I'm pretty much in agreement with banning toys from happy meals.
A female 5y0m child weighing in the 45th percentile and in the 55th percentile for height requires roughly 1200 calories per day.
A cheeseburger happy meal with 1% milk supplies a whopping 640 of those calories, along with 26 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 50mg of cholesterol (only 10 of which come from the milk), and a mind-numbing 1040mg of sodium, which accounts for the maximum sodium that a child that age should consume during an entire day of eating!
Did you upgrade that to a "mighty kids" happy meal? Whoops, because your darling has now consumed 780 calories (840 if they beg for the chocolate milk instead of 1% white), 37g of fat and 14 grams of saturated fat, along with 85mg of cholesterol and a genuinely reckless 1440mg of sodium!
Since this is an occasional treat, right, what if you decide to top that meal off by giving the kid a mcflurry dessert treat? Well, that little cup of wonder will cost your kid an additional 710 calories, 25 grams of fat, 16 grams of saturated fat, 60mg of cholesterol, and 220mg of sodium!
So, let's say your child went for the smaller meal and then the dessert, because you were being responsible about not getting them the "mighty kids" size. What are we up to now?
Let's see!
1350 calories, (112.5% of your darling's daily calorie allowance)
51 grams of fat (which would be enough for your child to have room for more healthy fat that day, if they weren't already at 1350 calories...)
25 grams of saturated fat (humans don't need saturated fat at all)
110mg of cholesterol (humans don't need dietary cholesterol at all)
1260mg of sodium (126% of the maximum recommended intake. Maximum per day.)
All in just ONE of their two or three daily meals!
Given that this food is so appallingly unhealthy, how can you call it "nannying" to prevent parents who are too stupid to care about what their children eat from shoving this crap down their kid's throats AND, at the same time, teaching the children to associate this unhealthy food with the pleasure of a new toy?
The less kids jumping for joy at the thought of mcdonalds, the better, thanks.
