I browse through a lot of health and fitness related news every day in order to try and find things that can help our readers here improve their lives. In doing so I come across a fair number of unusual topics, but more often than not most of the things I read tend to get repetitive. That’s why, when I opened up my reader this morning, I darn near spewed a mouthful of coffee all over my dual monitor setup after I saw one of the headlines.
McDonalds has partnered up with Weight Watchers .
That’s right, folks. Over in New Zealand McDonald’s is now advertising several of their menu choices with the Weight Watchers logo and the POINTS value prominently displayed. They aren’t offering anything new on their menu as far as I can tell, but what they have done is picked out three meals from their available selections that a Weight Watchers member can choose for a quick and relatively low POINTS meal. The items are :
- A Filet-O-Fish sandwich with a side salad and a diet soda or bottled water.
- Six Chicken McNuggets with sauce, a side salad, and a diet soda or bottled water.
- A Chicken Wrap with a diet soda or bottled water.
All three of these items are advertised as having 6.5 POINTS.
As much as this news made my jaw drop over the sheer level of bizarre WTF-ery involved, I have to admit that I think it’s a wonderful sign. It means that yet another major restaurant chain is bowing to consumer demand for healthy menu options. So much so that the chains see the potential to increase their profits by catering to those needs (and, conversely, the possibility that they will lose business if they do not do so). If this kind of menu labeling is adopted world wide by a major chain like McDonalds it’s only a matter of time before their competitors take notice and respond in kind. If that happens we can look forward to the possibility of having Weight Watchers POINTS values prominently displayed on even more restaurant menus in the future.
As a long time Weight Watchers member all I have to say to that is “I’m lovin’ it.”
[Source: The Diet Blog]
The menus may be low on calories, but healthy? I doubt it.
No arguments from me there, but in a pinch if you’re going somewhere like McDonalds having the ability to exert some level of informed control over your food choices is a good thing.