The New York City Department of Health reveals that half of the New York City's elementary school children are overweight.

Therefore, on Thursday, New York City council member Ben Kallos introduced a "Healthy Happy Meals" bill that would prohibit fast food restaurants from including toys in unhealthy kids' meals.

After the approval of the bill by the city council's health committee, it will go to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The bill requires the McDonald's kid's meals, as well as those from Burger King and Wendy's to have no more than 500 calories and 600 milligrams of sodium.

Further, less than 35% of those calories should come from fat, less than 10% from saturated fat and less than 10% from sugar. The meals will also have to contain a serving of fruit, vegetables and whole grains.

Kallos in a press release said, "It is difficult enough for parents to give their children healthy food without the fast food industry spending hundreds of millions of dollars per year advertising to children, and nearly half of that on toys".

According to FTC (Federal Trade Commission), toys lure the kids to opt for fast food. This is very well known to restaurants, as it is their major marketing strategy. In 2009, more than half of the marketing budget for the world's top fast-food chains went to toys or other trinkets to be included in kids' meals.

San Francisco imposed similar restrictions on Happy Meals in 2011. But McDonald's avoided the ban by changing its policy to only provide toys with meals at the request of parents.

In 2008, the Center for Science found that just 1% of kids' meals at restaurants were nutritionally sound according to industry standards, but by 2012, that had risen to 3%.

This legislation is meant to bring back the failed initiative of 2011, as it is the only effective way to make healthier foods appear more alluring to kids.