Is The Happy Meal Dead? Breaking The Link Between Toys And Food

Public officials in Santa Clara County California have decided that the restaurant industry’s linking toys and food plays a role in the high childhood obesity rate.  With child obesity rates running at 25% in their district, lawmakers must have felt justified in their decision to pass a law that’s clearly aimed at McDonald’s iconic Happy Meal.

My question – is it justified?

Are Toys And Food The Cause Of Childhood Obesity?

We’re picking on the Happy Meal here, but the ban instituted in Santa Clara County was actually aimed at eliminating the practice of including a toy with anything that doesn’t meet certain nutritional guidelines.  Specifically, restaurants will not be allowed to include a toy with an entree having more than 200 calories and 485 mg of sodium, or a meal with more than 485 calories and 600 mg of sodium.  There are some additional metrics regarding how much fat can come from calories, etc.  The following table looks at how three of the most popular “kids meals” stack up nutritionally.  The highlighted boxes show where they’re out of compliance, and the bundled meal is with apple slices, no dip or drink included.  If we just look at the kids meals at three restaurants, McDonald’s, Subway, and Burger King, what we find is that none of the current offerings would comply with the California lawmaker’s guidelines.

That’s pretty strict.  I suppose if it works as the lawmakers hope, kids would take the toy and eat whatever healthier food restaurants choose to package with the meal as a by-product of this law.

My experience with my own kids tells me that it wouldn’t work out this way.

When our kids were born, my wife and I said we weren’t going to do the Happy Meal thing.  They’re too high in calories.  They’re unhealthy.  They have no redeeming qualities.  Yada.  Yada.  Yada.  So, naturally, we now have a legion of Happy Meals toys littering the bottom of toy boxes and floor of our family van.  What can I say?  The marketing machine is powerful, and any product that has survived over 30-years, essentially unchanged, must have some appeal to its target market.

My experience with our kids tells me that when the toy is the motivation, they couldn’t care less about the food.  If we insist they get apples instead of fries with a Happy Meal, they simply don’t eat the apples.  As a parent, what are you going to do?  Force feed them food they don’t want?

Over the last few years, we’ve dramatically cut back on eating out, which reduces our exposure to this problem.  And although I suppose we could quit eating out entirely, I tend to view that as rather impractical – we have to live in the world.  So, our solution has been attempt to teach our kids to make better choices, given a range of options.  After all, that’s what we, as adults, must do.  It’s part of the process as we learn about resisting temptation.

So, when we do eat out, we take the toy out of the equation.  If they’re really interested in a toy we’ll buy it separately.  (Most restaurants allow this).  So, the kids can choose between a small entrée with a side item, or a larger entrée.  There are no “Super Size” options.  If they want fries (which is rarely), they have to go for the 4-piece nuggets, rather than a 6-piece.  These are the kinds of eating choices they’ll be making for the rest of their lives, so they might as well get started thinking about them now…

And if I choose to enjoy my high calorie McDonald’s iced coffee, well then we’ll just hope the kids don’t notice that detail.