INTRODUCTION
The New York City (NYC) Council recently proposed a policy (“Healthy Happy Meals” bill) to improve the nutritional quality of children’s combination meals at fast food restaurants by requiring meals with toys or promotional items meet certain nutritional criteria (Figure 1). This is similar to legislation in two California localities [2,3]. One experimental study distributed toys with modified McDonald’s Happy Meals designed to comply with the California law. Children were more likely to choose healthier modified meals with the toy than unchanged meals without the toy [4]. The present study focuses on the NYC “Healthy Happy Meals” bill and how it might impact the nutri tional quality of purchases for children if the proposed targets were met.