Introduction
McDonald’s has been a staple of the fast food industry for decades, but in recent years, the company has made a concerted effort to make their menu items healthier. From adding more plant-based options to reducing sodium and sugar levels, McDonald’s has made significant changes to their menu in the last decade. In this article, we’ll explore 14 ways McDonald’s food has become healthier in the last decade. We’ll look at the changes they’ve made to their menu, as well as the nutritional benefits of these changes. So, if you’re looking for a healthier fast food option, you may want to consider McDonald’s.
14 Ways McDonald’s Food Has Become Healthier in the Last Decade — Eat This Not That
McDonald’s has come a long way in the last decade when it comes to offering healthier options. From adding more salads and wraps to the menu to introducing plant-based options, the fast-food giant has made strides to make its food more nutritious. Here are 14 ways McDonald’s food has become healthier in the last decade.
1. More Salads and Wraps
McDonald’s has added more salads and wraps to its menu in the last decade, giving customers more options for lighter meals. The salads are made with fresh ingredients and come in a variety of flavors, including Southwest, Bacon Ranch, and Caesar. The wraps are also made with fresh ingredients and come in flavors like Sweet Chili Chicken and Bacon Ranch.
2. Plant-Based Options
McDonald’s has added plant-based options to its menu in the last decade, giving customers more options for vegetarian and vegan meals. The fast-food giant has partnered with Beyond Meat to offer the Beyond Burger and Beyond Chicken Sandwich. The burgers and sandwiches are made with plant-based patties and are served with lettuce, tomato, and onion.
3. Healthier Sides
McDonald’s has also added healthier sides to its menu in the last decade. The fast-food giant now offers side salads, fruit, and yogurt parfaits. The side salads are made with fresh ingredients and come in a variety of flavors, including Southwest, Bacon Ranch, and Caesar. The fruit and yogurt parfaits are made with fresh fruit and low-fat yogurt.
4. Healthier Drinks
McDonald’s has also added healthier drinks to its menu in the last decade. The fast-food giant now offers a variety of low-calorie and sugar-free drinks, including Diet Coke, Sprite Zero, and Minute Maid Light. The drinks are made with artificial sweeteners and are a great option for those looking for a healthier alternative to sugary drinks.
5. Healthier Buns
McDonald’s has also switched to healthier buns in the last decade. The fast-food giant now uses whole wheat buns for its burgers and sandwiches. The buns are made with whole wheat flour and are a great source of fiber and other nutrients.
6. Healthier Fries
McDonald’s has also switched to healthier fries in the last decade. The fast-food giant now uses a blend of canola and sunflower oils to cook its fries. The oils are lower in saturated fat and are a healthier alternative to the traditional cooking oils.
7. Healthier Sauces
McDonald’s has also switched to healthier sauces in the last decade. The fast-food giant now offers a variety of low-calorie and sugar-free sauces, including Sweet & Sour, Honey Mustard, and BBQ. The sauces are made with artificial sweeteners and are a great option for those looking for a healthier alternative to sugary sauces.
8. Healthier Breakfast Options
McDonald’s has also added healthier breakfast options to its menu in the last decade. The fast-food giant now offers oatmeal, egg white sandwiches, and yogurt parfaits. The oatmeal is made with whole grains and is a great source of fiber and other nutrients. The egg white sandwiches are made with egg whites and are a great source of protein. The yogurt parfaits are made with low-fat yogurt and fresh fruit.
9. Healthier Burgers
McDonald’s has also switched to healthier burgers in the last decade. The fast-food giant now uses leaner beef for its burgers and sandwiches. The beef is lower in fat and is a healthier alternative to the traditional beef.
10. Healthier Chicken
McDonald’s has also switched to healthier chicken in the last decade. The fast-food giant now uses grilled chicken for its sandwiches and wraps. The chicken is lower in fat and is a healthier alternative to the traditional fried chicken.
11. Healthier Fish
McDonald’s has also switched to healthier fish in the last decade. The fast-food giant now uses wild-caught Alaskan Pollock for its Filet-O-Fish sandwich. The fish is lower in fat and is a healthier alternative to the traditional fried fish.
12. Healthier Cheese
McDonald’s has also switched to healthier cheese in the last decade. The fast-food giant now uses low-fat cheese for its burgers and sandwiches. The cheese is lower in fat and is a healthier alternative to the traditional cheese.
13. Healthier Toppings
McDonald’s has also switched to healthier toppings in the last decade. The fast-food giant now uses lettuce, tomato, and onion for its burgers and sandwiches. The toppings are lower in fat and are a healthier alternative to the traditional toppings.
14. Healthier Desserts
McDonald’s has also added healthier desserts to its menu in the last decade. The fast-food giant now offers fruit and yogurt parfaits and low-fat ice cream cones. The parfaits are made with fresh fruit and low-fat yogurt and the ice cream cones are made with low-fat ice cream. Both are great options for those looking for a healthier alternative to sugary desserts.
