Wisconsin City Praised For Decisiveness on Kids Meal Proposal
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
SUPERIOR, WI–(Marketwire – December 15, 2010) – In stark contrast to recent actions by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the Superior, WI City Council quickly and decisively determined the fate of a local issue that has recently gained national attention. By a 7-1 margin — and in a single meeting and hearing — councilors in the northwest Wisconsin city of 25,000 decided December 7 that restaurants would not be required to meet new food restrictions in order to continue the tradition of including a toy or incentive with a kids’ meal.
This was a refreshing change from several months of hearings and special-interest posturing regarding the same issue in San Francisco, according to Bob Cutler, CEO of Creative Consumer Concepts (C3) and sponsor of ObesitySolvers.com. Effective December 1, 2011, kids’ meals sold in that city’s restaurants cannot include a toy if the meal does not meet a calorie threshold or does not include a half-cup of fruits and vegetables. The legislation was passed to fight child obesity.
“Fortunately, Superior council members were in touch with their constituents and the nation’s sentiments. They recognized how such a law would interfere with citizens’ right to choose, and that it was not the government’s role to make such decisions for families,” Cutler said.
While acknowledging that kids in Wisconsin are not immune to weight-related health issues, council members promoted the generally accepted methods of physical activity, parental instruction and smarter grocery store shopping as ways to improve children’s health rather than restricting meal incentives.
At the December 7 meeting, Councilor Tom Bridge stated that none of the many Superior constituents he’d heard from supported the measure. Additionally, he doubted the role of toys and meals as sources of health issues, saying that kids would have to be eating at the restaurants often for those to be the biggest part of the problem.
C3 CEO Cutler concluded, “Citizens are best served when representatives listen and act decisively based on community priorities. That was not the case in San Francisco.”
Creative Consumer Concepts (C3) is the largest kid marketing agency in the U.S., serving the restaurant industry for 23 years. The company provides research-based recommendations and award-winning products to its clients. ObesitySolvers.com is a place for discussion regarding the childhood obesity battle, why we need solutions and why we don’t need more issues about what we choose to eat.
San Francisco Delays Vote On Controversial Toy Ban
Monday, October 25th, 2010
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to postpone the vote on the Toy Ban until November 2, Election Day.
A recent article from food.change.org by David Orr states, “Well, it’s probably just a political calculation. Outgoing Mayor Gavin Newsom has promised a veto, and only 7 of the 8 required votes to overturn a veto are secured. Putting off the vote until after Election Day could make it a little easier to vote in favor of this bill. It could also be a sort of gift to Mayor Newsom, who is currently running for Lt. Governor of the state and has been labeled by his opponent as ‘chief of the food police.’ Politics will be politics, but the important point is that this legislation has a real chance of being passed.”
Dr. Oz Visits U.S. High Schools to Launch HealthCorps Program to Fight Childhood Obesity
Monday, October 25th, 2010
Dr. Mehmet Oz is taking initiative and traveling around the United States to launch his HealthCorps program and promote health through nutrition and exercise. Dr. Oz is currently trying to launch his HealthCorps program in Sacramento to fight childhood obesity.
According to an article from allvoices.com, The HealthCorps is being initiated locally at Burbank High and Sacramento Charter High School. The program is modeled after the Peace Corps. It is designed to recruit college graduates who have deferred medical school enrollment to coordinate HealthCorps for two years at a high school. The program at Sacramento’s Luther Burbank High School is being run by Chioma Enweasor, a graduate of Pomona College. She will teach 10 classes a week as well as operate an after-school club and oversee health-related events.
Mar Asks For Two-Week Continuance On October 19th's Scheduled Vote On Controversial Toy Ban Legislation
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
In a new sfgate.com blog post, Rachel Gordon discusses the recent events surrounding the San Fransisco Toy ban, that if passed, would take away any fast food marketing promotions in kids meals. According to recent reports, supervisor and creator of the controversial toy ban legislation has asked for a two-week continuance in hopes to secure a veto-proof majority.
According to Rachel Gordon, Mar asked that the vote be delayed until Nov. 2, Election Day, which might be nice for Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is in a tough race for lieutenant governor. Newsom’s Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, has attacked Newsom for being ”chief of the food police,” referring to the mayor’s earlier efforts to curb high-sugar sodas and to promote the slow-food movement.
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The City of Alexandria, Virginia Seeks to Obtain $90,000 to Help Fight Childhood Obesity
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
The City of Alexandria, Virginia is trying to secure $90,000 to help fight childhood obesity. Officials said they would use the money to make minor upgrades to playground equipment and to encourage urban gardening. However, the new play areas that the city’s parents said are needed to help their children slim down will have to wait, according to an article in the Washington Examiner.
