City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is following in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s health-crusading footsteps, announcing a new crackdown today–on kiddie meals.
Ms. Quinn said that, if she wins the mayor’s race, she wants to force chain restaurants that already post their calorie counts to set new restrictions on kids’ menus and happy meals, more in line with the standards the USDA sets for school lunches.
According to her campaign, the grilled cheese kid’s meal with fries at Applebee’s packs a whopping 21 grams of saturated fat, 2,34o milligrams of sodium and 1,210 calories–dramatically higher than the 7.2 grams of fat, 740 mg of sodium and 650 calories school lunches are allowed.
“We’re not going to limit parents’ choices. You’ll still be able to order whatever you think is right for your children. But what we’re saying is that companies can’t spend millions of dollars on marketing or include items on children’s menus if those foods clearly are going to lead to obesity, which could lead to diabetes or other diet-related illnesses,” Ms. Quinn told reporters at a press conference at the Union Square green market.
The ideas was part of a package unveiled by Ms. Quinn that also included plans to double the number of school-based health centers and require all new schools to be built with gyms.
Ms. Quinn’s close ally, Mr. Bloomberg, has long been accused of taking his nanny-state paternalism too far, after barring trans-fats, forcing chain restaurants to post calorie counts and attempting–unsuccessfully–to regulate soda sizes.
Doubling the number of school health centers and requiring all newly built schools to have a gym is all well and good.
But would you leave the Happy Meals alone, please?
We cannot regulate our way out of bad behavior.
Prohibition of booze didn't work, the War on Drugs has been a dismal failure, and trying to over-regulate the food and restaurant industry isn't going to solve the health crisis.
Rather, educate people about their choices and let them know what eating a Happy Meal a day will do their kids and let it be.
Seriously.
I've had enough of the Nanny State.
In the end, it doesn't work.
Does the city actually build schools any more? Last I checked all they do is rent old buildings or shove charter schools in existing schools which give less access to students to PE time, and when the mayor's office as asked why they are trying to cut off soda, and not hiring PE teachers, they said, banning soda is cheaper.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good point. They did move Art & Design to a new building, but they built that new building for Whole Foods.
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