I heard on the local news this morning that some New York City council members are introducing a bill today to ban fast food companies from including toys in kid’s meals, a measure similar to one that has already passed in San Francisco.

In a statement, City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie said, “While I recognize that ensuring children have access to, and eat more, nutritious meals is ultimately the responsibility of their caretakers, the City Council can empower parents by making it harder for the fast food industry to target children with predatory marketing techniques.”

If you are not already familiar with recent measures taken in NYC on nutritional issues, NYC already bans trans fats in restaurant foods and requires chain restaurants to display calorie counts.  The New York City Health Department is also involved in the National Salt Reduction Initiative, a national effort to prevent heart attacks and strokes by reducing the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant foods.

State and federal governments do have a right to be worried: the medical costs of obesity totaled about $147 billion dollars in 2008.  Here’s where parents should be worried too: 1 of 3 children in the United States is considered overweight or obese.

My husband and I do not take our children to eat at fast food restaurants.  We have tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle ourselves, so it makes sense that we would extend this to our children.  I believe that if my children see me making healthy decisions about what I eat, they will prefer to eat more healthy, too.  However, while I struggle just like other families with getting my kids to eat more vegetables,  they do like to eat whole wheat bread and lots of fruit.  [Read more...]