Progress is progress, and while I will congratulate any company on its efforts to make healthier food options available to mainstream consumers, I think we need to hold onto our party hats before celebrating the Happy Meal makeover.
As reported on CNN.com the Happy Meal will now include apple slices, a reduced portion of fries, a choice of fat-free chocolate milk, 1 percent low fat white milk, fruit juice or water along with the usual choice of hamburger, cheeseburger or chicken nuggets (oy).
A corporate statement said, "By adding fruit in every Happy Meal, McDonald's hopes to address a challenge children face in meeting the recommended daily consumption of produce." But before you get out the noisemakers and fireworks, a statement on National Public Radio reflected the findings of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale that only 11 percent of Happy Meals purchased chose apples.
So now they are being included without choosing them. Who will ensure that kids eat them when faced with fries and chicken nuggets? The parents who have brought their kids into McDonald's in the first place?
Leaders and journalists are ready to throw an old-fashioned ticker tape parade heralding McDonald's as champions of our kids' health. First Lady Michelle Obama, who has spearheaded a public health campaign to prevent childhood obesity, congratulated McDonald's for making "progress today by providing more fruit and reducing the calories in its Happy Meals." She continued with, "I've always said that everyone has a role to play in making America healthier, and these are positive steps toward the goal of solving the problem of childhood obesity."
Hank Cardello, a former executive at Coca-Cola and author of Stuffed: An Insider's Look at Who's (Really) Making America Fat, extolled the virtues of this move by McDonald's in an article on Atlantic.com. He stated that with this "milestone in the War on Obesity," McDonald's has "found a way to align their business goals with the public's health needs. They are rewriting the traditional playbook."
I fear he may be right, especially with his analogies of likening their marketing strategies with war strategies. They do seem to have declared war on our health, or maybe it's just me.
While McDonald's is making these changes and the result may be positive for the health of our kids (if they eat the apple slices; if they choose the water instead of milk or soda; if they do not eat these meals often; if ... if ... if ... ), there are other things to consider here.
First, the brains behind McDonald's are expert marketers and if their research tells them that families want healthier-sounding choices, then they will create healthier-seeming foods. Let's not forget that it's McDonald's cheap, poor-quality food that played a major role in the obesity epidemic that threatens the collective health of this country. Has everyone forgotten the days of the super-sized portion?
And while they have moved away from extra-huge menu items, the majority of the food they sell is still excessively large, salty, fatty and filled with ingredients that should terrify us. From the Angus Deluxe with 750 calories (350 of them from fat) and 1,700 mg of sodium, to the 150-calorie Sweet Tea, to their perceived-as-healthy Fruit & Maple Oatmeal that weighs in at 290 calories with 14 grams of sugar, McDonald's leaves no stone unturned, no demographic untouched, no ploy not used to get your business.
A small Strawberry Banana Smoothie with, as their advertising states, "real fruit," carries 44 grams of sugar and 210 calories ... for 12 ounces!
But all they have to do is issue a press release that they are making over the Happy Meal in response to growing concern over the health of our kids and suddenly, in my opinion, they are being heralded as the second coming of food.
I guess, in the end, anything that keeps us out of the kitchen -- free of preparing the food our families eat so that we don't have to cook -- will win our hearts and minds and be seen as liberators of families everywhere. When did preparing a simple dinner from whole, natural ingredients become such a chore that we would hand our health over to the likes of McDonald's?
So while they may recycle their frying oil, create marginally healthier options and make their nutrition information more accessible, have they moved to using only natural ingredients in their foods? No. Have they removed all additives from their products? No. Can they guarantee there are no hormones in their meat or milk products? No. In the end, McDonald's is what it is: A fast food restaurant peddling fat, sugar and salt-laden foods designed to addict you to it, so you become a customer for life.
This move by McDonald's is about so much more than improving the nutrition of our children. It makes for great public relations. And with fast food being dealt a hearty blow due to health advocates pulling back the veil to reveal what's really in the food you are eating, this is just another way to weasel their way back into the lives of American families. As Peter Seleh (a restaurant analyst with Telsey Advisory Group in New York) so brilliantly stated, " ... if you sell more Happy Meals, you're more likely selling more Big Macs to the parents."
