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In direct contradiction of a post I made earlier this month, McDonald's is not leading the pack when it comes to offering healthy food for kids, or adults. Mark Bittman notes in yesterday's NYT that even though every McDonald's exec he's talked to says the fast food outlet is only an occasional "treat" for his kids, why isn't the corporation taking a larger step to really make its food, well, healthier? The company points out that it now substitutes milk, water or juice (not so good) for soda, but still, the soft drink makes up more than 50 percent of the beverages sold to kids. "And, despite a well-publicized announcement a couple of weeks ago that promised to market only water, milk and juice in its Happy Meal advertising, there’s little sign of the sugar-peddling diminishing," Bittman writes. He adds that while it’s true that 21 percent of all Happy Meals are now sold with milk, "the vast majority of that is chocolate milk, which,...

Can it really be?  Is McDonald's really going to offer healthy food , not just salads that, when you add the dressing and croutons, have more fat and calories than Big Macs? Looks like it might be true.  Both The New York Times and Daily Mail ran stories this week about the fast food giant's new menu that will in, three years, in some places, allow diners to swap french fries for salad, fruit or vegetables (real vegetables), something they've been doing in France (it figures) for some time, and other healthy choices. The new menus are being rolled out in 20 of the company's markets, both here and abroad, that are responsible for 85% of their sales.   The changes will take place in half  of McDonald's restaurants in three years, and the rest will roll out sometime. .  .later.  Oh, 2020. The reason they're doing this?  There're a lot, but one of the main ones is you millennials, who prefer Chipotle and Panera (me, too). What's in store?  ...

It's pretty interesting.  Why do people who normally eat fruits and vegetables, and chicken and fish, when they do eat meat, devour french fries and hot fudge sundaes when they go out to fast food restaurants? Stephanie Clifford at The New York Times reports that " American consumers, even otherwise healthy ones, keep choosing caloric indulgences rather than healthy foods at fast-food restaurants." Restaurants have added salads and fruit and other healthier foods for some time.  But, as Clifford notes, "i t’s the sugary, fatty items that are flying — or waddling — out the door." Would you believe, as Clifford points out, that you can now have a bacon and egg sandwich between two glazed doughnuts?  You can, at where else, Dunkin Donuts. McDonald's CEO Donald Thompson recently told Cifford that although the chain had dedicated "one-sixth of its advertising time to salads, they make up 2 to 3 percent of sales, and don’t drive growth. "  Then...

Have a hospital trip planned?  Forget about the Big Macs .  A national watchdog group is pressuring hospitals in the Broward County area to kick out all the McDonald's franchises that sit in their lobbies, according to a story at The Enquirer-Herald. The group wants the hospitals to do it "to help curb the epidemic of diet-related disease and to stop fostering a food environment that promotes harm, not health," as John Dorschner at the Miami Herald reports.  Of the 14,000 McDonald's in the country, only 26 are in hospitals, though. You know, physician, heal thyself? McDonald's points out that it offers more than greasy burgers and french fries, including some salads, but the salads sometimes have more calories and fat than the burgers, if you include the croutons, bacon bits, and dressing that douses them. Corporate Accountability International is asking fast food outlets to lead the way in helping America -- where one out of three people is overweight or ...

Restaurant visits are slipping and guess who they're blaming?  Millenials. It's turning out that 18-to-30-year-olds just aren't going to restaurants much.  Fifty to 60 million of these young people are going out to restaurants far less than baby boomers did at that age, according to Stephanie Strom. And restaurants are hurting. Strom reports that research has shown that "restaurant visits among millennials have fallen 16 percent over the last four years, failing to pick up even as the economy has improved. The outlook for the restaurant industry over the next 10 years is dismal,” Bonnie Riggs, a restaurant industry analyst at a consumer marketing firm, told Strom.       Sales are expected to grow less than 4% in the next 10 years for places like McDonald's and even fast-casual outlets like Chipotle, a very bad thing for restaurants. In fact, McDonald's sales in stores open a year fell 1.2%, after rising every quarter for almost the last decade...

Oh no, say it isn't so!  But a new survey has found that Subway is every bit as unhealthy as McDonald's. In a study of young people from 12 to 21, a little over 1,000 calories were consumed by each participant at the golden arches, while at Subway, it was 955,  according to a story at takepart.com.  The Institute of Medicine (IOM) advises that students eat no more than 850 calories at lunch (and for people like me, on a 1,000-calorie-a-day diet, even that sounds decadent!). Now, I was also under the impression that Subway was healthier.  There you could get a turkey sandwich (okay, rolled turkey), tomato and lettuce on a bun, hold the mayo, maybe a slice of swiss cheese, and that just had to be healthier than a Big Mac, no? But the sodium content is higher at Subway (that's probably how they get away with making the food taste good), and the Subway sandwiches, one of the chain's most popular offerings, still had 200 more calories than a similar McDonald's mea...