{"id":134912,"date":"2018-03-13T07:02:21","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T11:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=134912"},"modified":"2018-03-13T07:13:37","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T11:13:37","slug":"will-holding-cheese-chocolate-milk-happy-meals-make-difference-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/03\/will-holding-cheese-chocolate-milk-happy-meals-make-difference-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Holding the Cheese and Chocolate Milk on Happy Meals Make a Difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"

McDonald\u2019s recently\u00a0announced a major commitment<\/a>\u00a0to improve the nutrition quality of its kids\u2019 meals. Globally, at least 50 percent of Happy Meal bundles, which include a main dish, side, and drink, will meet nutrition limits on calories, saturated fat, added sugar, and sodium set by McDonald\u2019s. In the U.S., the restaurant will use strategies such as not listing cheeseburgers or chocolate milk on Happy Meal menus \u2013 but providing the items if customers ask \u2013 to meet this goal.<\/p>\n

This commitment is a positive step, but reducing children\u2019s consumption of nutritionally poor fast food will require much more.<\/p>\n

I have spent 10 years studying fast-food kids\u2019 meals marketing and nutrition. My research and that of others demonstrate an enormous challenge for parents to select healthy options when the environment inside fast-food restaurants makes the unhealthy options so much more appealing.<\/p>\n

Fast food: Children are lovin\u2019 it<\/strong><\/p>\n

Improving the nutrition of fast-food kids\u2019 meals is important to public health. Childhood obesity rates have skyrocketed over the past four decades,\u00a0with no improvement<\/a>\u00a0in recent years. In the U.S., 58 percent of children ages 6 to 8 and 41 percent of preschoolers are overweight or obese.<\/p>\n

Sugary drinks are a big problem, but so is fast food. Despite recent introductions of healthier items,\u00a0nearly all fast-food items,<\/a>\u00a0including on kids\u2019 meal menus, exceed recommendations for maximum calories, sugar, saturated fat, and\/or sodium in a meal for children.\u00a0Fewer than 3 percent of kids\u2019 meal bundles<\/a>\u00a0offered by top fast-food restaurants, including McDonald\u2019s, meet the industry\u2019s own standards \u2013 set by the National Restaurant Association \u2013 for healthy meals for kids.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, on any day,\u00a0one-third of children<\/a>\u00a0consume fast food. And on days they eat fast food,\u00a0children consume 126 additional calories<\/a>, and more sugar, saturated fat, and sodium.<\/p>\n

Support for mandating healthier kids\u2019 meals is growing, as local communities enact laws setting nutrition standards for kids\u2019 meals. The\u00a0Baltimore City Council<\/a>\u00a0just approved legislation requiring healthy drinks as the default in kids\u2019 meals,\u00a0following the lead of other cities<\/a>, including Davis, California, and Lafayette, Colorado.<\/p>\n

Over the past five years,<\/a>\u00a0McDonald\u2019s has done more than most fast-food restaurants to voluntarily improve the nutritional quality of its kids\u2019 meals. In 2013, it reduced the size of french fries in Happy Meals and added a healthier side, such as apple slices or yogurt. In 2014, the restaurant initiated a policy to remove sugary sodas from kids\u2019 meal menus and only list healthier drinks, including milk, chocolate milk, and 100 percent juice as options.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s also has more at stake. The\u00a0company spent U.S. $33 million advertising<\/a>\u00a0Happy Meals in 2016. Children aged 2 to 5 viewed, on average, 2.7 TV ads for Happy Meals each week, while 6- to 11-year-olds saw three ads. Notably, children saw more ads for McDonald\u2019s Happy Meals than for any other food brand in 2016, and the company placed more than 10 times as many ads on children\u2019s TV networks (e.g., Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network) than any other fast-food restaurant.<\/p>\n

This marketing works.\u00a0In a survey of parents,<\/a>\u00a041 percent said their child asked to go to McDonald\u2019s at least once a week, while 15 percent of parents of preschoolers reported that their child asked to go every day.<\/p>\n

