Are they going to ban the candy bars, cokes, chips, cookies, carkes and the like from all of the grocery stores?

That is the heart of the matter. While I'm no fan of McDonald's, I think that if all of them worldwide were to close today, a year from now, there would be no dent in obesity rates. It goes deeper.

You're exactly right. As long as nutritionists and doctors keep pushing people to eat grains at such massive rates, nothing is going to change as far as obesity is concerned. They are simply blinding themselves to the fact that all starches raise blood sugar and therefore insulin levels and therefore body fat storage. They KNOW this.

They know that no matter what minisucle amounts of fiber a whole grain or baked potato might have in it, and despite how much they've been taught in school about the need for whole grains, they know that such massive quantities of carbs are going to go to fat storage. They know the math, they know how much blood sugar we need at any given time, they know how much blood sugar the brain needs to function, and they know how much blood sugar a single potato or slice of whole grain bread, or bowl of oatmeal will convert to.

There's just some kind of blindness, some kind of disconnect in their insulin flooded brains, as if they think that our pancreas lives in some kind of la-la land and only provides insulin to convert the excess starch to fat if it happens to be a refined carb, but leaves the whole grain starches alone.

I agree. Please. You can't legislate everything.

I am with you, Elleh. You can not legislate everything. You should have freedom to chose what to eat. It's not McDonald's fault people are obese. People we make our own choices. This is ridiculous...what's next? What if they decided low carb was wrong and all the wonderful LC products were banned and books pulled from shelves?

Exactly. McDonald's is far from the only problem. They are the biggest, most recognizable, therefore easily targeted IMO.

Yes kids are enticed by cartoon characters, toys, and cutesie names for products. But as others have said, they are not taking themselves to fast food restaurants and buying the junk. Their parents are. I do allow my kids to have fast food once in a while, however my 7 year old does not whine and cry if we drive by McDonald's and I say NO, not today. She knows I will not give in to that. She knows that throwing tantrums is unacceptable behavior. She knows the choice is not hers. Sadly the same cannot be said for many families. A spoiled kid becomes a much bigger problem than a Happy Meal once in a while.

People who do take their kids to eat at McDonalds multiple times per week might stop if there was no Happy Meal-however they would probably just end up taking their business elsewhere, to a place that does have a kid's meal of some sort, or buying starchy sugar-filled convenience foods to eat at home. Many would continue to go there and just buy them a regular burger and fries instead-the toys are junk anyway. I highly doubt that this is the answer to cutting childhood obesity.