McDonald's Calorie Counts to Be Displayed on Menu Boards Nationwide
McDonald's will attempt to "educate" its customers starting Monday by posting the caloric information of burgers and fries on its menu board.
A regulation may soon be passed that will require fast food chains across the nation to provide calorie information on menus for customers to openly view. But instead of waiting for a mandate, the leading fast-food burger chain has decided to voluntarily give up all of its dirty little secrets.
"We want to voluntarily do this," Jan Fields, president of McDonald's USA, said Wednesday in an announcement. "We believe it will help educate customers."
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Of course, having knowledge to the amount of calories in a Big Mac is nothing new for New Yorkers, and even residents in Philadelphia have calorie information already provided on menus. Fields has duly noted that the numbers don't seem to make much of an impact on what customers decide to order.
"When it's all said and done, the menu mix doesn't change," she said. "But I do think people feel better knowing this information."
Margo Wootan, director of nutrition at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, has stated that the goal of the program is change over time. The hope is that customers will begin to make smarter choices- eventually.
"Obesity isn't the kind of thing where one day you wake up and you're fat. We gradually and slowly gain weight over time," she told The Los Angeles Times.
As an added bonus, Wootan added that fast food chains appear to strive harder to make better food when they are forced to put calorie counts on display.
"It can be embarrassing, or shocking, so they end up changing the way the product is made," she added.
It may also shock some customers who believe that they are making healthier choices, only to realize that sometimes a burger may have far less calories than a salad or fries.
