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McDonald's takes a lot of flak for its unhealthy fare -- and the fact that it gives toys to kids who eat it. Now the company will offer apple slices or some other fruit or veggy in each of its Happy Meals.
The restaurant chain had offered parents the option of fries or apple slices, but it says only about 11 percent of those ordering made the healthier choice. According to the Chicago Tribune, McDonald's will still serve the fries (along with apple slices -- sans caramel sauce) at a smaller portion size. The changes will be rolled out from September to April.
Since 2004, McDonald's has offered healthier options for kids' meals. That year, the chain began offering a choice of milk instead of soda and Apple Dipppers (with caramel sauce) instead of fried. In 2006, ads only featured the healthier choices. But people mostly ignored the healthier options.
Here are some ways you can localize this story:
- Ask nutritionists in your area to weigh in on the new Happy Meal with apple slices. Do they think this will help to combat the rising obesity among American children? Be sure to run a breakout that lists healthy food choices for children.
- Since parents will soon be thinking about their children heading back to school, this is a perfect time to run a story about school lunches. Work with a nutritionist on an altnerative story format that shows what five days worth of healthy lunches would look like. You can arrange it by day of the week. Be sure the options make the food fun for kids.
- Talk to schools to see how they approach the lunches they offer. Are there moves to improve the nutritional value of school lunches? If your schools already offer healthy options, how many kids take advantage of them? Are schools running into the same problems McDonald's reports, with few making the health choices?
- Talk to pediatricians to see what their experience is with childhood obesity. How much can be blamed on McDonald's, and how much do parents need to alter their approach to what their children eat?
- Talk to day care and preschool workers to see how they handle snacktime. How do they handle the nutrition of snacks. Also, you can do a breakout of prepackaged kids' snacks to show the nutritional value of popular brands. Use a nutritionist to help with this and run it in an alternative story format.
McDonald's takes a lot of flak for its unhealthy fare -- and the fact that it gives toys to kids who eat it. Now the company will offer apple slices or some other fruit or veggy in each of its Happy Meals.
The restaurant chain had offered parents the option of fries or apple slices, but it says only about 11 percent of those ordering made the healthier choice. According to the Chicago Tribune, McDonald's will still serve the fries (along with apple slices -- sans caramel sauce) at a smaller portion size. The changes will be rolled out from September to April.
Since 2004, McDonald's has offered healthier options for kids' meals. That year, the chain began offering a choice of milk instead of soda and Apple Dipppers (with caramel sauce) instead of fried. In 2006, ads only featured the healthier choices. But people mostly ignored the healthier options.
Here are some ways you can localize this story:
- Ask nutritionists in your area to weigh in on the new Happy Meal with apple slices. Do they think this will help to combat the rising obesity among American children? Be sure to run a breakout that lists healthy food choices for children.
- Since parents will soon be thinking about their children heading back to school, this is a perfect time to run a story about school lunches. Work with a nutritionist on an altnerative story format that shows what five days worth of healthy lunches would look like. You can arrange it by day of the week. Be sure the options make the food fun for kids.
- Talk to schools to see how they approach the lunches they offer. Are there moves to improve the nutritional value of school lunches? If your schools already offer healthy options, how many kids take advantage of them? Are schools running into the same problems McDonald's reports, with few making the health choices?
- Talk to pediatricians to see what their experience is with childhood obesity. How much can be blamed on McDonald's, and how much do parents need to alter their approach to what their children eat?
- Talk to day care and preschool workers to see how they handle snacktime. How do they handle the nutrition of snacks. Also, you can do a breakout of prepackaged kids' snacks to show the nutritional value of popular brands. Use a nutritionist to help with this and run it in an alternative story format.
