California county bans Happy Meal toys
AFP: California county bans fast-food toys to stem child obesity
SAN FRANCISCO — A California county is stopping restaurants from using toys to lure children to high-calorie, salt-laden food such as popular "Happy Meals" hawked by fast-food giant McDonald's.
Elected officials in the county of Santa Clara, in the heart of technology center Silicon Valley south of San Francisco, voted Tuesday to enact the ban to fight an "obesity epidemic" sweeping California and the United States.
"This ordinance prevents restaurants from preying on children's love of toys to peddle high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium kids meals," said Ken Yeager, the county supervisor behind the ban.
"This ordinance breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes."
County public health officials that spoke in support of the ban at a public meeting blamed fast-food for being a factor in soaring obesity rates threatening American children with diabetes and shortened life spans.
"Obesity is literally an epidemic," county public health director Dan Peddycord said in remarks to the board of supervisors.
"If food meals sold in restaurants contain too many calories, high fats, high sugars, high sodium and are attached to an incentive item like a toy, that is part of the environment we make our decision in."
