Illinois Ordinance Says Restaurants Can Only Pair Healthy Drinks with Kids Meals

Illinois lawmakers are hard at work trying to be your child's parent and this time they're involving restaurant owners. This is a bit much.

I just don't understand why any time and money need to be spent on some B.S. like this.

At a City Council meeting Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Department of Public Health introduced some new legislation, according to NBCChicago.com

New Illinois legislation requires that strictly healthy, non-sugary beverages be paired with kids' meals at restaurants.

 

“Children don’t need marketing that encourages unhealthy behavior—and parents don’t need extra pressure to serve their kids unhealthy food.”

Is Mayor Lightfoot for real with this?

Does she really think I'm feeling pressured to give my kids a sugar-filled juice or soda instead of water or milk?

There really is a lot of power in the word 'NO', Lori, and my wife and I can say it to any one of our four children when they ask for unhealthy things.

Do you intend to make the restaurant not pair chicken nuggets and french fries then?

Under this new ordinance, beverage standards will allow for unsweetened drinks or sparkling water, 100% fruit or vegetable juice or dairy and non-dairy milks that meet a calorie requirements in kids' meals.

How many more restrictions are going to be forced on restaurant owners? How many more flaming hoops are they going to be asked to jump through?

Enough is enough.

Personally, I don't feel legislation like this ever works. The ordinance does leave room for parents to choose the sugary drinks if they'd like. At least until some Illinois lawmaker wants to just outlaw a Pepsi.