According to the article, the city has applied to Kaiser Permanente for the funding and intends to use the money to hire a consultant to assess the city’s playgrounds. Additionally, the money will go toward the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority to promote urban gardening. About 43 percent of Alexandria children between the ages of 2 and 5 are either overweight or obese, according to an Inova Health Systems study. About 25 percent of all Virginia residents are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There’s this potential that the next generation could actually have a shorter life span than the current generations that are older, and that would be a first in human history,” said Dr. Stephen Haering, Alexandria’s health director.
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San Francisco Board of Supervisors to Extend Toy Ban Legislation to Include Fast Food Breakfast Items Marketed To Adults
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
According to the Nanny State Liberation Front, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is not only going after kids meals, but certain breakfast items marketed to adults as well. The article states that a Sept. 27 amendment was added to the city’s proposed Happy Meal Toy Ban ordinance. “A new category of items — breakfast items — are required to contain 0.5 cups of fruit.” Additionally, the amendment demands that the hamburger buns or other sandwich breads used in the meals must contain at least 50 percent whole wheat.
One has to wonder what the reason is for including restrictions on the breakfast meal breads seeing that adult customers do not purchase fast-food breakfast meals because of toy incentives.
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Restaurants Should Not Take All The Blame – Education Needs To Be A Priority For Childhood Obesity
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
An article on thestir.cafemom.com shared opinions about the recent activities surrounding Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.
Kim Conte, explained that while restaurants do have a responsibility to keep people healthy, they are not the main source of blame. American’s need to be better educated on nutrition and the negative effects of overeating.
“I agree that restaurants do have a responsibility to help in the effort to reduce obesity rates and get Americans eating healthier — after all, one-third of all meals today are eaten outside the home. But this call to arms — whether it’s coming from Obama or the PCRM — needs to be in tandem with public education on how people also share in the responsibility of making healthy food choices for themselves and their families.”
Conte’s opinion comes from a newly released video created by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Michelle Obama’s speech to restaurant owners, urging them to offer healthier options on menus.
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Yahoo! Finance Posts ObesitySolvers.com Press Release: Cutler Responds to Federal Trade Commission’s 48 Subpoenas Issued to Companies Marketing Food to Children & Adolescents
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
A recent press release from obesitysolvers.com which highlighted Bob Cutler’s response to the Federal Trade Commission’s 48 subpoenas issued to companies marketing food to children and adolescents was posted by Yahoo! Finance.
According to the press release, Bob Cutler, CEO of Creative Consumer Concepts (C3), said that the federal government should not be able to limit the rights of advertisers, consumers or anyone who wants to choose what they want to eat.
“The U.S. government is marching again to restrict our rights. These subpoenas are a sure way for the government to restrict advertisers. The result of this effort will undoubtedly be government intervention and potential regulation,” Cutler said.
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First Lady Asks Restaurant Owners to Promote Healthy Menu Options for Childhood Obesity Awareness Month September 2010
Monday, September 13th, 2010
On The Hill: The Washington Scene, a new article reported that First lady Michelle Obama urged restaurant owners to re-think their menus in a speech to the National Restaurant Association in Washington D.C.
“You’re responsible for one-third of the calories our kids get on a daily basis,” she said. “The choices you make determine what’s listed on the menus, what’s advertised on billboards and what’s served on our plates.”
The First Lady suggested owners offer a wider variety of healthier choices, as part of her “Let’s Move!” campaign, as well as offering examples of how restaurants can promote healthier choices by small recipe changes.
Read more.
NannyStateLiberationFront.net Reports U.S. Medical JournalSays: Obesity ‘Crisis’ Is Fattening Big Government
Friday, September 10th, 2010
According to a recent blog post from www.nannystateliberationfront.net, a new report appearing in an American medical journal says the federal government is exploiting the nation’s obesity ‘crisis’ to “extract more money from taxpayers and to expand government.”
US Medical Journal Reports Obesity ‘Crisis’ Is Fattening Big Government
“The article’s authors note that nanny state bureaucrats have already failed in their attempts to meet self-imposed goals for reducing obesity, perhaps, because they are targeting food sources that pose no proven risk to Americans’ waistlines.
Michael L. Marlow, Ph.D. and Alden F. Shiers, Ph.D., both economists at California Polytechnic State University, write in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons that the federal government has erred in its decision to use ‘sin taxes’ as its weapon of choice to win the war on obesity. The primary target of these sin taxes is sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), despite empirical studies that do not show a clear, if at all existent, link between SSBs and obesity, the authors state:
‘It is sheer folly to single out a specific food or beverage as the ‘cause of obesity’ when common sense indicates that obesity is a product of genetics, hormones, food choice, exercise or lack thereof, and the basic equation: Calories consumed minus calories expended = weight gain or weight loss. If one eliminates soda pop from his diet, while consuming 10,000 calories per day and expending 1,000 calories per day in exercise, that individual will gain weight. Moreover, if government interventions somehow reduce soda consumption, it is likely that substitution will take place, such as eating more food or simply adding more sugar to home-brewed iced tea. Effects on weight are thus ambiguous at best.’”