Santa Clara County to Ban Happy Meals

Photo courtesy: Life

It is becoming obvious to anyone who wishes to look, that fast-food is more unhealthy for us than we have ever admitted. McDonald's, in particular, has taken the brunt of the wrath of the anti-fast-food movement. I have to admit that I feel being forced to eat at McDonald's is nothing short of cruel and unusual punishment.

A short while ago, I did a blog on an experiment done with a McDonald's Happy Meal. The Happy Meal was purchased, taken home, unwrapped, photographed, and set a shelf for a year. After one year had passed, another photo was taken of this Happy Meal that still looked remarkably edible after one year. Real food should rot - this did not.

I did another blog about a fellow who went to an unnamed burger chain and bought 10 burgers. He took them home and used only the grease on the burger patties to reproduce the Mona Lisa on a canvas one storey high.

In fact, that video was so good, it deserves to be repeated.



Santa Clara County in California, USA has taken an unusual and progressive stand on behalf of the health of the children of that county. They have banned Happy Meals entirely; as well as, any toys or other such promotions for unhealthy children's meals. From now on, the children of Santa Clara County will no longer be tempted to eat high fat, unhealthy meals because of the toys or gadgets inside the meal.

Officials are hoping this will mean healthier children and less obese youngsters. While there are many who feel this ordinance will benefit the young people unable to make their own choices, some see it as totally out of line and an infringement on our rights to eat and/or feed our children what we choose.

The LA Times reports:

Happy Meal toys and other promotions that come with high-calorie children's meals will soon be banned in parts of Santa Clara County unless the restaurants meet nutritional guidelines approved Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors.

"This ordinance prevents restaurants from preying on children's' love of toys" to sell high-calorie, unhealthful food, said Supervisor Ken Yeager, who sponsored the measure. "This ordinance breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes."

The point being made here is that proponents of the decree maintain that using toys to make unhealthy foods more desirable creates a psychological reward for eating badly; while, allowing toys only in healthy choices rewards children for eating well.

I may be old-fashioned; but, what happened to eating healthy meals without any kind of reward because it's the right thing to do (and your parents said so!) Children today do not receive the benefit of homemade food they way I or my children did. We didn't get money to buy lunch at school or the corner grocery store. We took a lunch that was prepared at home with good, nourishing food.

Weigh in readers! Do we need these things banned or should parents take more control and responsibility for their children's eating habits?

Via TreeHugger and Los Angeles Times

Is a McHappy Meal McHealthy?

In March, 2009, I wrote a blog about a fellow who went to an unnamed burger chain and bought 10 hamburgers. Then he used the patties to draw a huge reproduction of the Mona Lisa in burger grease. Now there is another revolting reason not to eat fast-food burgers.

McHappy meal bought fresh one year ago. Photo courtesy: Joann Brusco.

Author and blogger, Joann Brusco, decided to conduct a little experiment, document the results and write a blog about it. She chose the iconic Happy Meal as the subject of her research.

She bought a Happy Meal, took it out of the bag; and, placed it on a shelf in her home office. Then she waited.

McHappy meal after one year sitting on a shelf. Photo courtesy: Joann Brusco.

This is that same Happy Meal one year later. She makes note of the fact that she lives in a very dry area; and, that may be responsible for the wavy appearance of the bun. Other than that, the meal looks almost edible.

Joann Brusco says:

My Happy Meal is one year old today and it looks pretty good. It NEVER smelled bad. The food did NOT decompose. It did NOT get moldy, at all.

This is pretty horrendous stuff. Food should decompose, go moldy and smell bad when it is left out in the open for one year.

Does this even fall into the category of real food? I have to wonder about the nutritional content of this "food" (and I use the term loosely).

I wouldn't allow my dog to eat this - why should our children!

Get Cracking, McDonalds

I will only eat eggs from free-range, organically-fed chickens. The photo below shows what I think is the idyllic setting for raising poultry. There is a totally different taste to eggs from free-range, organically-fed hens. The yolks are a brilliant golden in colour coming from the variety in the chickens’ diet – grass, insects, worms, and seeds that are full of nothing but natural goodness.

Photo courtesy UBC Chicken Feed Project.

However, the taste of the end product (pun, intended!) is a very small concern when you consider the unnatural, unhappy, life of the battery hen. These poor birds are condemned to a shortened life in a barn with no fresh air, tiny cages, drugged-up food, no mental stimulation, no way to indulge in any natural behaviours and an artificial night/day environment.

Fortunately, battery operations seem to be losing ground in the court of public opinion.

Photo courtesy Public Record Office Victoria.

Lately, McDonald’s has been accused of being slow to act in fulfilling its promise to use 100% cage-free birds in supplying the 3 billion eggs used annually by 2010.

While the Chicago-based burger empire is taking part in a trial of alternatives to the battery cages that are used at farms across the US, it would appear that public opinion plays a major role in some of their decision making.

Some animal rights activists are accusing McDonald’s of engaging in unnecessary research to delay the change to switching to free-range hens. They point out that in Britain, where animal rights are a prominent public concern; almost all of the chain’s eggs come from free-range chickens.

McDonald’s might even been seen as trying to get out of their commitment to be cage-free by 2010 when one listens to Bob Langart, McDonald’s head of corporate social responsibility. He says: "Our experience and the evidence suggests that there's room for both, and that there are pros and cons to both."

He went on to state that there was a "lack of objective information and science" over the benefits of abandoning cages. He said free-range farms had disadvantages, including "issues with aggressive behaviour, issues with increased mortality rates and issues with cleanliness".

Part of McDonald’s success has been its unwavering uniformity of product no matter where on the planet you purchase it; so, this differing international approach to animal welfare is a rare area of variation.

Steve Easterbrook, the chain’s UK chief executive has taken every opportunity to emphasize his country’s operation's progressive policies citing the UK’s use of free-range eggs, fair-trade coffee and organic milk.

He told a conference last year that McDonald's wanted to stay ahead of the national debate on animal rights: "Animal welfare across the next couple of years will become a mass topic of discussion in the general public."

The Humane Society of the United States said the US chain lags behind competitors such as Burger King, Quiznos, Denny's and Hardee's – all of which use cage-free eggs.

However, despite everything, eggs laid by tens of thousands of birds in the study will begin appearing in Egg McMuffins and other breakfast offerings by 2011 at the company's 14,000 US restaurants. The study will be exploring free-range chickens or enlarged cages with perches and nests.

A McDonald's restaurant on 42nd Street in Times Square, New York. Photograph Reuters.

Still not my idyllic picture of where my egg should come from. Let McDonald’s know how you feel about their hesitancy to change from using battery hens.

1. Go to the USA headquarter's website and use their "contact us" feature to send an email protesting the use of caged hens and urging them to use eggs from free-range chickens only.

2. Write a letter to your local McDonald's expressing your concern. Point out that the UK McDonalds use 95% free-range hens.

3. Ask your friends who eat at McDonald's if they realize the eggs they are eating are from battery hens. I bet most of them have never thought about it.

4. Have a blog or website? Do a short article on this and inform your readers of what's happening.

5. Let McDonald's know you will take your breakfast business (if not all your business) to an establishment that uses free-range eggs.

6. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper and send a copy to McDonald's.