Happy Meals for young children at McDonalds in San Francisco and its surrounding county. What are your thoughts about this?
I have linked an article, which explains this issue in greater detail, to this email. Please class, share your thoughts regarding this matter?
San Francisco bans Happy Meals - latimes.com
First up, I think that happy meals contain many funny features, mostly its some kind of cheap toy. There were several scandals about these toys containin toxins, and certain interlectuals are kinda nerved about captain Buzz Lightyear. Obiously, this mood got to majority opinion when the happy meals were forbidden in in SF. Its pretty dense to forbid such meal bagsm I think. Formerly, thedoctors complained mostly about you get malnutritioned when eating at McDo. Only happy meals consist of three features and they are thus the only "guaranteed" balanced nutrition in the entire McDo. Ok, meanwhile there are menus also. But, in the end the point seems to be that it is pretty marketed fast food. Ever since the happy meal, you get for example cups or glasses with (menus) (happened 2b there afterwards also). Burger King copied it ,pizza hut and all the others. Carls Jr and Jack in the box.
AntwortenLöschenOk, I guess the board of supervisor should be at least "superficially serious" about banning happy meals. So, ok, most US kids are becoming more and more obese and in the end its obviously not only thought 2 b as to get some culture back into US dinner habbits.
Haha well this article just cracked me up! I think it's pretty funny what kind of laws the different States in the U.S. introduce and dismiss. It seems like those people who are in charge of this want to advise everybody of their power and/or importance. Maybe they have no idea what kind of new laws they are supposed to introduce so they just pass stupid stuff like banning the Happy Meal. I don't even know what to say, it's ridiculous!
AntwortenLöschenWell first of all, as far as I can see, you cannot really hinder people from buying fast food for their children. If Happy Meals are forbidden, people will probably go to the next fast food chain and buy their favorite food there (which is not quite difficult today with this plenty of choices regarding fast food chains). Therefore forbidding Happy Meals is not a highly effective way of hindering children to eat meals, which contain high levels of calories, suggar and fat (in other words unhealthy food).
AntwortenLöschenApart from that, I can also understand why this decision is made. Children mostly want to go to McDonalds and eat there, because of the toys they get there with their meal. As a consequence, I would say that children would also like healthy meals (like fruits and vegetables) if they get toys with it. They just have to become accustomed with it. It is important to teach children early how to eat healthy, especially in the US, because there are so many fast food chains and young kids do not really learn what is good for their health. In my opinion, it is also right that often especially low income families or uneducated parents do not really look at the nutrition of their children. However, in today's society it is important to look for those kids too and care for them. Young children do not know by themselves that eating fast food every day may jeopardise their health.
Finally, to my mind, people can forbid Happy Meals of course, but I do not think that this will have the result they are aiming to (meaning to prevent them from eating fast food).
I totally agree with Julia! I think little children would intimidate their parents if they are not allowed to get a Happy Meal ;) Julia is right when she says that people or especially parents will probably go to the next fast food chain,or they will cook fast food at home. Besides, nobody can look after thousands of families to see if there is fast food available in their kitchen.
AntwortenLöschenAlthough, it is understandable why people try to ban Happy Meals, because there are so many little fat children, like this one
http://www.netzausfall.de/wp-content/dicke_kinder.jpg
and they do not have a long life expectancy and so on but there will never be a guarantee that they stop eating fast food..so somehow, this idea to ban Happy Meals seems unnecessary!
I agree to the statements given before.
AntwortenLöschenI understand why SF wants to ban Happy Meals. Children are attracted to fast food that way in at a very young age.
Like Julia said, the big point is that they like it because they get a toy with their meal. And as you can see, children get used to it. When they are small, they might only go to McDonalds because it is "cool" (when I was smaller, it was like that in my class) and because you get funny toys. However, when they become older, they do not stop to go to McDonalds, of course. Now they do not go there because of a toy, but because they adapted to McDonalds and the fast food offered there. For SF, the right reaction to prevent this "getting used to fast food"-behaviour might be to ban Happy Meals.
