McDonald's Introduces Healthier Happy Meals, but Are They?

So for many health and family groups, McDonald's is the "devil" when it comes to nutrition.  The company has very slowly introduced healthier options but most still feel they have not made any major change, especially when it comes to marketing Happy Meals to children.

McDonald's success is not it's burger or fries, but the fact that they were able to successfully cater to the youth of America via marketing cool and fun toys with meals starting back in the 80s.

With the recent backlash McDonald's began giving parents and children the option to have milk instead of a soda and apple slices instead of fries. However, today they have taken it a smaller step further reducing the portion of fries in a Happy Meal in half and now making the apple a part of the meal.  So apple slices are no longer an option and now become the fifth element in the meal including burger (or chicken nuggets), fries, drink and a toy.

Apparently, just by reducing the portion of fries and adding an apple to the meal, McDonald's feels they have taken a really big step.  The new Happy Meals reduce calories by 20% with 100 less calories, but they still have 470 calories and 14 grams of fat. Additionally, there will be 15% less saturated fat and 20% less sodium. 

Yes, I commend them for trying to make the meals healthier, but if they really wanted to make a stand, why not just offer the meal with out the fries? Maybe even reduce the cost of the meal without the fries??

At the end of the day most nutritionist will of course advise against going any where near a McDonald's, so it does become more of a parenting issue. 

I know many family members that do not even take their kids near fast food and they are not lured in by the toys or the marketing. The food content is one issue and the marketing of movies, cartoons and toys with the meals is another issue. So is the golden arches going to do anything about the toys?

Nope.

President of McDonald's Jan Fields was asked in an interview with ABC why they do not just stop marketing the toys and her response was basically how can you take the toys away kids still need to have fun.  As you can see the core value of selling to children is still being masked by the word "fun".

So again, I think it is good to see them attempt again to offer a healthier option, but I feel it is almost a moot point because they can do so much more.

What do you all think? Do you agree with me or do you feel that what McDonald's is doing is good enough?