Not a chance, right? You be the judge. Take a look at this article:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0726-happy-meal-20110726,0,1581970.story
From the article:
McDonald’s…will begin serving a fruit or vegetable with every Happy Meal sold in the U.S.
Wow. Bet you thought that day would never come.
I really wish someone had interviewed Morgan Spurlock for this article, or any of the articles about the big announcement today. After all his ‘Supersize Me’ movie called out McDonald’s like never before – in a humorous and witty way, of course. So funny. I could watch that movie over and over again, but I digress.
So it seems that Mickey D’s is trying to get it right. I say trying because as you’ll see in the article, just because they are offering fruit in every Happy Meal doesn’t mean they are doing away with fries or even keeping the portion sizes of fruit that currently exist.
They’re downsizing both actually. Which is good from a calorie perspective but not great that the portion of fruit is being reduced. It kind of screams ‘marketing ploy’ doesn’t it?
Once again, from the article:
The business strategy for McDonald’s is to make parents feel less guilty about feeding fast food to their children, so they’ll become more frequent customers.
Bingo. That’s not a good thing. I’m glad they are making fruit a part of their Happy Meals and I’m glad they offer things like milk and juice instead of soda but it doesn’t change the fact that their food is terrible for you.
I eat at McDonald’s sometimes. I’m a sucker for cheap, fast food. I admit it. I just don’t want my kids eating it. Their health is important to me. Not that mine isn’t, but you get the point. I’m responsible for making sure they grow up as healthy as possible. I want the best for them and McDonald’s does not represent that. If they do have to eat it, at least they will have a fruit to go with their Happy Meal I suppose.
So while I am happy to see this, I will not make the mistake of thinking that this announcement means McDonald’s is a healthy place to eat. It isn’t. Thing is, neither are most restaurants though. The sodium and fat content in foods served at most of these places are off the charts. Take a look sometime. You’ll probably be shocked at what you find out.
Anyway that’s enough for now. Haven’t had a good rant in a while. I’ve been on vacation…and it was amazing. But that’s another blog entry for another time.
What do you think? Is this a good move or not enough? Or worse? Take five seconds and respond to the poll below. Have a good one folks.
I wonder what’s next…a non-fat yogurt Frosty? Maybe a turkey burger Whopper? Anything is possible I suppose.
positively second 