Should toys be banned in Happy Meals to curb childhood obesity?

The fun part of fast food has been taken away in California.

Officials in Santa Clara County in California voted yesterday to ban toys from meals that are marketed to kids and are packed with calories, fat, and sodium. This could hit McDonald's Happy Meals and other fast-food chains hard.

But the officials who supported the ban say that this kind of food is hitting kids even harder, contributing greatly to the childhood obesity epidemic in this country.

"This ordinance prevents restaurants from preying on children's love of toys to peddle high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium kids meals," noted County Supervisor Ken Yeager."This ordinance breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes."

One McDonald's representative spoke out against the ban, saying parents should act more responsibly and that barring toys in kiddie meals will not address the problem of children's inactive, TV-centered lifestyles.

Officials spoke back to that, stating that this ordinance is on par with enacting speed limits and cigarette smoking on commercial airplanes.

Although it is not a solution to the whole of childhood obesity, is this one step toward raising communities full of healthier kids? Or is this making a big issue out of little plastic toys?

Would you support a ban of toys in Happy Meals and other kiddie fast foods in your county?


[photo credit: Getty Images]