Don't Super Size me................. (McDonald's)

Member Name: unixgirl

Product:	McDonald's
Date:	03/02/06 (416 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: New menu, new attitude

Disadvantages: Price, and the toilets are still horrible

Having spent more time in McDonalds over the past couple of years (with friends and friends who have children and babysitting a couple of grumpy teenagers now and again), it has changed from my student days nearly 8 years ago. Before it was something that vaguely resembled meat on a soggy bun and watery coke to wash it down served with fries that were maybe potato in a previous lifetime (one good thing back then about McD's, they let you add the salt yourself rather than Wimpy and Burger King where the salt is added when they are cooked). Now they've done an about turn and realised that if they are going to survive they need to change.

How have they changed? Well salads for a start, and I don't mean just a few limp bits of lettuce. The salad bowls are well thought out with good choices, garden salad (greens with tomato, cucumber, onion etc), grilled chicken salad and crispy coated chicken salad and Caeser salad (as well as being excellent portion sizes). With all the salads you are given the dressing in a tub, so its up to you how much you slather on. Also on the menu now are Quorn burgers (though I haven't tried these yet, but they actually look really good), so vegetarians now have a choice apart from the obligatory bean burger.
The deserts have also changed and there is now fresh fruit, fruit salads and I've also seen natural yoghurt served with mixed berries.
.........and thats just for the adults. What about the kids?

We've all seen the documentaries about how badly the kids (and adults!) of today are eating. You only have to turn on the tv to see Jamie Oliver campaigning about school dinners or the fast food documentary 'Super size me' (was it this that prompted some of McD's changes I wonder?) as well as the scary health programmes that tell us that most of todays kids will not have a very long life span thanks to the junk they eat. ............So that brings me back to what McD's now have on offer to children.

Before it was chicken nuggets (and I've never seen chicken look like that) covered in ketchup (which is full of sugar and salt), although these options are still available they now offer chicken grills (mini proper chicken breast fillets grilled, no salt, no coatings), carrot sticks, veggie bites, grapes, apples, corn on the cob and fish bites (like fish fingers and 100% fish fillet). These are only a few of the now 108 items available to children for the new happy meals (prices range between 1.99 and 2.99 depending where you go). They also have a nutrition chart for their most popular products and their childrens basic menu printed on the back of the liners they use for the trays, so you can actually see that things are improving and they really are trying to cut down the amount of sugar, fat and salt in their food. Also available (if you ask a member of staff) is a booklet that contains the nutrition facts for every single product they sell (the information is also available on their website).

So thanks McDonalds for actually listening and realising that they will attract more customers with their salalds (myself included) who might not fancy a burger. Also the worried parents as they now know the food their kids are eating is healthier. Overall the menu is more appealing than just staring at a fatty burger on a soggy bun (as is the only real choice now in some other fast food places). The public may have given McD's a hard time in the past but they've cleaned up their act and proved fast food doesn't have to be unhealthy.

Happy Meals range from 1.99-2.99 (depending on location) and adult meal start from 2.99.

Update:- I got some good comments, thank you for the feedback. I did check the calorific value of the salads and yes some do have just as much fat as burgers (especially the fried chicken salad with full fat mustard dressing). But as I said above I do applaude McD's for giving people the choice to slather on the dressing or not themselves and choices about whether chicken is grilled or fried.

Further update (June 2005 and again Jan 2006, two different branches) :- I visited McD's at the weekend and instead of them assuming I wanted fries with my burger (I ordered an Extra Value Meal), I was asked if I wanted a garden side salad instead of fries! Keep the improvements going McD's! The salad was lovely and a decent portion to go with the burger. It contained lettuce, rocket, cucumber, tomato and some onion.

Summary: McDoanlds changing to survive to growing healthier eating trends