'Happy meals' for healthy eaters
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer
Now that they're retired as educators, Evie and Don Nugent eat at the Manoa McDonald's at least twice a week, which gives them a chance to try all the new "healthier" menu items.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
The Nugents expect to buy the Go Active! adult "happy meals" that debut today at Hawai'i McDonald's. The pair exercise, they generally eat healthy and they enjoy the convenience of going to their neighborhood McDonald's.
McDonald's owner/operator Miles Ichinose shows a caesar salad, one of the chain's new menu offerings.
"I like the chicken salad, the grilled chicken salad," Evie said.
Don generally prefers a burger, usually making it a hamburger, small fries and a side salad. "I try to moderate," he said.
John Cheung, nutritionist at Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, welcomes any healthier fast-food choices because he knows how many of his patients rely on the national chains for a lot of meals.
Cheung sees the trend toward more healthy fast-food choices as a result of increasing consciousness about the fattening of America, recent obesity lawsuits and the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets. Subway, for example, has soared in popularity with healthy sandwich offerings, and other fast-food restaurants have offered more salads and low-fat options.
• The new Go Active! meals contain: a choice of four premium salads; a bottle of water or other drink; a simple pedometer to count steps; a booklet of tips on walking and exercising. • Prices vary by site, with about half the McDonald's Hawai'i restaurants planning to start sales at $6.99. • Those restaurants plan to sell the pedometers separately, starting at $2.99. • The 77 McDonald's restaurants here will sell some 70,000 pedometers in seven colors. • Top-selling Hawai'i menu items: Chicken McNuggets Made With White Meat; cheeseburgers; Filet-O-Fish sandwiches and (of course!) those famous fries.
Cheung urges people to make good choices wherever they eat. "I would tell them go have a salad or the veggie sandwich," he said.
Go Active! facts
"McDonald's has a big influence on our culture. It's part of our lifestyle," he said. "Even my niece, who's only 2 years old, knows what McDonald's is."
And Cheung suggests small changes that add up: Skip the mayonnaise and try the mustard; leave off the cheese; get a smaller portion of whatever you're eating. For example, "I would have them have a regular hamburger or a cheeseburger instead of a Big Mac."
Brandon Kalt, who works for Akamai Glass, grabs lunch at McDonald's at least once a week. "I usually eat a Quarter Pounder meal," he said, but with the newer choices, he sometimes adds on a side salad.
Leeza Philson of 'Aiea, a high-school senior from St. Francis School, comes to McDonald's with her friends about once a month for the fries. "We come to McDonald's for something cheap and easy."
Philson's classmate Alanna Ackerman, of Kailua, agrees. "It's comfort food," she says.
McDonald's owner/operator Miles Ichinose expects to keep a mix of customers happy with the variety of healthy menu items selling alongside the burgers and fries.
A decade ago, McDonald's produced a low-fat sandwich that just didn't sell. "People talked nutrition but they didn't eat it," he said.
New Go Active! meals have a salad, drink — and pedometer.
This time, it's different. "Now, they talk nutrition and they eat it."
Ichinose, who owns the Manoa restaurant and five others on O'ahu, said he's been surprised by the early popularity of "apple dippers," fresh apple slices sold with a caramel dip. He's selling them for $1.20 each and is off to a good start in the first two weeks. Some people are choosing them instead of fries in the kids' Happy Meals. Others are buying them separately.
While it's true that burgers make up the bulk of sales, Ichinose has seen a steady increase in the popularity of lower-fat choices. If he had to make an educated guess, he'd put healthy menu items at about 15 percent of sales and growing.
Some McDonald's folks call it "the mommy factor." With salads that taste good, veggie burgers and grilled chicken, many mothers will eat lunch with their children at fast-food places rather than getting their food someplace else.
Ichinose, who has 33 years with the food icon, shrugs off skepticism about salads in the house of fries. "You can choose unhealthy foods anyplace," he said. He said the company will stick with its popular foods while coming up with new items that customers want. "It's a race to become relevant."
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