Persuading parents to say \u201cyes\u201d to their children\u2019s requests is also part of McDonald\u2019s marketing strategy.\u00a0When advertising to parents,<\/a>\u00a0trips to McDonald\u2019s and Happy Meals become a way to make children and parents happy. Public relations campaigns announcing nutritious options in Happy Meals also support this strategy. In a recent survey that has not yet been published, my research group found that 80 percent of parents said they had purchased lunch or dinner for their children under age 12 from McDonald\u2019s in the past week. And two-thirds said they would take their child to McDonald\u2019s more often because of the restaurant\u2019s healthier kids\u2019 meal policies.<\/p>\n

Yet despite positive attitudes about healthier Happy Meals, unhealthy sides and drinks with Happy Meals persist. In our 2016 survey, we asked parents who reported purchasing a Happy Meal for their child what drink they received; 42 percent answered that they received a soda. This proportion has not changed since 2010. In addition, 64 percent reported that they received french fries, while 31 percent did not receive a healthy side. (Happy Meals come with two sides.) Furthermore, 18 percent of parents purchased an item, such as dessert, plus the Happy Meal for their child, and 25 percent did not purchase a kids\u2019 meal at all. Notably, parents were more likely to purchase Happy Meals and healthier drinks for preschoolers than for older children.<\/p>\n

The tantalizing smell of fries<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parents decide whether their child gets apple slices and milk or french fries and soda with Happy Meals. But research on consumer choices shows that making the healthy choice in this situation is difficult, even for adults. Consider the environment inside a fast-food restaurant: the smell of french fries, the prominent soda fountain with soda brand logos, the images of ice cream and large burgers on posters and menu boards. These cues all trigger desire for these unhealthy but highly appetizing choices.<\/p>\n

\n

[There’s] an enormous challenge for parents to select healthy options when the environment inside fast-food restaurants makes the unhealthy options so much more appealing. — Jennifer Harris<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Studies by\u00a0behavioral economists<\/a>\u00a0also show that simply offering healthy options alongside unhealthy options is not enough to increase consumers\u2019 selection of a healthy option.<\/p>\n

However, offering healthier drinks and sides by default \u2013 and only providing unhealthy options upon consumer request \u2013 significantly increases the likelihood that consumers will accept the healthy items. Disney theme parks use this approach with their kids\u2019 meals.\u00a0An evaluation of their policy<\/a>\u00a0demonstrated high acceptance of healthier options.<\/p>\n

Publicizing healthier Happy Meal options while also offering unhealthy options raises concerns about potential \u201chealth halo\u201d effects. Research has shown that depicting\u00a0more nutritious kids\u2019 meal items<\/a>\u00a0in fast-food commercials does not increase children\u2019s selection of healthier items, but it does increase their reported liking of fast food generally. Advertising for unhealthy food, such as cookies and fruit drinks, using nutrition messages increases\u00a0children\u2019s beliefs that these products are healthy<\/a>.\u00a0Studies with adults <\/a>\u00a0have also shown increased calorie consumption and purchases of unhealthy fast-food sides resulting from health halo marketing messages.<\/p>\n

Finally,\u00a0a recent evaluation<\/a>\u00a0of McDonald\u2019s healthier kids\u2019 meal side and drink policies revealed inconsistent implementation at individual restaurants. In some cases, menu boards still showed french fries and sugary drinks as kids\u2019 meal options, and counter personnel continued to suggest these items with kids\u2019 meal orders.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s new commitment to set nutrition standards for Happy Meal bundles is a positive first step. However, I believe the restaurant must do more to prove its commitment to children\u2019s health and supporting parents. Healthy Happy Meals should be the most appealing choice for children, the most convenient choice for parents, and the only Happy Meal options available at their restaurants. McDonald\u2019s could also, in my view, stop advertising directly to children as young as 2 years old so that parents can make the decision about if and when to introduce their children to McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Originally published in The Conversation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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‘There’s an enormous challenge for parents to select healthy options when the environment inside fast-food restaurants makes the unhealthy options so much more appealing,’ says UConn researcher Jennifer Harris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":128311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,259,92,70],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[175],"class_list":["post-134912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-rudd-center","category-uconn-hartford","category-video","post_format-post-format-video"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 15:34:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134912"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135227,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134912\/revisions\/135227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/128311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134912"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=134912"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=134912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}