Subway Debuts Enriched Bread

Subway, the world's biggest food chain by the number of outlets, has just announced plans to start adding vitamin D and calcium to the bread it uses in its sandwiches, according to Nation's Restaurant News. One sandwich-worth of bread will now contain 30% one's daily value of vitamin D and 20% one's daily value of calcium, roughly the same as a glass of milk. The change affects all Subways' breads except English muffins and flatbreads.

More vitamins, overall, are probably a good thing. They certainly aren't a bad thing. And Subway has a track record of being relatively healthy, for a fast food chain. (Which is, of course, sort of like saying that The Idiot is relatively short, for a Dostoevsky novel.) But before we herald Subway as a beacon of healthfulness, we should take a moment to remember Michael Pollan's injunction against foods with health claims, and his warnings about the inefficiency of fortifying food. In Defense Of Food makes the persuasive argument that many nutrients are only beneficial to health when they work as part of a naturally occuring food complex. Vitamin D and calcium may not be as good for people without the other chemicals they accompany in milk.

Moreover, it's not even clear that Vitamin D is in short supply. Center for Disease Control data indicate that eight percent of Americans are vitamin-D-deficient, with 80-90% of Americans' vitamin D intake coming from sun exposure. So next time you're worried about not having enough D in your bloodstream, consider taking a long walk in the sun rather than ordering a $5 footlong.

Source: Huffpost 8/2/11

Healthier Happy Meals!

Under pressure from health and children's advocacy groups, McDonald's Corp. is making changes to its famed Happy Meals.

The fast food chain will add a serving of fruit or vegetable to all of the meals, which are aimed at children, and shrink the portion of French fries.

The changes, to be announced Tuesday, will take effect in September in some markets and then roll out to all 14,000 McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. by April.

McDonald's said it first experimented with cutting fries entirely from the Happy Meals, but children and parents rebelled.

"People come to McDonald's and, first of all, they want the choice and the control to be theirs, but their expectation of a Happy Meal does include a fry," said Jan Fields, president of McDonald's USA. "When we did it without fries, there was a huge disappointment factor."

The new French fry holders in Happy Meals will contain 1.1 ounces of potatoes, down from 2.4. Apple slices will often be included as the healthful side dish, but it could also be carrots, raisins, pineapple slices or mandarin oranges, depending on the time of year and the region in which they're being served, Fields said.

Although subject to variation depending on what's ordered, the new meals will represent, on average, a 20% decrease in calories, the chain said.

Fields said Happy Meal prices will not go up as a result of the changes. But the chain has raised prices this year as a result of soaring commodity costs.

As the world's largest restaurant chain by sales, McDonald's has been under intense scrutiny for the nutritional quality of its food and its marketing to children. Critics have strongly challenged the chain's practice of selling kids' meals that include a toy, connecting it to the nation's obesity crisis.

Last year, San Francisco and Santa Clara County banned toys with meals at fast food restaurants if the meals didn't meet certain nutritional criteria. Similar legislation has been proposed in New York.

"We know we're a leader and we know we need to be part of the solution," McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud said. "But we can't be looked at as providing the only solution."

The business strategy for McDonald's is to make parents feel less guilty about feeding fast food to their children, so they'll become more frequent customers.

"People tell us they want to feel good about visiting us regularly, about the food options that we serve, and want to visit us even more often," Fields said.

McDonald's revamped its Happy Meal choices in 2004 by offering soda alternatives, such as 1% milk, with a meal of hamburger, cheeseburger or chicken nuggets and fries. It also offered an option of replacing fries with sliced apples served with low-fat caramel sauce.

In 2006, McDonald's began advertising a version of its Happy Meal that included chicken nuggets and the apple slices, marketed as Apple Dippers because of the caramel sauce. The result is that 88% of McDonald's customers know about the fruit option with Happy Meals, according to the company. But only 11% of kids meals are ordered with apples instead of fries.

In the revamped Happy Meals, the caramel sauce will not be offered.

