No toys for you, New York tykes

An ill wind must have blown an idea from the crackpot Board of Supervisors in San Francisco to the East coast because a fast food toy ban in New York City has been proposed by several City Council members. This wrong-headed proposal would ban restaurants from offering toys in fast food kid meals, unless the meals met numerous nutritional parameters decided upon by that eminent scientific body: the NY City Council. The harmless trinkets, they claim, are “predatory marketing techniques” that have contributed to the U.S. childhood obesity epidemic. But according to McDonald’s New York region Vice President and General Manager Michael Smoot, children eat Happy Meals just three times a month on average, leaving parents in charge of their kids’ other 87 meals.

ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross thinks the new proposal, which will be introduced by City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie in New York today, is both intrusive and ineffective. “This so-called public health measure is clearly based on no science whatsoever. Trying to blame fast food for the obesity problem in our country — and it is a major health problem — is ridiculous. And banning toys will also have little effect on the amount of such food consumed. This is political grandstanding in the guise of public health.”

ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom argues that the proposed toy ban has very little to do with either toys or food. “This is a power play and a political stunt. The net effect of the proposed legislation will be an annoying, useless law with zero impact on obesity. Perhaps they should now spend their time working on other equally important legislation, like banning the green Pez while allowing the other flavors.”

The idea that fast food restaurants are luring kids into eating unhealthy foods by offering toys is “absolutely absurd,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “If a kid eats a cheeseburger and baked potato with sour cream at home, isn’t that the same thing? These New York councilmen are using the misguided method of trying to solve a complex problem — the obesity epidemic — with a simple solution. Instead of the baseless issue of a dichotomy between good and bad food, we should be eating high-calorie foods in moderation as part of a balanced diet, while encouraging healthful exercise.”