The city of San Francisco has banned McDonald's from putting toys in Happy Meals. The new law says that restaurants can't give away toys unless the meal is low-calorie, low-sodium, low-sugar and also contains fruit and vegetables.

From the San Francisco Chronicle: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/03/MN111G5PCN.DTL

I never go to McDonald's, and if I had kids, they likely wouldn't be eating many Happy Meals. But just who gave the city council there the authority to micromanage McDonald's menu items and assume the role of surrogate parent? Just my opinion, but if parents decide their kids can eat Happy Meals, and if McDonald's wants to toss in toys, that's between McDonald's and its customers.

I'm sure Pelosi must be proud of her constituents.

I wonder if McDonalds will sue the city. Last I checked, Burger King and several other fast food chains have kids meals with toys so this law is unfairly targeting a single chain. This whole thing is unfair and stupid. Besides, parents who are shoveling McDonalds into their kids enough to make them fat likely also have a pantry full of chips and soda and a bucket of ice cream in the freezer. Children won't benefit from this law, the home of the whopper will.

I should have been clearer; the new law/ordinance applies to any restaurant that gives away toys with its meals — not just McDonald's. If a kid wants to get a toy, it has to be less fattening, low in salt and come with both fruit and vegetables.

That makes it a bit more fair but not right. Obesity in america is certainly a problem but this is a misguided effort. A start would be to throw out the food pyramid as we know it. 6 servings of grains a day and making fat out to be the enemy? Absolutely backwards. When I start to put on the extra pounds, I lay off the carbs and the bodyfat drops off quickly. We have a couple generations of americans out there thinking that if a lable says a food is low in fat, they can eat as much as they want.

I have a niece who is obese at age 9. It sure as hell isn't the kids meal toy making her fat, it is the adults in her life not making sound nutritional descisions for her that is making her fat.

Oh c'mon dubob, give me some credit. I have made it clear from the get go that I am opposed the nanny state mentality that restricts personal freedoms. My liberal leanings are mostly manifested in my support of certain social programs and my views on civil rights and womens issues like abortion. Where I split from most liberals is my strong support of the second ammendment. Do you think people on the right have some kind of monopoly on personal freedoms? Libertarians maybe, but certainly not republicans or the christian right.

Libertarian philosophy FTW.

Gov't has no business telling anyone what substances they can ingest. Americans are starting to feel the squeeze and are pushing back.