Soft drinks from children’s menus, but it doesn’t mean a meal is healthy

Burger King quietly removed soft drinks as an option in its Burger King Kids meals and menu. Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and other fast food chains have also made similar changes.

Burger King still offers soft drinks, but now the options are low-fat milk, low-fat chocolate milk, and apple juice.

For a long time, we have known that sodas are not nutritious and contain a lot of sugar. It is better to avoid serving soft drinks to children aged three to seven, as they are still developing their taste and eating habits.

It is hard to celebrate Burger King’s delinquent change in product offerings for children from the perspective of consumer behavior and policy. This is like congratulating yourself for cleaning the fridge while the house burns.

A soft drink comes with a meal for kids, as a matter of course. This means that a person must actively make an effort to avoid it. It can be difficult for people to choose a healthier option when a soft drink is included in the meal. By removing soft drinks from the menu, the drinks that are now included in the meal for kids become the default. Where are we now?

Defaults can be a powerful tool for marketing. Fast food meal via www.shutterstock.com.

Choice without awareness: defaults

Defaults can be a powerful tool for consumers. It may cost more to remove “standard” options than to accept defaults. Defaults can also have a profound impact on other decisions. It takes more work to opt out of default, and defaults indicate the recommended course of action.

In the food world, defaults can lead to “choices without awareness.” For example, you may order a salad at a restaurant and choose the dressing without knowing how much you will get. Asking for the sauce to be served separately is a popular way to avoid defaults. Further, bundle deals such as a “meal deal” at a fast-food restaurant influence consumers’ perceptions of value, so it is difficult to opt-out.

In marketing terms, a combo meal is an example of bundling, which is a grouping of products sold at a discounted price. In most cases, the consumer has a choice of products. Bundles that have limited options give consumers a sense of choice, but they also act as defaults. If you choose between fried or hamburger, both have high calorie counts. The bundle choices can also be healthy. For example, McDonald’s includes Clementines in its Happy Meal as an option for whole fruit.

Soft drinks aren’t the only issue

Burger King’s soft drinks bundle is no longer the default, but are the other options the best for children to consume?

Sugar content in fat-free milk is 12 grams, Capri Sun apple juice contains 20 grams and 1% low-fat chocolate milk contains 25 grams. The American Heart Association recommends children limit their sugar intake to three or four teaspoons a day. This is to give you some background information. Low-fat chocolate milk contains a little over six teaspoons. Half of that sugar is added, which turns the milk into chocolate.

The meal isn’t exactly healthy, even without the soft drinks. The Burger King Kids Meal includes a cheeseburger that contains 690 mg of sodium. According to the 2010 US Dietary Guidelines, the recommended sodium intake of children aged four to eight years is 1,900mg. This cheeseburger represents a third of their daily maximum intake.

These meals are still full of sugar, fat, and salt. Girl via www.shutterstock.com.

Childhood patterns can persist into adulthood.

Despite the quiet efforts of many restaurants and food manufacturers to reduce sodium, fat, and calories, they still have to compete. Sugar, salt, and fat are all essential to the taste of food. Cutting too much can affect a manufacturer’s profits if consumers prefer other foods. tastes are important for food sales since they are in business to sell food.

Early exposure to sugary, salty, and fatty foods can lead to a lifelong preference for those flavors. Even though the evidence is thin, it’s possible that, even when healthier options are available, they are chosen. The likelihood is that people will select chocolate juice or milk, and the trifecta of sugar, sodium, and fat will remain.

Anyone who has been around children aged three to seven can confirm that it is difficult to enforce a soda ban with younger kids when their siblings and parents drink soda during meals. During these meals, context and food consumption habits are established.