When I eat at McDonald's I usually get the grilled chicken sandwich in an attempt to be a little healthier but when I want to splurge, I always get the cheeseburger Happy Meal. What will I do without my cheeseburger and my toy!!!! ~Karla
As much as they know it’s probably bad for them, sometimes parents just can’t avoid buying their children a Happy Meal at McDonald’s, but soon moms and dads can feel less guilty about it.
The fast food giant just announced plans to make Happy Meals healthier by the end of 2022. The goal is to have at least 50% of all Happy Meals contain no more than 600 calories, with 10% coming from saturated fat, 10% coming from added sugars and with each meal having only 650 milligrams of sodium.
As for whether your kids will be happy with the changes, that’s another story. To meet their goals, McDonald’s plans to only put a cheeseburger in a Happy Meal at a customer’s request, plus they're cutting the size of a French fry order that comes with Chicken McNuggets, and reducing the added sugar in chocolate milk, with bottled water promoted on the menu board as the featured beverage for the item.
- Plus they may start offering new, healthier food options in the meals, like a Junior Chicken, which is a grilled chicken sandwich.
- And while the goal is to have all the changes made by 2020, folks will see some improvements as early as this summer. The chain says that 100% of the changes, with the exception of the sodium decreases will be adapted by June, with 78% of the sodium goals met by then as well.
Source: USA Today