Still, I think this sounds logical only at first sight. When you ban the Happy Meal, you would also have to ban all other child-attracting fast food meals. McDonalds was maybe the first "restaurant" that introduced something like that, but as Carsten has already said, many others copied it.
In conclusion, for me this ban is senseless, because it is not sufficient. To prevent children from eating fast food, it would need a lot more than only one ban.
At first when I only read they want to ban Happy Meals in SF I didn't realize what the exact aim of that prohibiton would be.
AntwortenLöschenStop kids eating fastfood? Ridiculous - parents that are too lazy to cook on their own will just buy another kind of fast food (from the enormous repertory on the market) for their children. That's probably true, but like Julia already mentioned, if at least all Mcdonald's stores offered a healthier kind of Happy Meal including a toy, children would probably still decide for the toy-menu... even if it's healthy! ;-)
The idea of fat people going to macdonalds weekly with their children and eating tons of high-fat-products but giving their kids apple slices instead of fries seems rather odd anyway.
That is why the banning of Happy Meals won't make a big change at all. Firstly, adults, parents must become aware of what they're doing to their body to be an example to their children.
Anyway I don't think the idea of a healthier Happy Meal is that bad at all; it is just a very small step in the right direction.
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AntwortenLöschenWOW! Frisco´s challenging Malbouffe itself!
AntwortenLöschenLooks like there are at least two kind of people who will get fat on this law: Lobbyists, and Lawyers !
´Cause I don´t really think that the food industry will like the course Frisco´s board of supervisors is taking.
Presumably this new law will have the same effect on generall health or eating habbits in the US like the highly praised german school-fruit-program. Wich is, none at all!
(Remember? A healthy fruit with every meal for every schoolchild... The program was started in 2008 by the EU and the local gouvernments, and there was much talk about it in the media. Alas!, no one bothered to think about who should fund it.)
Coining a law to keep children out of McFat´s clutches seems rather helpless, but at least they try! It just seems to bee the wrong approach. This certainly is a kind of social problem, and a better aproach would be the other way round: Healthy Parents - healthy children!
By the way. Talking ´bout food, here´s a nice one:
AntwortenLöschenJochen Malmsheimer philosophising about the "Niedergang des Wurstbrots" !!
Never ever wonder where todays bad eating habbits do come from...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCCC8iZhh2Y
Lean back and enjoy!
I also agree with all the given statements. For me, it is ridicolous, because this ban will never lead to some success. I think generally it is very difficult to ban things which are kind of "human". To place a ban on smoking is also not everywhere successful. It CAN'T be successful. If young children really WANT to smoke or WANT to eat a Happy Meal, they will find a way to do it... Thus the "law" in San Francisco is senseless.
AntwortenLöschenHowever, I also understand why they want to try it...Children begin to eat too much fast food very early and everybody knows that especially in the USA children become too fat too early. It makes sense that they want to try to change it, but it is difficult to reach this aim - especially because of the toy in the Happy Meal. This is why it is very attractive for young children...
This fast food issue will never end, and by banning happy meals people won´t stop eating fast food.
AntwortenLöschenIf the state wants to be effective then it should begin solving the problem from its roots.
Teach children in schools how to eat more healthy, and maybe start some cooking lessons, where they can learn how to cook healthy and tasty meals.
Alternatives in Mc Donalds would also be a step in the right direction, i.e. Happy Meals with salad and orange juice instead of coke.
The state has to make people understand and reconstruct, so they start doing the right thing on their own free will. When this point is reached, they have really helped people or children to eat healthy.
In my opinion the law forbidding the Happy Meal isn't quite reasonable.
AntwortenLöschenIf people really want to eat fastfood, they can do it everywhere, even at home. So it doesn't make sense to solve the problem this way.
One possible solution might be to inform people about healthy food, so that they can change their food habits themselves and make their own decision whether they want to continue eating unhealthy food or not.
If pupils would be taught already in school about which food is healthy and which risks are going with unhealthy food, children could grow up with a different view on that topic.
