Should McDonald's Happy Meals be Banned?

"As the father of a 9 1/2-month-old, I prefer to have a level playing field when taking the time to teach my children how to eat healthy. If Ronald is giving toys with his meals, I have to work that much harder to get my children to eat what is best for their self-interest (which is also best for our economy and society). Personally, I am sick of having to compete with the lowest common denominator when it comes to creating a healthy environment for my family."

Then don't got to McDonalds. I don't suggest banning The Huffington Post because it want to do for thought what whipping cream does for arteries.

My gf is getting her PhD at Yale, and she studies the obesity epidemic with some of the field's leaders. As a result, I'm pretty fluent in the science of this issue.

All I have to say is, in 10 years I think we'll look back on fast-food advertising to kids like we do on cigarette advertising to kids. These companies directly target children with a product that measurably harms them.

And it's not as simple as not going to McDonald's. This type of insidious advertising directed at kids is all over the place, and it's difficult for parents to compete with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on carefully scripted cartoons and promoting appealing toys.

Check out http://yaleruddcenter.org for some facts.

I'll tell you what's broken: my high-school son's school lunch is 500 calories. He's a growing, athletic kid! He would starve on that. So he scrounges for junk, brings pop-tarts to school etc to survive. Political correctness so often backfires.

First they came for the Happy Meals...

Spineless parents whining about "competing" because they can't stand up to a 3-year-old?