New Fast Food Restaurants Get the Axe!

South Los Angeles city officials passed a law Tuesday to ban new fast food restaurants from being built for a year. More specifically, this law bans the establishment of new fast food restaurants in an area where obesity is linked to burgers and fries on the go.

By a unanimous vote, the proposed law won support from the Los Angeles City Council who is convinced that the city should begin to draw in healthier food restaurants. Most of the residents of South LA do not own cars and have to settle for the nearest restaurant, which serves nothing but cheap and unhealthy meals. Making it harder for residents to obtain a healthy diet. Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity claims, “Cheap, unhealthy food and lack of access to healthy food is a recipe for obesity. Diets improve when healthy food establishments enter these neighborhoods.”

And as expected, the proponents of the new law have met opposition from the California Restaurant Association who claims that the ban is misdirected. A spokesperson for the group says that the association may consider legal action.

Lawmakers in LA and cities alike hope that such weighty issues will help fast food restaurants begin to make a swing toward healthier menus. Several restaurants, such as McDonalds and Burger King, have already begun to add more waist-friendly options. However, many restaurants maintain that it’s “unfair to blame them for fat people, ” but health officials say that they will continue to point their fingers because it is especially in low-income areas like South Los Angeles where fatty, cheap food options play a key role in weight gain.

Tell us what you think about this new law. Do you think lawmakers’ have a right to play diet police?

[MSNBC]