Geeta Maker-Clark, a family physician at NorthShore University HealthSystem, described the changes as "really good steps."

"I applaud any move toward including more whole food into a heavily processed meal," she said. "Bringing a whole food into it shifts the pendulum toward something more healthy, and I applaud the decreased portion sizes."

Beginning next year, the company said it will include a nutritional message in any advertising, marketing or packaging materials directed at children.

McDonald's is also pledging to reduce by 15% the amount of sodium in its food. The company recently reduced sodium in its chicken nuggets by 10%, on top of a 13% reduction in sodium after the nuggets were changed from dark meat to white meat.

The chain said it will work toward additional reductions in sugars, saturated fat and calories by 2020 and has hired an unidentified third-party organization to report on its progress.

"This seems like good leadership in the industry and one that should help the brand maintain its leading position with young families," said David Palmer, an analyst with UBS. Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, a restaurant industry consultancy in Chicago, said that although McDonald's is clearly trying to strike a balance between nutrition and cravings, "consumer are going to chose what they want." And that usually means something fried.

Tristano said the estimate that 11% of customers ordering Apple Dippers for their children "sounds high."

"I think you're going to get a good reaction from kids who like apples," Tristano said of the new meal. "But ultimately I think we're going to see a good bit of apples wasted from kids who just refuse to eat them."

Source: LA Times 7/25/11

Dads More Lenient With Fast Foods

Lenient fathers are more likely than mothers to influence childhood obesity because they allow their kids to eat at fast-food restaurants frequently, according to a new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

"Dads who think that dinner time is a special family time certainly do not see a fast-food restaurant as an appropriate place for that special family time, so this means that his kids are spending less time in those places. Dads who have no trouble eating food in a fast-food restaurant are going to be more likely to have kids who do so," said Dr. Alex McIntosh, AgriLife Research sociologist.

Researchers at Texas A&M University conducted a 15-month study to examine parents' use of time and how that impacted meal choices and the choice between fast-food and full-service restaurants. The researchers also asked children in these families to keep a record of what they ate and whether it was at home or out.

"To our surprise, it was father's time spent at fast-food restaurants—not mother's time spent there—that was associated with kids' time spent in a fast-food place." McIntosh said, noting fathers also need to know more about nutritional content of fast food in order to raise healthy, well-adjusted children.

They also found mothers who are neglectful and those who are highly committed to their work were more likely to allow their kids to eat at fast-food restaurants.

The current study seems to affirm one that appeared in the December 2010 issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, which noted parents need to be better empowered to be good role models and help their children eat healthy diets.

McDonald's Introduces "Just For You"

McDonald’s is personalizing its healthy-menu efforts by launching a new “Made Just for You” platform. The company debuted the new platform yesterday at its First Taste Event in New York City.

McCafé beverages, chicken-based options, and salads have all been placed under the “Made Just for You” banner. McDonald’s also used the First Taste Event to announce the addition of two “Made Just for You” items: the Mango Pineapple Real Fruit Smoothie and the Asian Salad.

Chef Dan Coudreaut, senior director of culinary innovations for McDonald’s USA, says restaurants can no longer develop menu options without having a conversation about their nutritional profile, and that this more intense look at nutrition encouraged McDonald’s to launch the “Made Just for You” platform.

McDonald’s development team, he says, is actively balancing flavor with the healthy attributes of each new menu item.

For McDonald’s, Coudreaut says, that means thinking outside the box to bring in healthier foods previously unheard of in the fast food industry, like oatmeal. But while McDonald’s is working with the portion sizes of some of its menu items, the chef says developing healthier menu options does not mean tinkering with the iconic McDonald’s dishes like the Big Mac.

“Rather than going after the negative [nutritional components] … it’s really going after the presence of positives,” he says. “Can we start introducing more fresh produce? Can we start introducing more vegetables, more fruit? Like the smoothies, like the oatmeal, like the Asian Salad, edamame, things like that. That’s where I think we’re going to win.”

