Happy Meals may no Longer Serve Toys

May 9, 2011 at 8:50 am Leave a comment

In an attempt to combat childhood obesity, city officials in New York are lobbying to take away toys from children’s fast food meals. San Francisco already passed a bill that bans toys from most Happy Meals at McDonald’s that will go into effect just before Christmas.

Legislators and pediatricians are looking for new ways to promote healthy lifestyles among adolescents, as childhood obesity rates in America continue to rise. The bill in the city of New York would require McDonald’s and other restaurants to add more nutritious options to their menu, if they want to keep offering toys.

The latest policy from the American Medical Association supports improved nutritional quality and information in chain restaurants across the nation. In addition, the AMA is calling for the banning of all food commercials aimed at children.

According to the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, nearly 17 percent of those polled between the ages of 2-19 years old are considered obese. The survey reported obesity increased by about 15 percent among those polled between the ages of 6-19 since 1980.

“Everybody knows that kids are getting heavier and it’s not a good thing, but there’s not a lot of consensus about what to do to prevent kids from getting heavier,” said Jennifer Orlet Fisher, an associate professor of public health and the director of the Family Eating Laboratory at Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education.

“We know that once kids are heavy it becomes increasing unlikely that they are just going to grow out of it and so it’s a really serious problem,” she added.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that obese children are more likely to have risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease and are more likely to become obese as adults. Even though obesity is “completely preventable,” it has become the “fastest-growing” cause of disease and death in America, the U.S. Surgeon General reported in 2003.

Obesity and diabetes are most prevalent in counties in the Appalachian and Southern regions of the United States, according to a report by the CDC in 2007. The report also stated Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia had the highest percentage of counties diagnosed with obesity and diabetes in the country.

The AMA states that parents should take responsibility for their children’s eating behaviors. It suggests that parents should limit the number of times the family eats out at a restaurant, especially where fast food is served.

A Child Well-Being study released by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2006 reported that as children grow older they are less likely to eat with a parent for the AMA-recommended five times a week or more. The study reported about 76 percent of adolescents between 12-17 years old have meals with a parent compared to the nearly 90 percent of children under six years old.

Fisher, who received a $3.7 million grant in March from the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will conduct research on children’s nutrition habits. The five-year research project will be the first of its kind to study the behavioral patterns of children and the ways in which mothers prepare food for their children.

“We drew on about over a decade of research that I’ve done on the effects of large, super-sized portions on kids’ eating behaviors,” Fisher said. “The Obesity Center doesn’t focus on what the children are eating as much as why they are eating, and how much they’re eating.”

Fisher said the study will specifically educate mothers caring for preschoolers so they can create healthy portion sizes for their children. The AMA states that controlling portion sizes can help prevent childhood obesity.

“One of the things we’ve learned over the past decade about portion sizes is that by the time you have too much food on your plate, it’s all over, you’re going to eat more,” Fisher said. “That’s true if you’re a kid or if you are an adult, if you’re lean or overweight, if you’re male or female, it really doesn’t matter.”

A healthy diet is just one aspect that the CDC states needs improvement among today’s adolescents. The CDC states that the lack of physical activity among youth contributes to the obesity problem.

Children between 8-18 years old spend over four hours on average watching television, according to the CDC. A survey by Gallup between Jan. 22 and March 9, 2004 showed that among 785 U.S. teens who responded to the poll, 22 percent either have low exercise levels or live sedentary lifestyles.

The NHANES survey also reported significant racial and ethnic disparities regarding the prevalence of obesity among U.S. children and adolescents respondents. Obesity was most prevalent among non-Hispanic Black girls (29 percent) compared to Hispanic girls (17 percent) and non-Hispanic White girls (15 percent). While Hispanic boys were more likely to be obese (27 percent) compared to non-Hispanic Black boys (20 percent) and non-Hispanic White boys (17 percent).

Sources:
Happy Meal Toy Ban

http://healthland.time.com/2011/04/06/new-york-city-council-considers-banning-happy-meal-toys/

“fastest growing epidemic” http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/news/testimony/obesity07162003.htm

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Estimated County-Level Prevalence of Diabetes and Obesity — United States, 2007

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5845a2.htm#fig

Demographics of obese children

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_child_07_08/obesity_child_07_08.htm

Causes of Obesity

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/problem.html

Specific to childhood obesity, AMA policy supports:

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/433/ama-policies-childhood-obesity.pdf