Let’s talk about McDonald’s Happy Meals changes
McDonald’s sent out a press release yesterday to announce “healthier” changes to its Happy Meals.
Healthier? Not quite. The company is announcing a “Commitment to Offer Improved Nutrition Choices” [my emphasis].
The comprehensive plan aims to help customers — especially families and children — make nutrition-minded choices whether visiting McDonald’s or eating elsewhere.
Menu changes underway include the addition of more nutritionally-balanced choices that meet McDonald’s reputation for great taste and affordability, along with an increased focus on providing nutrition information that enable customers and employees to make simple, informed menu decisions.
McDonald’s says that by the end of this year it will automatically include produce or a low-fat dairy option in every Happy Meal. It will:
- Automatically include both produce (apple slices, a quarter cup or half serving)
- Automatically include a new smaller size French fries (1.1 ounces)
- Automatically reduce the sodium by 15% or more
I emphasize “automatically” because it means the default. If you order a Happy Meal, that’s what you get. Research shows that most people stick with the default. If the default is a healthy meal, kids have a better chance of getting one.
Everything else is your choice:
- Hamburger, Cheeseburger or Chicken McNuggets.
- “Beverage, including new fat-free chocolate milk and 1% low fat white milk”
The press release says: “McDonald’s will automatically include produce or a low-fat dairy option in every Happy Meal.”
Doesn’t that sound like the Happy Meal will come with low-fat milk?
Wrong.
The meal comes with a choice of a soda or low-fat chocolate or white milk. Soda remains an option. And the meal still comes with a toy.
So all the fuss—and McDonald’s has gotten huge press over this—is about 3 or 4 small slices of apples, one ounce less of French fries, and less sodium.
These may be steps in the right direction, but I’d call them tiny baby steps.
So what’s going on here? Much of this is about responding to Michelle Obama’s call for action on childhood obesity.
But according to the Wall Street Journal, business matters may also be at stake. Happy Meals account for less than 10% of McDonald’s U.S. sales, but sales have been declining since 2003 for a funny reason: “gadgets for children have become more sophisticated and the toys less desirable.” Of course the only reason kids want Happy Meals is for the toys.
But kids have to eat. Instead of Happy Meals, parents have been
ordering adult-size items off the ‘dollar menu’ and splitting them between two children rather than buying two kids’ meals.
Kids’ meal orders at fast-food restaurants have declined 15% since 2006 to just under a billion, while dollar-menu items ordered by or for kids have increased 29% in the last five years.
The Wall Street Journal quotes a restaurant consultant who comments that
Making [apples] a forced decision is a pretty unusual thing for a restaurant to do…If they can get to a place where parents associate them with healthy offerings in a world of increasing fast casual options that are perceived as healthier, that will be good for them.
But will it? McDonald’s tested healthier meals with disappointing results. So this has to be about McDonald’s trying to appear to do something to promote kids’ health. In reality, it can’t. McDonald’s is a business and its business interests come first.
If McDonald’s were serious, it could offer a truly healthier Happy Meal as the default and back it up with marketing dollars. When the company does that, I’ll cheer. Until then, as I told the Times, “I’m not impressed.”
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Comments
You are so right!
A quick scan of the headlines on this move showed a disturbing use of the word “healthy”, as in “Happy Meals Get Healthier”, “McDonald’s Healthy Happy Meal Change”, and “McDonald’s Bows to Pressure with More Healthful Happy Meal.”
This reminds me of those baked chips advertised as being “better for you”, which are only “better for you” in the sense that it is “better for you” to be hit in the head with a brick only twice instead of 3 times.
‘McDonald’s tested healthier meals with disappointing results.’
Because people don’t go to McDonald’s for health foods. If parents want their kids to eat salads there are plenty of places to take them. McDonald’s is for burgers and fries, which when not eaten to excess are perfectly fine.
Hello,
Thank you for your article and opinion. Here is mine. Change takes time and any step in the right direction is a change that needs to be accepted. Losing weight does not happen overnight and without supporting the even small change that starts needs to be in place. McD does not ever have to make any changes do they? Social marketing and media pressure along with consumer demands can and do make a difference. In fact the public actually has more pressure than the Fed Gov’t on forcing change. I keep reading articles about business’ that MUST make the change in food offerings, but I have a hard time finding articles that talk about the parent choice in making decisions. McD’s had had the options of milk and fruit for YEARS so this is not anything new. Are there parents that are not aware of the existing options? Do they read the menu board? So for McD to include fruit, reduce portion size of ff’s is a step in the right direction.