Maybe this is the beginning of a tipping point, a turning point for fast food becoming healthier ... and maybe it is just what it seems to me: another way to keep themselves in the news, in your consciousness and in your tummy.
Judith J. Wurtman, PhD: Eating Too Much in a Restaurant? Complain to the Chef
Yoni Freedhoff M.D. : Body Fat Percentage Scales for Children?
The writer of this article needs to take a pill. Who will ensure that kids bathe and do homework and go to school? Who shelters and clothes them? THE PARENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get out of people's lives....MYOB.....Go hug a tree or join the peace corps. This writer is OUT OF THEIR MIND!!!!!
There are many, many paths of least resistance that lead straight to a diet of fast food. Some people know better, but there are so many reasons that people just fall into it. For my nephew, it's now fast food twice a day, every day. Next time I see him I expect he'll be another 40 pounds heavier. His grandparents lived to be 88 and 89; he might not make it to 60.
I was trying to illustrate a larger point here, in response to those who say if you don't think the food is healthy, then just don't eat it. One thing my nephew has less of than before his injury is impulse control. His situation is his path of least resistance. Someone else's path might be a continuing pattern of fatigue and hunger at the end of a long workday/heinous commute. What easier way to save time and sate your hunger -- and maybe your family's -- than a stop-off at the drive-thru? The thing is, people who don't think of this as good food nevertheless choose it over and over. Our patterns of choice are formed one decision at a time, often when our defenses are really down, like that commuter (oh, I've been that commuter) and like my nephew.
I call BS on that statement. Provide some evidence that this one company contributed a "major role" to the obesity epidemic in this country. It was a cultural shift. Greed contributed to it more than anything. Not just cheap meals, but larger and larger and larger portions year after year after year. I've been watching portion sizes grow for 40 years now and I've still seen people insist on emptying their plates to 'get their money's worth'. People care more about getting more for their buck (and this is not just recent with the recent economy) than about their own health. If America wants to get fit the FIRST thing we need to do is to stop blaming elements outside of the individual and focus on empowering the individual, not victimizing them.
BTW - McDonalds was also the first major chain to go to recyclable products and first to go to vegetable oils. I'm not a fan of their food, but if you really want to change fast food in this country, history has shown that working WITH McDonalds is the best way to go about that. They're slow and careful, but many will follow their lead.
That being said, they have helped to ruin a lot of children's eating habits, because they are so brilliant at marketing their horribly unhealthy products. Do I blame them? Well, these days I tend to blame parents more. Instead of complaining McDonald's is phony-healthy, I am going to concentrate my time educating my kids as to what McDonald's food really is. I will eat it myself maybe once every 6 months, when I simply MUST eat apple pie, french fired and mcnuggets in the same bite. But I don't kid myself that what I am putting in my body is not good for me.
But if people want to waste their time attacking instead of trying to effect change...good luck to them. It's certainly how politics operates nowadays...and we see where that's gotten us.
Look, in reality, there is nothing inherently WRONG with McDonald's. They're basically honest about their product. But we can't limit people's choices and become a nanny-state in hopes that folks will make better decisions. Teach health in schools, and encourage parents to use "No" a bit more often, and you'll go a far bit further than throwing in some week old, pesticide-covered apples in the mix and getting an "attah' boy!" from the first lady.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdS8bicqfUQ
We are not new to the game. We first introduced a RTD White tea line to the marketplace eight years ago.
Stay healthy!
Andy@healthywhitetea.com
"A small Strawberry Banana Smoothie with, as their advertising states, "real fruit," carries 44 grams of sugar and 210 calories ... for 12 ounces! "
12 ounces of mashed Banana has 300 calories and 42 grams of sugar, 12 ounces of strawberries have 75 calories and 11 grams of sugar. Based on your information, this smoothie could legitimately be half strawberries, half bananas with some added sugar. I'm not going to suggest that it's actually healthy for you - but I'm suggesting you wrote that sentence with a clear agenda and without any nutritional knowledge (since some of us instantly knew how high calorie bananas really are).