Popular fast food restaurants are now altering their diets to attract the health conscious. With new lower-fat choices, McDonald’s and Burger King are no longer considered places to get just a burger and fries.
Last April, McDonald’s decided to add Premium Salads, a Caesar Salad, a California Cobb Salad, and a Bacon Ranch Salad to their menu in an attempt to better the public’s image of the company. Attracting the attention of health-conscious customers who might have shied away before and bringing new customers into the store, the salads offer an alternative to regular burgers and fries.
The franchise even altered its Web site, www.mcdonalds.com, in order to help customers create healthier meals and tabulate their fat and calorie contents.
While browsing the site, customers may discover that the Premium Salads do not offer significantly fewer grams of fat than the burgers and fries.
For example, the California Cobb Salad has 380 calories and 23 grams of fat while a hamburger, small fries, and a diet coke together have 490 calories and 20 grams of fat.
Susan Nitzke, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Wisconsin, believes this does not necessarily mean the salads are not a healthier choice.
“Customers should look at the food-guide pyramid and choose a salad if they need more vegetables in their diet. They should choose a burger with a bun if they need more carbohydrates,” Nitzke said.
A recent graduate of the UW, Jennifer Lawrence, understands the restaurants’ motivation to change their menus.
“McDonald’s and Burger King realize there are a lot of fast-moving people out there on health kicks who have nowhere else to go that’s a drive-through,” Lawrence said.
This new trend toward healthier, faster options prompted Burger King to introduce their new line of Chicken Baguette sandwiches. Each of the sandwiches contains only five grams of fat, and with names like Santa Fe Chicken, Savory Mustard Chicken and Smokey Barbeque Chicken, Burger King is hoping to abolish the low-fat equals low-taste stigma.
According to the Madison District Manager for Burger King, Bill Hiland, the new alternatives are “very popular with customers.” The restaurant also offers a salad and water as a substitute for the regular soft drink and fries in a value meal.
UW junior Christy Glisch doesn’t believe that college students are the consumers asking for low-fat options.
“I think when college students splurge to go to fast food, they’re really not going to get a salad or a healthy sandwich,” Glisch said.
Lawrence agrees and believes the fast food industry is targeting full-time working men and women who exercise and are starting to diet.
“Forty hours a week isn’t full time anymore; these people work longer hours and don’t have as much time to cook,” Lawrence said.
Whether it’s a burger or a salad, Nitzke thinks fast-food restaurants are moving in the right direction with their more nutritional efforts. She would still like to see more fruits, vegetables and whole-grain foods, but agrees that the new choices are an improvement. Nitzke also does not see anything wrong with ordering a burger every once in a while.
“There’s a big difference between getting fast food sometimes and all the time,” Nitzke said.