Now how about educating parents in ways to prevent childhood obesity. EDUCATION, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Good Day~
My great-grandmother gave Christmas gifts of $5 McDonalds gift cards to each of her grandchildren, then great- and great-great grandchildren under the age of 18, every single year until she passed away last year. About 6 months ago, I took my 6 & 2 year old sons to McD’s to use up their gift cards, marking the only visit in my 2 year old son’s life, and maybe the 3rd visit for the 6 year old. One of them got fries with their happy meal, the other got apple slices, and they shared their choices with one another. I tasted one of the apples. It was the most putrid, vile, chemically enhanced thing I have ever tasted. I actually spit it out, it was so disgusting. Is this seriously the only “produce” that they are staking their claim of healthiness on?
Both kids had been BEGGING me to stop at McD’s for months before that (we drive past it at least twice every day)… now, I don’t think they would eat that nastiness even if it were offered to them.
Marion, thanks for shedding light on this and sparking the discussion.
Sure, it’s a step in the right direction, but the bar is so low it’s easy to improve.
We can’t rely on fast-food joints to provide healthy food for us or our children, and honestly I’m not sure we should even ask them to. The responsibility and accountability rests with the parents, who should must be educated on the facts. This is where the problem lies (literally) – McDonald’s says they are ‘getting healthy’. If parents accept that line of BS, they’ll be hitting a drive-thru near you soon. Parents who think it’s bull probably don’t go to McD’s anyway. Education and full disclosure is the key.
I’m not impressed either. What McDonald’s should have done was make the low fat milk and apples (or carrots or both) automatic with the option to pay more for fries and soda. Much like the idea of heavily taxing sodas and juices as some states have already adopted.
I think ultimately if we overhauled the Happy Meal enough to satisfy the needs and requests of health food activists, the Happy Meal would lose all sales and cease to exist. And I’m totally OK with that.
I’m a big fan of this blog, and when I heard the McDonald’s news yesterday I couldn’t wait to see what you’d write about it.
Thank you for helping keep things in perspective.
When it comes down to it, McDonald’s is a business – it’s not their job to care about you or your kids – their only responsibility in this world (unfortunate though it may be) is to make money.
Yes, they have to power to effect massive change on the world by virtue of the fact that they’ve served up nearly 1 trillion meals. But why would they? They have a business model that works really well, and has been working really well since the 50s. If anything, McDonald’s is hardly in the business of food service anymore – the only thing they make is money, and people are just an input in that assembly line.
If we want to see improved health and nutrition on a nationwide scale, we can’t rely on a company who has made and continues to make its fortune doing the exact opposite. Instead, we as a culture need to regain the one thing that’s been missing from our collective mindset since the end of World War II: an appreciation for the gift of food.
The worst thing is that even “healthy” options (I hesitate to say foods) these days are doing their part to devalue food in our society. We think of foods now in terms of “low calorie” or “reduced fat” – completely ignoring not only the actual nutritional value of what we’re eating but also reducing the food itself to a formula of macronutrients that no one really understands (is it really any surprise that posted calorie content doesn’t affect people’s choices at restaurants?).
Every time you see a fast food restaurant, every time you see a snack designed to be eaten with one hand, it’s like someone is screaming in your ear “Eating is inconvenient! Grab this and get back on your way!” If we want to undo the damage this mindset has caused, we first need to view food as what it really is – not a necessity, but a gift.
I’m actually really happy to see that the majority of the comments (so far) understand that good ol’ Mickey D’s is in the business of making money and not making you (us) healthy.
The blog post itself said that they tested healthier meals with poor results. Essentially, they offered it and we didn’t want it.
So, if we don’t want it, why would McDonald’s force it down our throats?
Just to be morally responsible…and lose money? Yeah, keep dreaming.
[...] Let’s talk about McDonald’s Happy Meal Changes ← Weblogs, IM and email [...]
[...] have done a great job of explaining why nutritionally, this move is little more than PR (see Marion Nestle and Andy Bellatti), missing from the analysis so far is this: what McDonald’s really wants is [...]
