McDonald's Offering Changes to Promote Healthy Eating

On Friday, Greenfield welcomed in a new McDonald's restaurant, as the modern replacement for the popular .

This September, that restaurant and thousands of others nationwide will offer choices geared toward improving nutrition.

The restaurant chain announced yesterday that it will be committed to children's well-being, expanding and improving nutritionally balanced menu choices and increasing customer's and employee's access to nutrition information.

The restaurant said it will reduce added sugars, saturated fat and calories through varied portion sizes over the next eight years.

"McDonald’s agrees with leading food and nutrition experts that making incremental lifestyle modifications with food consumption may lead to improvements in an individual’s well-being,” said Cindy Goody, McDonald’s senior director of nutrition in a news release posted on the company's website. “We support parents in their effort to encourage their children to enjoy the foods that are good for them along with the foods they love."

Perhaps the biggest change is to children's Happy Meals. Apple slices, already an option for customers as a replacement for fries, will be added to all Happy Meals come September, in addition to a smaller portion of fries. For those who want just apples, Happy Meals can be ordered with two bags of the fruit with no fries.

In addition, new fat-free chocolate milk and 1% low fat white milk will be the first drink offered to customers, though soda remains an option.

"As long as (apples are) just an option and not mandatory," it is a good idea, Lisa Dziedzic said on Greenfield Patch's Facebook page. "Last time I checked, I'm still in charge of what goes in my kids' bellies. If I want to treat my kids to some fries, that's my business."

Kim Wocelka, another Greenfield Patch Facebook user, agreed.

"If it was apples or fries I would probably chose the fries just cause my kids eat apples or any type of fruit at home all the time, but coming with apples and fries along with the hamburger, cheeseburger or nuggets is a good option."