I just heard on the radio about McDonald’s announcement that Happy Meals will contain a substantially reduced portion of french fries and will be equipped with apple slices.
This is great news. Eating fewer french fries will benefit the health of everyone. Eating apples is a good practice, especially if we eat apples instead of eating french fries.
But let’s not forget that kids don’t always eat all of what’s in the bag. In the case of Happy Meals, my guess is that kids will devour the fries first, eat 3 bites of the cheeseburger after removing any signs of vegetable matter, and tell parents they’ll eat the apple later. We all know that, if the apple slices are taken home, they’ll turn brown before the kids will even consider eating them. And if they’re brown, no kid I know would eat them.
So, nice going, McDonald’s. You get good press and remove the guilt burden from lots of parents who won’t feel so guilty about putting Happy Meal bags on the laps of their kids.
This should have a huge impact on the obesity epidemic in our nation’s children.