McDonald's Nutrition Facts

Have you ever read the McDonald's nutrition facts that you find on the back of your tray paper?  Yeah, me neither.  That's because nobody goes to the Golden Arches for a healthy meal.  I go to keep my kids from driving me insane and because they make a tasty Mushroom 'N Swiss.

As the Daddy,  it is my right to lay claim to any and all leftovers that my children do not eat.  Up until recently, I enjoyed that right; at times I was generous enough to give a McNugget or a "bottom-of-the-happy-meal-box" fry to my wife.  Sadly, McDonald's, like the government, has decided they know what's best for my kid.  Can you say "Apple Slices"?

I can always count on at least two nuggets from her.

McDonald's has offered apple slices since 2004, but starting back in September, they automatically included them in Happy Meals, while including a smaller portion of fries.  It took awhile for it to spread throughout the country, but the virus is everywhere now.

And, while recent research found that on average, 88 percent of McDonald’s customers are aware of the option, apples are chosen in only 11 percent of Happy Meal purchases.    If you ask the cashier, they can replace the  fries with a second bag of apples, however, the reverse is not true.  You WILL get apples in your Happy Meal.  This is the same problem we have with our government; they don't listen to what people are telling them.

Here's what we're saying Ronald: "We know you have apples and we don't want them.  I like to finish the fries my kids don't eat.  Now you give them less fries which means
lessno fries for me.  You know what they leave for me to eat?  Apples!!!"

I don't want apples or nutrition when I go to McDonalds.  Our family goes to fast food restaurants to get away from the healthy crap (it's deceptively delicious) I fix at home.  If I want my kids to dine on processed pink slime and sodium-saturated fries, that's my call, not yours.   I can appreciate your attempt to get kids to eat healthy, but you're a fast food chain, not an organic health food restaurant.

The Nutritious vs. Delicious Test"

I'd like to submit the following videos as evidence that 89 percent of Happy Meal buyers don't want apples and 100 percent of my kids won't eat them.

I give Libby the option of choosing between your nutritious apple or your delicious nuggets.  I'd offer her some fries too, but she had already eaten them all by this point using the highly efficient double-fisting technique normally found on college campuses.  I specifically point to the apple hoping she might actually eat one of these things I paid for.  Notice the look of disgust on her face at :04 as she slides the apple away to go for the good stuff.  That's my girl.



She touches the apple again at around :16 but only to push it out of the way.  You can then notice her trying hard to decide which tasty piece of nugget to consume.  This may not be a fair test though.  There are more nuggets present than apples and she might be choosing quantity over "quality".  Let's try this again.



At this point, she has eaten every last nugget save a few crumbs stuck to the table and her chin.  Now she has to eat your apple right?  Wrong!  Babies put everything they pick up into their mouth and ours has put her share of gross things in there.  She will gladly eat (or attempt to eat) these things.   It is usually us that has to pull these items, such as dog hair, stickers, and jewelery, out of her mouth.  When it comes to McDonalds apples, she has no problem spitting those out by herself.

You hear people say a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture is worth one word: Blech.