Moreover, it would make sense not only to change their food habits but also to advise people to do more sports. Adiposis istn't only evoked by eating unhealthy stuff but also by doing sports insufficiently.
So all in all, the state should consider other ways to improve the situation than forbidding the Happy Meal.
LATimes
AntwortenLöschenMcRib lovers wax poetic as McDonald's brings the sandwich back
Concerning the above I wanted to stress again that there are probably other burgers you could easily forbid. The McRib for example has 500 calories.
A healthy daily nutrition should only consist of 2000 to 3000 calories. Children may need less. So if you eat 3-4 McRibs at McDo a day, you are simply malnutritioned.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/malnutrition
Hello everyone.
AntwortenLöschenI heard about this issue some days ago in the news and I thought about it.
In my opinion, it is okay to ban the Happy Meal because of the toys which attract little children to fast food.
They get used to this kind of food and when they are older they might be addicted to it because they do not know healthy nutrition.
And that might be a real problem in their later life.
Nevertheless, I think that this banning does not really solve the problem.
As Nahid said before, you should teach children in the early age, how important healthy nutrition is.
Then it is okay if they sometimes eat fast food but eating it all the time is not good.
They should have the opportunity to decide on their own, whether they want to live healthy or not.
Therefore, they need to be taught about all the possibilities.
Maybe you should teach them in class.
My school, for example, had a subject, which was called "Ernährungslehre".
We had in in class 8 and learned, how important good nutrition is and so on.
I think, that this is very helpful because not everyone learns that at home.
All in all, I think that banning might be a kind of good idea because little children would not get used to it because of the fact that they are addicted to the toys, which the Happy Meal contains but if they want to eat fast food, then they can even buy it without such a toy, so banning would not be helpful.
I think, you need to have other solutions to solve the problem.
Well, I don't think that children would end to love (or eat) Mc Donalds food just because there isn't a special menu with a toy for them anymore!! :D
AntwortenLöschenTherefore, I think that this new rule is a little bit ridiculous and counterproductive, because when there is no special tiny meals for children anymore, they would start to eat the normal "Mc menues"... and this is much more fast food than a Happy Meal.
And we should consider that children could choose to put things like apples, orange juice, and milk into their Happy Meal...
I'm against banning Happy Meals, because I think that this doesn't solve the problems. Something in the mind of the parents has to change...
"Something in the mind of the parents has to change... "
AntwortenLöschenIn this case, I totally agree with you, Isabell.
But don't you think that little children mostly like Happy Meals because of the toys which are in there?
If you ask me, this is just a trick of Mc Donalds to get the kids used to their fast food.
Sure, they can take apples or milk but most kids just ignore that.
It is sad but nevertheless, it goes this way...
In my opinion the law banning Happy Meals is understandable. Like Christina already said, children mostly want the food because of the toy. I know it because I have a little brother.;)
AntwortenLöschenIn the article, the Mc Donald's spokeswoman said, parents claim that they could decide themselves what they buy their children and what not. Well, this argument is not really convincing to me because in the case a child wants a Happy Meal, it will get it. So, I really do not understand this argument because parents could have more peace and their children would not all the time ask if they went to Mc Donald's.
Otherwise, children can get fast food without buying a Happy Meal. So, to prevent adiposis it is not really a helpful method. Like Jenna said, people have to be better informed concerning their food. They actually do not know of which unhealthy substances a Cheeseburger consists. I do not know either.;)
Finally I have to say that it would not be a big loss if Happy Meals were banned and it definitely is a step to the right direction!
I agree to most of the comments before. I think it doens't matter if SF bans Happy Meals or not. It all depends on the parents and in which way they educate their children.
AntwortenLöschenWhen I was a child it was always "special" to go to McDonalds. We went there almost three times a year or so. Therefore it's ok to sell Happy Meals with toys in it. And we shouldn’t forget that McDonalds is a Fast-Food-Restaurant and it would be ridiculous to sell healthy food there. If you want to eat sth. healthy avoid going to McDonalds :)
Well, I agree with most of the statements given before.
