In their quest to fight childhood obesity, California politicians have required chain restaurants to post nutrition information on their menus, banned trans fats from restaurant meals and taken soda vending machines out of the schools. Now they are turning their attention to fast-food marketing.

Santa Clara County broke ground last week with an ordinance that seeks to stop restaurants from giving away toys as a way to lure children into eating meals that might be bad for them.

The ordinance is largely symbolic. It applies only in the unincorporated area of the county, and will probably affect fewer than 15 restaurants. But Supervisor Ken Yeager said he hoped it would set a standard that other jurisdictions would adopt.

“The fact that so many kids are going to grow up having a lifetime of chronic illness related to obesity is just something I couldn’t stand by and do nothing about,” Mr. Yeager said in an interview. “As an adult, you realize the path kids are going to get on. If you can get them off that course, you want to do that.”

The ordinance bans toy promotions linked to meals that have more than 120 calories for a beverage, 200 for a single food item or 485 for a meal. Toys are also banned in connection with meals that have more than 480 milligrams of sodium in a single item or 600 in a meal. The rules also apply to meals with more than 35 percent of their calories from fat or 10 percent from added sweeteners.

The Board of Supervisors passed ordinance by a 3 to 2 vote after vigorous opposition from the California Restaurant Association.

Jot Condie, president of the association, accused Mr. Yeager and his colleagues of trying to distract voters from the sorry state of the county’s finances.

“When things get tough, they seem to change the subject,” Mr. Condie said. “They are under so much strain and pressure to provide services for the needy in their county, and they are focusing on things like this. It’s mind-bendingly curious.”

Mr. Condie said parents, not the county government, should be making food choices for their children.

“To assume that a childhood temper tantrum is so powerful that you can’t do anything but buy a kid a meal that has a toy with it is ridiculous,” he said.

But Mr. Yeager said frazzled parents needed all the help they could get fending off the millions of dollars the fast-food industry poured into marketing.

“I don’t know if parents in the crazy lives they lead, with both parents working, trying to figure out a quick meal, that they really understand the calories these fast-food chains put into their meals and the effect it’s going to have on their kids,” Mr. Yeager said.

“We’re trying to help parents,” he said. “We’re not trying to take away their role.”

Mr. Yeager believes Santa Clara County is the first government in the nation to single out fast-food toy giveaways. He said the idea came from his discussions with the county’s lawyers.

“I have been very critical of the agencies working on behalf of children for not being bold enough in attacking the problems of childhood obesity,” he said. “We have just seen the problem get worse and worse. Clearly, what we are doing isn’t working. I said, ‘Let’s be bold. Let’s be imaginative. Let’s be the first to take action.’ ”

Mr. Condie of the restaurant association said there was no solid evidence linking childhood obesity and restaurant food. While the two things may be correlated, he said, studies have not shown that eating at fast-food restaurants causes obesity. Sedentary lifestyles and the poor quality of school cafeteria food are more likely culprits, he said.

Mr. Yeager said he agreed that many factors were at play — but most are outside the county’s purview.

“There’s too much television, not enough physical activity, the horrible lunches they serve in schools,” he said. “But this is one area where the county can take a position. We don’t have control over the schools. We don’t have control over physical activity.

“If we could change the meals at fast-food restaurants, we felt that was something important to do.”

Daniel Weintraub has reported on California politics for 25 years. He is the editor of the California Health Report at http://www.healthycal.org.

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By DANIEL WEINTRAUB
nytimes.com