McDonald’s should be commended for attempting to provide a slightly healthier, or not-as-fat-drenched options to their menu in recent years. This has been especially noticeable with the signature Happy Meal for younger consumers. Gone are the days of a simple Happy Meal with a cheeseburger, small fries, a soda, and a toy. Now McDonald’s has options like yogurt, apple slices, juice, and milk.
In an effort to continue working to create a Happy Meal option that is slightly more guilt-free for parents, McDonald’s will phase in a new menu to meet a calorie cap of 600 calories. In order to do so, the fast food chain will remove cheeseburgers from the Happy Meal menu entirely. The new featured item will be McNuggets. Chocolate milk will also have less sugar than it previously had to help reach the new goals. Other menu options may be explored as well for happy meal options, like a chicken sandwich.
The new Happy Meal strategy is aimed at reducing the total calorie count of its happy meals by the year 2022. These changes will take effect worldwide, but the United States will see the plan go into effect first with the goal of reaching the new calorie limit in happy meals by June in all of their locations.
.@McDonalds is removing cheeseburgers from their Happy Meal menu. Life will never be the same.
— Madison Gesiotto (@madisongesiotto) February 15, 2018
Give me a break McDonald’s. Newsflash. Kids LIKE cheeseburgers and chocolate milk. Why not keep them and let parents decide what their children want?
— Lo_Bo_75 (@Lo_Bo_75) February 16, 2018
By June, McDonald's happy meals will no longer have cheeseburgers. Luckily you can get the same nutritional value by eating the toy.
— Matt Fernandez (@FattMernandez) February 16, 2018
So @McDonalds is taking cheeseburgers and chocolate milk off their happy meal menu to become more healthy. We are discussing @McDonalds correct? Not @panerabread. I go there to have an unhealthy meal. Get it together @McDonalds. #McDonalds #itsnotbroken
— MK (@mfklahn) February 16, 2018
I'm not a fan of McDonald's, especially not their cheeseburgers. I understand that it was done in the name of health. But I guess what annoys me about taking burgers off the happy meals is that they're removing the OPTION all together… pic.twitter.com/XrgmNQiqUI
— Henry (@vegeta8259) February 16, 2018
If you are a parent and still want to allow your kid to enjoy the simplicity of a cheeseburger with their Happy Meal, well, you can still just get a cheeseburger along with it. They’re not removing cheeseburgers from the menu. They’re just trying to give a gentle nudge in the direction of healthier food, or at least the McDonald’s version of healthier food, which means “healthier only relative to other McDonald’s options.”