AntwortenLöschenFirstly, it is necessary to save children from obesity. It is obvious, that there is an increasing number of children, who have overweight. Fast-food restaurants such as McDonalds, Burger King, KFC etc are mostly to blame for this. Of course, all of them try to attract young children and families with different campaigns and especially toys. Certainly, parents take their children there and children get what they want, even food with high calorie content. Sometimes I wonder why parents are so thoughtless. I'd never let my children eat such unhealthy food, because it is full of conservatives and artificial flavour.
Oh, I'm rambling - let me get back to the point :) Happy Meals attract children and tempt them to buy Happy Meals, because of the toys and food. So in my opinion, it surely makes sense to ban Happy Meals and forbid them.
However, it will still be possible for children to buy all the other hamburgers, cheeseburgers, BigMacs etc. They just won't get a toy! So the number of children who want to eat fast food might decrease, but it is more likely that this will happen only in a small number. They get used to it, so they like it and don't stop to like it only because Happy Meals are forbidden!
So this law may be a good start, but in my opinion they should work it out better. An example would be, if they made a law on the regulation of the food's ingredients or something similar.
All in all, parents should avoid going to McDonalds, Burger King etc as Luisa already said before, that is one way to keep children from this food and from obesity.
I totally agree with most of the comments.
AntwortenLöschenI think on the one hand McDonalds exists since many many years and not the whole time so many children became fat as today.I think there are many different factors,too. If a visit to McDonalds stays something special and children visit it maybe a few times a year,then I wouldn't say Happy Meal is something you have to be afraid of.
In my opinion Happy Meal isn't a bad thing, if the children know that it's only an exception and there is no regularity.
On the other hand the toys in Happy Meals seduce children to buy it, even they only want to have the toy. I think that is a brilliant business idea, but the developers didn't really think about the consequences for the young people. I agree with some other comments, that the main problem are the parents, because they have to control what and where their children eat. I suppose, there are parents who have no time to cook (because of work, etc.)and in that case McDonalds is a much easier way to feet your child.
In addition, I don't believe that banning Happy Meal solve the problem, because there exist many different opportunities to eat fast food. Parents have to teach that it's only an exception and they have to be a good example.
To conclude, I would say the law tries to improve the way of children's nurishment today, but I doubt if that is the right start.
Reading the title of this week's topic I had to laugh, because I think this law is very typically for the United States.
AntwortenLöschenReading all the comments before I have to say I agree with almost everyone.
On the one hand, I find it very problamatic, that obesity is becoming a increasing problem already in the young age. I also think, that kids most likly want a Happy Meal because of the toy, which comes with it. Fast food chains like Mc Donald know very well how to lure the kids into their resturants.
On the other hand, I don't believe, that banning Happy Meal or forbidding the sale of toys in combination with fast food solves the problem. It was said in the article, that especially low-income family aren't too concerned about a healty nutrition of their kids. Do they really believe they change their minds about that just by banning Happy Meals?
I think it is even more important to "teach" the parents how to feed their kids healthy.
All in all, I doubt that the law is going to change the problem, but at least they realized, that something has to be changed.
That ban against Happy Meals (that include a free toy) will not have any effect on children that eat fastfood today. In my opinion this may stop children that are not familiar with the taste of mc Donalds fastfood, because the first step into Fastfoodland is that included toy that every kid is after. This is a way for those fastfood chains to introduce their "designed food" to the McRib lovers of tomorrow. To be honest, our first happy meal would not have tasted to good without that little piece of rubbish that made these funny sounds and noises. true?
AntwortenLöschenThis whole campaign is a sighn to the industry, and I personally hope that it will impact.
Hey, I've asked for it at the end of last lesson: Which room do we take on thursday? Miss Olatunji, you've said you'll announce it today via this site. I don't read a thing.
