Posted on 07/26/2011 6:41:21 PM PDT by tobyhill
Bowing to pressure from health advocates and parents, McDonald’s is putting the Happy Meal on a diet.
The company announced Tuesday that it would more than halve the amount of French fries and add fruit to its popular children’s meal in an effort to reduce the overall calorie count by 20 percent.
But McDonald’s appeasement only went so far. A toy will still come with each Happy Meal despite criticism that the trinkets, often with tie-ins to movies like “Toy Story,” foster a powerful connection between children and the often calorie-laden meals.
While Happy Meals account for less than 10 percent of all McDonald’s sales, the signature box and its contents — first introduced in 1979 — have become a favorite target in recent years. Lawmakers and consumers have rallied around breaking that childhood link between toys and fast food, with the efforts increasing as Michelle Obama and national public health officials point to the estimated 17 percent rate of obesity among the nation’s youths.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Parents buy happy meals because they don’t want to cook. They’re not going to say...No Happy meals....Then I’ll cook...
Just forgetful. It has been a few months since the last club Mickey D’s run. Shame on me for leaving out two key elements of fast food dining pleasure. Pardon my culinary faux pas.
It’s like apples for Halloween...Big whoop!!
Nice!
Perhaps if they put a pic of her fat arse on the wrappers...well, golly...that might make everyone flee.
That new packaging would curb obesity.
If you want good fries, try them ‘animal style’ at In-N-Out.
If their sales of Happy Meals began to dwindle you can bet the apples will be gone quickly. Time will tell.
Parents get happy meals because their children want them.
We get them one time per week for our four year old. They are on special for $1.99 at the local McDonald's every Wednesday from 5-8PM. He loves the toys and it takes him two days to eat four chicken nuggets and a miniature fries. He rarely eats them cold. I often times MAKE my own dinner at home. I am not a fan of most of their food.
A Happy Meal is a treat. There is nothing wrong with it if it is not an every day meal.
McDonald's should tell these blowhards to get bent. They are nothing but a bunch of nosy busy bodies.
You want to lower obesity in children. Get rid of the school bus, throw away the X-Box, Stop feeding children three meals a day at school as well as providing food stamps to their parents, and send the children OUTSIDE to play.
OMG those evil, evil toys from McDonalds will undo everything I’ve ever taught my kids about health and eating right! Won’t someone please think of the children!
And any “dumbass” can make blanket statements like that.
It’s not the Happy Meal stupid, it’s the lazy ass kids and their “dumbass” parents who buy them video games, and let them sit on their butts in front of the tv or computer as soon as they get out of school.
It’s the “dumbass” parents who don’t want to upset poor, gentle, over-privileged Timmy and Tiffany and make them get out in the yard and play, or actually help them do the friggin yard work.
Is it smart to “live” on McDonalds? Of course not, but the way parents have to work nowadays, it is easier to go through the drive thru. What makes the difference is actually doing something to work off the calories.
Mods, remove the comments here if you want.
The kids have been eating “apples” all along. The French word for potato is pommes de terre, meaning “apple of the earth”. They have been eating fried apples all along!!!!!
Then you are a wise person, and I bet the favorite of the kids/grandkids.
So no more Happy Meals, then. Cheap bastards... It’s more likely that apples cost less.
If memory serves, it’s “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, and pickles on a sesame seed bun.” You forgot the pickles!
Liberals and their obsession with the Happy Meal. It is sort of the FOX News of menu options for them. I would love to see polling on the ideological breakdown of attitudes towards the Happy Meal.
“two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.”
You forgot the onions!
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