Why Fruit Smoothies and Oatmeal Mean That McDonald's Is -- Gasp! -- Selling Healthy Food
McDonald's (MCD) current rollout of fruit smoothies coupled with the chain's recently announced plans to add oatmeal to the breakfast menu in 2011 makes it official -- the chain that turned fast food into an art form is now selling healthy food. The smoothies are made with a good deal of actual fruit and the impending oatmeal, while it certainly isn't going to be steel cut oats topped with wheat germ, will instantly become the healthiest option for a drive-thru breakfast.
OK, so McDonald's still pushes a lot of highly processed, nutritionally dubious food, but the point here is that the company is increasing pursuing a concerted strategy of distinguishing itself from its fast food competitors, many of whom appear to be moving in the opposite direction. Although McDonald's remains the favorite whipping boy of the food reform movement, the chain is eager to court people who want fresher, real foods.
McDonald's, for instance, has resisted the urge to tap into the impulse some customers have towards throwing caution to the wind and stuffing themselves silly with 1,500+ calories in one meal. The company has no version of Taco Bell's (YUM) Volcano Nachos (1,000 calories), Burger King's (BKC) Triple Whopper With Cheese (1230 calories) or Hardee's Monster Thickburger (1,420 calories). This may partly be because were McDonald's to sell something like a Thickburger it would likely be pummeled mercilessly in the press and by nutrition advocates. Other chains, none of whom come close to McDonald's size, are allowed to fly much farther under the radar.
The new strawberry banana and wild berry smoothies aren't perfect, but they're not bad either. They seem to represent an effort to produce a product that isn't overly processed and loaded with artificial ingredients. Here are the ingredients for the strawberry banana variety (260 calories for the medium) from McDonald's web site:
Strawberry puree, banana puree, water, sugar, concentrated apple juice, contains less than 1% of the following: cellulose powder, natural (botanical source) and artificial flavors, xanthan gum, citric acid, colored with fruit and vegetable juice, pectin.And the wild berry:
Strawberry puree, water, sugar, blackberry puree, blueberry puree, concentrated pineapple juice, concentrated apple juice, contains less than 1% of the following:The fact that the first two ingredients (at least in the strawberry banana) are purees of fruit is a good sign, as is the fact that they're sweetened with concentrated apple and pineapple juice, not just heaps of pure sugar. And as far as taste goes, the strawberry banana smoothie I sampled was not at all too sweet.
cellulose powder, xanthan gum, colored with fruit and vegetable juice, natural (botanical source) and artificial flavors, pectin, citric acid.
It's clearly an improvement over the syrup that's used to make the strawberry shakes, which contains high fructose corn syrup, the artificial preservative potassium sorbate and the food coloring red 40. Or compare it to Taco Bell's Mango Fruitista Freeze, which has nothing to do with an actual mango.
While packaged food companies have been falling over themselves to reformulate their products and make them healthier, restaurant companies -- both fast food and casual dining -- have done almost nothing to address the increasingly troubling problem of obesity and diet related diseases like obesity and heart disease. McDonald's is the exception.
Image from McDonald's
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