It is a well-known fact that fast food isn't healthy, but every parent also knows that fast food meals cannot be avoided and will not be turned down by most, if not all kids, especially those which include toys. Because of this, a New York City council member proposed the "Healthy Happy Meals" bill based on a California ordinance with similar aims.
According to Forbes, the "Healthy Happy Meals" bill is only one of many moves in legislation aiming to counter childhood obesity through actions aimed at McDonald's Corp. and other fast-food chains.
In a report by researchers, if the "Healthy Happy Meals" bill gets approved, then fast food meals with toys would become healthier since they would be containing fewer calories, fat and sodium.
"We can create policies that will nudge us toward healthier behaviors," said Marie Bragg of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, the study's senior author.
According to the proposed policy, fast food meals that with toys must be served with a fruit, vegetable or whole grain. Overall calories that the meal contains would also be limited to no more than 500 calories. In addition, restrictions on fat and salt would also take place.
First introduced in 2011, the "Healthy Happy Meals" bill was re-submitted in 2014 by city council member Ben Kallos, according to CBS News.
The specific limitations for the meals with toys would be as follows:
- 500 calories or less
- Fewer than 35% of calories from fat
- Fewer than 10% of calories from saturated fats
- Fewer than 10% of calories from added sugars
- Fewer than 600 mg. of sodium
- One serving of fruit, vegetable or whole grains.
The study of the happy meals were conducted by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center. The researchers found out that if the legislation were applied to meals with toys in McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's, it would make a noticeable difference in childhood obesity. They researchers also said that simply posting the calories on menus did not help fight the battle of childhood obesity.
Researchers analyzed the food purchases that 358 adults made for 422 children at Burger King, McDonald's and Wendy's in New York City and New Jersey during 2013 and 2014, according to Reuters.
The average age of children in the study - seven.
The American Journal of Preventive Medicine reported that the adults purchased the average of 600 calories for each child, a third of which consists of calories that come from fat. In average, the meals reportedly contained 869 mg of salt, more than half of the daily limit set by the American Heart Association.
35 percent of the kids ate the meals with toys, and the study found out that 98 percent of the meals do not meet proposed guidelines. Apparently, if all meals followed the guidelines proposed in the "Healthy Happy Meals" bill, children would be consuming 9 percent less calories with 10 percent less salt and calories from fat.
"It's a rather small amount in comparison to how bad the country's obesity problem really is," said Bragg, adding however that small changes could hold great impact in the long run.
"There's a lot of value in the incremental changes that can sum up to a great impact with all the other changes occurring in the environment," Bragg said.
She is hoping however that fast food restaurants would not try sidestepping the new policies.
"We're at a point where we have to move the needle and we have to do it with policies like this," she said.
In the U.S., childhood obesity has caused serious concern. According to New York City's Department of Health, "nearly half of all elementary school children and Head Start children are not a healthy weight. In New York City, 1 in 5 kindergarten students, and 1 in 4 Head Start children, is obese."
Across the U.S., one in six children and adolescents are obese, the according to the CDC, with one fourth of children's calories coming from food eaten outside the house, including fast food, according to the USDA.
