McDonald’s has recently made headlines by announcing a few healthy tweaks to their famous Happy Meals, reducing the portion size of their kids’ french fries from 2.4 ounces (which is about two and a half servings) to about 1 ounce, and adding a serving of fresh fruit or vegetables automatically to every kids’ meal. But first lady Michelle Obama‘s response has been a little tepid (she didn’t invite McDonald’s executives to the White House like she did last week when grocery chains announced their efforts to combat food deserts) but she still called the new changes “positive steps” in the fight against childhood obesity.
This comes almost a year after the first lady offered her suggestions to the National Restaurant Association on ways food chains could make their menus healthier. At the time, a cheeseburger Happy Meal with a small Coke packed about 640 calories and 23 grams of fat. These new changes will reduce the calories by 20 percent while trimming about 6 or 7 grams of fat. McDonald’s also announced that company executives will launch a “listening tour” in August to hear more suggestions from parents and nutrition experts.
Of course, the first lady’s wait-and-see attitude may just be because she knows there’s more to life than calorie counting. After all, she likes a burger herself every so often — and who could blame her?