AntwortenLöschenIn my opinion it is ones duty,I mean the duty of parents, teachers and above all of government to protect our children from obesity.And one way to do this,is by reducing fat in meals.
AntwortenLöschenThe law which will forbid parents to buy Happy meals for their children shows that the U.S is aware of the big problematic issue of obesity and therefore wants to improve this situation.However,I do not think that this law is a good solution for this problem.Parents,especially those,who work,will buy fast food from another restaurant and give it to their child.
I think Happy meals should not be completly forbidden.Instead their contents should be changed. For instance,happy meals could contain some pieces of fruit and only one pommes .... or so.In this way,the fat would be reduced,and we would provide our children with vitamines.
I totally agree to Hannah saying that this law totally fits in the American manner... I think it does not solve any problem to prohibit the "Happy Meal" by law, because fastfood itself is not the issue, it's the society we all live in. Parents don't have time or notion to cook meals for their children, because they do work the whole day or they haven't been taught elsewise. Furthermore this happens to be a shift of problems. In some federal states of the USA its even prohibited to hang your laundry in the garden.....
AntwortenLöschenIn conclusion I think it's a well meant beginning of solving the problem of ascendancy in childhood as well as in the whole society.
I can also agree with most of the posts before. I do also think that banning Happy Meals from the menu of a McDonalds restaurant would not keep the American children from eating fast food at these restaurants, they would annoy their parents as long as they allow them to eat whatever other meal from the menu. And thererfore I really call it into question if eating whatever „big menu“ at McDonalds would be healthier for the children.
AntwortenLöschenFurthermore I think that it is the parent‘s task to decide whether their children should eat fast food or not - if they go there just a few times a year and don‘t exaggerate the consumption, to me that is fine. So for me there is no real reason to actually ban the Happy Meals from any McDonalds Menu.
I also agree with most given comments on it. It is senseless to forbid Happy Meals just to avoid children eating junk food, there are always other ways to make them eat healthy things, it is a question of education. Even if there are no more Happy Meals children will get their fries and their burgers, their coke and all the other unhealthy stuff. I do not see a problem THAT they eat it, it is only a question of HOW OFTEN they eat at McD and which other food their parents give them on the other days.
AntwortenLöschenSure children are influenced by toys and little gifts and they surely focus more on the toy itself than on the food.
The sentence they say will be "Mommy I want a Happy Meal and can I please get the XXX?" not "Mommy I want to go to McD and get fries, hamburger and a coke."
I experianced myself today that there was a family at McD, the children picking their toy and the mother just ordered chicken nuggets, fries and coke for all of them, she did not even think about maybe changing fries to those apple pieces you can also choose. The mother of those 4 children was able to order whatever she liked because her children were busy with those toys and I am convinced they would have accepted that apple stuff instead of fries as well. This time it was the mother's choice to offer her children some more healthy food, and even if it was just by letting them pick their menue themselves instead of ordering it herself.
Well I do not criticize that people eat at McD but they should think about how much they go there.
If you have a healthy lifestyle it does not harm your health if you go there once or twice a month and then it does not matter if you and your children take a Happy Meal or if they take a normal menue without a toy.
So finally I think they should better find a way to make people being able to buy healthy food and teach children about this, for example some lessons where they get taught about food, where they learn how to cook and everything that this topic contains. This should be a fixed part of every pupil's schedule and then I think the basic knowledge for a healthy lifestyle is given.
So at least for me it is senseless to exclude the Happy Meal from McD Menues.
My first thoughts while I read this article was that the Happy Meal isn't the one and only food in the world that is unhealthy.
AntwortenLöschenSo you can't hold McDonalds and particular the Happy Meal as the ''guiltier'' thats totally wrong.
First of all the parents are those who are responsible for their kids and no one else thats the fact.
Fast food is a part of our life. Thats the way it is.
I think that everything has to be in moderation.
I belong to the people who occasionaly go to McDonalds but regularly to subway for example and I love it.
But of course I try to hold the balance and do sports regulary and take care of my healthy eating and I think everybody is responsible for their own eating habit.