The idea is to bring new eating options to the city’s food deserts, the term now in vogue to describe poor neighbourhoods whose residents have few places to buy groceries.

Almost three-fourths of the advertising aimed at children is for candy, snacks or fast food. Portions at restaurants have been steadily growing since the 1970s. During that period, people have been eating at home less and at restaurants more.

“What we’re beginning to see is monopolisation of our dietary intake by a handful of corporations,” said David Zinczenko, editor in chief of Men’s Health magazine.

“Add to that the financial reality of feeding ourselves today, where a single grapefruit from a corner fruit stand costs two or more times as much as a few Chicken McNuggets,” he said, “and I think you can begin to put together a case for governmental intervention.”

But not everyone agrees, including Joe R Hicks, a radio talk show host who was the executive director of LA’s Human Relations Commission under Mayor Richard Riordan a decade ago.

“The crime... is that people are sitting around meddling into the very minutiae of what people are putting in their mouths,” he said.