Health police target Happy Meals
<p>Shown is a Happy Meal at a McDonald's restaurant in San Francisco, Monday. In the left foreground is a character toy for the movie "Megamind," which is included with the meal. San Francisco is poised to become the first major American city to require fast-food restaurants to sell meals that meet nutritional guidelines of not include a toy with them.</p>
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - It's a happy moment for people who see the Happy Meal as anything but.
San Francisco has become the first major American city to prohibit fast-food restaurants from including toys with children's meals that do not meet nutritional guidelines.
The city's Board of Supervisors gave the measure final approval Tuesday on an 8-3 vote. That's enough votes to survive a planned veto by Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The ordinance, which would go into effect in December of next year, prohibits toy giveaways in fast-food children's meals that have more than 640 milligrams of sodium, 600 calories or 35 percent of their calories from fat. The law also would limit saturated fats and trans fats and require fruits or vegetables to be served with each meal with a toy.
"Our effort is really to work with the restaurants and the fast-food industry to create healthier choices," said Supervisor Eric Mar, the measure's chief sponsor. "What our kids are eating is making them sick, and a lot of it is fast food."
The legislation is a big victory for activists and public health advocates who have charged food marketers with being complicit in the country's growing childhood obesity rates. They hope other cities and counties nationwide will follow their lead.
"This will be a sign to the fast-food industry that it's time to phase out its predatory marketing to children at large," said Deborah Lapidus, a senior organizer with Boston-based Corporate Accountability International, a watchdog group that supported the legislation.
Supervisors and activists who support the measure say they hope obesity-curbing efforts like the one approved Tuesday will eventually spread to other cities, states and the country. A similar ordinance has already been approved in California's Santa Clara County, where it affected about a dozen restaurants.
Newsom, meanwhile, said he plans to veto the ordinance, which he called an "unwise and unprecedented governmental intrusion into parental responsibilities and private choices."
The mayor issued a statement after Tuesday's vote saying the city must continue to combat childhood obesity but the ordinance takes the wrong approach.
"Parents, not politicians, should decide what their children eat, especially when it comes to spending their own money," Newsom said.
The industry, which favors self-regulation, says there is no evidence that San Francisco's law will halt the expanse of children's waistlines and the diseases associated with obesity, such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.