works.

This ban may be heavy handed, but since the corporate world is not going to do what is right for our children…perhaps we must begin to.

Cheri, if McDonalds was truly the only food source (and it isn’t, anywhere in the US, at all) the toys wouldn’t make a lick of difference. If it was the only food, that’d be the only food and you’d eat it with a toy or with a boy or in a box or with a fox. School lunches don’t have toys, and they sure as snot make kids unhealthy and fat.

Yes, some parents don’t resist. The rest of the population, business owners and consumers, shouldn’t have to have their freedoms snitched and snatched away little by little just because some people suck at life.

If people genuinely don’t know that chicken nuggets, chocolate milk and french fries aren’t health food…I put the blame for that squarely on the government-run food program that feeds kids that crap for free and tells them it’s good, not McDonalds which charges a price and tells people it’s fun…not healthy, fun.

I agree, McDs is a parents choice not kids. Don’t introduce it to your kid and he/she won’t beg. I also agree that there are people who just don’t know about nutrition and eat whatever.

I meant “didn’t YOU argue against..”

“The rest of the population, business owners and consumers, shouldn’t have to have their freedoms snitched and snatched away little by little just because some people suck at life.”
Loved that, jenny!

This ban sucks. Sometimes I actually like to give my kids these stupid cheapo toys. It’s a small treat that gives them some pleasure, and they make good bath toys for us. Why is that anyone else’s business? Maybe what they should do is do a BMI test on all the kids who walk thru the door. Too big = no toy! That way, my average kids don’t have to suffer because other people feed their kids shit on a regular basis and make them fat.

In all seriousness, I think that this ban matters hardly at all. If people are bringing their kids to McD’s often enough that it is causing health and weight problems, then my guess is that those kids are already addicted to the salt and sugar, and the lack of a toy isn’t going to stop them from desiring a Happy Meal. We go to McD’s maybe once a month or so, on average? We get Happy Meals about half the time, and even when we don’t, my kids don’t even complain about it. The junk food is tasty enough (in a shit-for-food, manufactured kind of way) that no toy doesn’t really mean anything.

I think the ban sounds great, because really, food should be about food and not about toys. all those toys are on commercials that kids watch in between their favorite cartoons, and so of course they want to go to mcd’s and eat specifically the thing that gives them a toy. obviously parents are the ones with $$ but sometimes you just don’t want a meltdown in line at the restaurant. if you do have toys, it should be paired with the healthiest thing on the menu!

I own a martial arts school with over 250 members. They will tell you i am an extreme health nut and would be the first to jump on any program that would encourage healthy choices, but this is just ridiculous. Try nutrition education for parents and kids instead. Taking a toy out of a happy meal is just silly and an infringment of right on companies trying to sell food. Aren’t we all a bit tired of over-regulation by government?

I passionately feel that serving crap to kids is awful and not far from child abuse when done on a daily basis (i.e., most school lunch programs). 1/3 of American children overweight?? Awful and embarrassing for the US. HOWEVER, taking toys out of McD’s happy meals is guaranteed to do one thing….make McD’s more profitable!! They don’t have to spend the $$ on the toys anymore and no one has to blame McD’s for it — they can just blame the government. Ahh… more money for advertising! Kids and parents don’t go there for the toys. They go there because it’s cheap, easy, and yes, it tastes good, even though it’s really garbage on a bun. Let’s focus our government’s efforts on what it can and should control — healthy school lunches to get the core of the matter right. If you eat healthy most of the time, then what’s the harm in an occasional Happy Meal with a toy or a yummy ice cream cone? The problem is that many people (parents and kids) don’t even know what eating healthy really means because they don’t have those options and no one ever taught them how to prepare a meal by themselves.

There is nothing wrong with a hamburger, in fact compared to a grilled chicken breast beef is more nutritious for about the same amount of calories:
Lean ground beef: calories per oz = 48
Grilled chicken breast, skinless: calories per oz = 46

I will grant burgers taste best with about 15% fat, which would bring the calories up to 60.

However iron is so terribly important for kids that they add it to everything. Beef has 2-3 times the iron of chicken breast (the leaner the beef the more iron). Zinc deficiency is on the rise again particularly among toddlers in the US prompting it to be added to cereal by some companies. Beef has 4-6 times as much. Twice as much folate, etc.

As for fat, little kids need fat. From 1-3 years their fat needs are greater than adults 30-40g/d even though they eat about about 1/3 to 1/2 as much food. For 4-18 years it still remains slightly raised at 25-35 vs 20-30 for adults.

Also, I haven’t personally seen the apples in US happy meals but the ones in Canada have the skin on them.

I’d be happy if they cut the salt by 2/3rds, switched to real cheese, and put some tomato and romaine on the burger instead of just iceberg lettuce.

Keep in mind that the juice and chocolate milk have just as much sugar as the pop.

Also if you get a hamburger kids meal with apples and 1% milk you’re only at 460 calories which is less than the guidelines, though the salt is over (and probably particularly easy to reduce). If you have fries you’re at 580 calories. Chicken McNugget meal, bbq dip, apples and caramel, is 470 calories. I’m really not surprised that the happy meals are already under the guidelines as long as they cut the salt. Where’d you think the number came from?

And frankly I don’t care if my kids get the fries instead of the apples because if we’re going to McDonald’s at all its because the weather is so bad that we can’t go to the park so they are going to run around there for 2 hours. Given how hot it gets in those tubes, and how much running around they do for the two hours we are there they can use the calories. And I just make up for the lack of veggies at snack time (they get a veg and a fruit and no crackers/bread if we’ve been out.)