Even a bird-brain knows to stay away from McDonald’s … http://bit.ly/fDDUte
A good cartoon usually states the obvious.
Let’s be clear – the best kind of Happy Meal is NO Happy Meal. And I don’t even want to think about the journey those apples took to get there.
Sure, this is truly a baby step for McDonald’s in the right direction. Though, instead of poo-pooing it as such, wouldn’t the best form of activism be to encourage others to buy more of these slightly-less-bad-for-you Happy Meals? If this new formulation flops for some reason, like Campbell’s lower-sodium soups discussed a few blog posts ago, do you really think McDonald’s will take more baby steps in the same direction? I guess I’m wondering if some of us are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.
McDonalds is a fast food company. It bothers me more that so many RD’s have their bar so low that they are cheering McDonalds for this. Maybe they like fast food too.
I don’t want to Marion bash which is what this blog seems to be about. She’s completely right it’s not a healthy choice. I think it would be better if they could make NO health claims though. It’s crap food, if your serving it to your kids more than once a month your a bad parent.
[...] have done a great job of explaining why nutritionally, this move is little more than PR (see Marion Nestle and Andy Bellatti), missing from the analysis so far is this: what McDonald’s really wants is [...]
We can’t expect much from McD in this area, as people pointed out, they are a business. The responsibility rests upon the shoulders of the media to correctly present and evaluate these changes. Which is not happening.
For a short class report this spring, I presented the McDonald’s Annual Shareholder’s Meeting proxy statement with a question requesting McD’s present a report on how marketing fast food to children has contributed to childhood obesity. After reading the news about the change in the Happy Meal I checked their website to see the results of the vote. Here they are
Proposal No. 10. Advisory Vote on Shareholder Proposal Relating to a Report on Children’s Nutrition.
FOR
AGAINST*
ABSTAIN
Number of Shares Voted
39,733,965
511,725,084*
156,012,280
% of Shares Voted
5.62%
72.33%*
22.05%
Obviously the shareholder’s want McD’s to keeping making money.
Fast food businesses have a model that works- for them and their shareholders. The way they are incorporated means they must produce maximum financial value for their shareholders-so they sell cheap food at a profit. They are not in it to insure our health, but to make a profit. Our family has opted out of all fast food. I haven’t set foot is a McD’s for decades.
[...] Nestle assesses McDonald’s new Happier Meals and finds them unimpressive, largely because they still offer [...]
More sugar for kids. And do not forget the trans-fats, lactose, and other chemicals. Those buns are very slow to rot.
How do they keep the apples from browning? They us sugar on the salad to keep it from browning, and use fructose as a browning agent on the burger paddy.
I do not consider MacD as food.
I agree that they shouldn’t even pretend to offer anything “healthy”. I could care less what they sell IF they didn’t actively MARKET IT TO CHILDREN. That’s where the rub comes. That’s when I wonder about the thinking of stockholders.
It seems a bit unfair to blame all parents with a broad brush. I didn’t feed my children there, but I was an educated, stay-home mother brought up to be an expert shopper and cook. That simply is not the case for huge numbers of parents today. Many are young enough to have been brought up themselves on fast food and tv (with its endless junk food ads).
I DID try their apples once on a road trip and agree with the poster who said they are absolutely disgusting. I kept wondering where on earth they managed to find such awful tasteless, “woody”, stale apples! That was the last time I resorted to them, even on a road trip. Now I take a cooler and stop in towns with markets to replenish with fruit, veggies and cheese.
I don’t own any stock in McD or any other fast food chain or large “food” producer. How about you, dear reader?
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Saturday the 30th of July – on the NPR show “Wait, wait, don’t tell me..”, contestants just concluded that the changes that MacDonalds has made in its Happy Meal amount to “the outsourcing of the throwing away of the apple slices to the customer”… succinct, eh?
[...] have done a great job of explaining why nutritionally, this move is little more than PR (see Marion Nestle and Andy Bellatti), missing from the analysis so far is this: what McDonald’s really wants is [...]
[...] Last week McDonald’s announced a new, healthier Happy Meal. The new Happy Meal automatically comes with fruit and a smaller serving of fries. It’s a start, but the meal is still pretty bad for you. Marion Nestle agrees. [...]