Julia Braun, nutrition manager of product innovation and development for McDonald’s, has the task of tracking the nutritional data of every menu option Coudreaut and his team develops. She says the development team uses three filters to establish whether or not a new dish is up to snuff nutritionally: food groups, nutrients, and portion size.

“In most cases, taste leads; we let the chefs be creative, we let the product development team do their thing, and then we take a look at the nutrition and say, ‘Are there any red flags, are there any opportunities to improve it?’” Braun says.

Not coincidentally, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains are some of the stars of the “Made Just for You” platform. And future menu development at McDonald’s, Coudreaut says, will continue to focus on these food groups and the ability for consumers to pick and choose the components of their meal.

Source:Sam Oches, QRS Magazine.com; 5/12/11

No More Happy Meals in San Francisco

San Francisco's board of supervisors has voted, by a veto-proof margin, to ban most of McDonald's Happy Meals as they are now served in the restaurants.

The measure will make San Francisco the first major city in the country to forbid restaurants from offering a free toy with meals that contain more than set levels of calories, sugar and fat.

The ordinance would also require restaurants to provide fruits and vegetables with all meals for children that come with toys.

"We're part of a movement that is moving forward an agenda of food justice," said Supervisor Eric Mar, who sponsored the measure. "From San Francisco to New York City, the epidemic of childhood obesity in this country is making our kids sick, particularly kids from low income neighborhoods, at an alarming rate. It's a survival issue and a day-to-day issue."

Just after the vote, McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud said, "We are extremely disappointed with today's decision. It's not what our customers want, nor is it something they asked for."

The ban, already enacted in a similar measure by Santa Clara County, was opposed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was vying to be lieutenant governor in Tuesday's election. But because the measure was passed by eight votes — one more than needed to override a veto — his opposition doesn't matter unless one of the supervisors changes his or her mind after the promised veto.

Under the ordinance, scheduled to take effect in December 2011, restaurants may include a toy with a meal if the food and drink combined contain fewer than 600 calories, and if less than 35% of the calories come from fat.
Over the last few weeks, the proposed ban caused a stir online and on cable television, with supporters arguing that it would help protect children from obesity, and opponents seeing it as the latest example of the nanny state gone wild.

Supervisor Bevan Dufty, whose swing vote provided the veto-proof majority, said critics should not dismiss the legislation as a nutty effort by San Franciscans. "I do believe the industry is going to take note of this. I don't care how much they say, 'It's San Francisco, they're wacked out there.' "

Proud, the McDonald's spokeswoman, said the city was out of step with the mainstream on the issue.

"Public opinion continues to be overwhelmingly against this misguided legislation," she said. "Parents tell us it's their right and responsibility — not the government's — to make their own decisions and to choose what's right for their children."

McDonald's is not the only fast-food chain to offer toys with children's meals, but because it is so prominent the company has become a key face of opposition to the ban.

Daniel Conway, spokesman for the California Restaurant Assn., bemoaned the ordinance's passage and contrasted it with San Franciscans' exuberant feelings after the Giants won the world series on Monday night.

"One day you're world champions, and the next day, no toys for you," Conway said.

He said the industry could respond in a number of ways to the ordinance. Some might continue to include toys but charge separately for them. Others might reformulate their meals so that they comply with the law. Restaurants might also simply stop offering children's meals altogether, he said.

Proud said the company does offer more healthful menu options, including apple slices that can be ordered with kids' meals instead of French fries.

The vote was held the same day that McDonald's reintroduced nationwide its McRib sandwich, a pressed pork patty that gets half its calories from fat and has a cult-like legion of fans.

Mar said it would lead the fast-food giant and other restaurants to provide more healthful food for kids. The ban, he said, was crucial to the fight against childhood obesity and the illnesses that go along with it, including diabetes and the risk of heart problems and stroke. The cost of fighting those diseases, he said, will be in the billions.

"It's astronomical how much it's going to cost if we don't address it," Mar said. "It's incredible the crisis that's going to hit us."

Source:sharon.bernstein@latimes.com

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