Mickey D’s has an *ahem* complicated track record when it comes to food quality and healthfulness—from apple pies with questionable expiration dates and dirty milkshake machines, to egg whites sprayed with a ton of butter.
However, the food giant has also taken more than a few steps to change that. “More than ever, people care about their food– where it comes from, what goes into it and how it’s prepared,” Mike Andres, former president of McDonald’s USA, said a few years ago. “We’re making changes to ensure the food we’re proud of is food our customers love and feel good eating, and we remain committed to our continuing food journey at McDonald’s.”
Not only has McDonald’s made its food healthier, but the chain has set sustainable and environmental goals across the company, influencing other restaurants to do the same.
With these recent changes to core recipes, food practices, and marketing strategies, McDonald’s seems to be headed in the right direction. Read on to find out how the chain has become healthier over the last decade.
And don’t miss 7 Steakhouse Chains With the Best Quality Meat in America.
Since 2012, McDonald’s has replaced a lot of the food in Happy Meals with healthier versions. This includes swapping Minute Maid apple juice with the organic Honest Kids apple juice, which has 45% fewer calories and half the sugar content. The chain also removed soda from Happy Meal menu boards and added bottled water as an option.
Apple slices were added to every Happy Meal, representing more food groups, and the small fries were replaced with a kid-sized portion, decreasing the calories and sodium by half. All Happy Meals are now 600 calories or less.
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Not only did McDonald’s change what’s inside a Happy Meal, but it also committed to marketing the popular item in a way that encourages kids to make healthier choices. According to the McDonald’s Global Happy Meal Goals: 2020 Progress Report, “100% of ads shown to children across the 20 major markets that showed Happy Meal menu items featured water, milk, or juice as a beverage and fruit, vegetables, or dairy as a side.”
McDonald’s aims to advertise balanced meals to kids, and 83% of Happy Meal Bundles shown in children’s ads in 2019 met the following stringent nutrition criteria: 600 calories max, 10% of calories from saturated fat, 10% of calories from added sugar, and 650 milligrams or less of sodium.
Parents need to know what their kids are eating, and McDonald’s has made that much easier over the years. According to the McDonald’s Global Happy Meal Goals: 2020 Progress Report, 12 of the 20 major McDonald’s markets provided complete nutritional information for Happy Meal Bundles on their websites in 2019. The report also noted that 7 of the 10 major markets with mobile app displayed complete nutritional information for Happy Meals on the app.
A positive change for both kids that love Happy Meals and adults that love the McNuggets—the chain removed artificial preservatives from the beloved chicken item in 2016. According to The Chicago Tribune, McDonald’s took this step to cater to customers seeking healthier and fresher foods. McNuggets are currently made with 100% chicken breast meat, but after being cooked, chicken meat only makes up 45% of the nuggets, while the remaining 55% is made up of batter, seasoning, and oil.
The Big Mac got healthier in 2018, when McDonald’s announced that its burgers were no longer going to be made with artificial preservatives, artificial flavors, and added colors from artificial sources. “We know quality choices are important to our customers, and this latest positive change to our classic burgers demonstrates our committed journey to leading with the customer and building a better McDonald’s,” said CEO Chris Kempczinski.
You may not have even realized that, in the past, the McMuffin didn’t have real butter on it. But it does now! In 2015, McDonald’s announced that it was trading liquid margarine for real butter on English muffins, biscuits, and bagels on the breakfast menu.
McDonald’s Fruit & Maple Oatmeal began offering this healthier breakfast option in 2014. According to Convenience Store News, Dr. Cindy Goody, Head of Ingredients & Nutrition at McDonald’s, said the menu item was added to make it easier for customers to eat whole grains and fruits.
The item has 320 calories with two servings of whole-grain oats, cream, brown sugar, red and green apples, cranberries, and raisins. Fun fact: This is one of Olivia Rodrigo’s favorite chain restaurant orders!
With so many people turning to plant-based, vegan diets, it’s no surprise that McDonald’s hopped on the trend. The McPlant is made with a plant-based patty, co-developed with Beyond Meat.
It is currently only available at select restaurants, but according to McDonald’s, the culinary team “nailed it,” so hopefully we’ll see it nationwide soon.
In 2015, McDonald’s set the goal to use only cage-free eggs by 2025. In 2019, the food giant reported that 33% of its egg supply was now cage-free.
Not only do cage-free farms provide better living conditions for chickens, but those chickens may produce eggs that have more Vitamin D than other eggs. A 2014 study showed that hens raised outside without cages produced eggs with greater amounts of Vitamin D3, which supports bone strength and immunity.
In 2016, McDonald’s announced a key change to its buns: no more fructose corn syrup. According to Insider, the chain swapped high fructose corn syrup with another sweetener after hearing customers’ concerns about the original ingredient. The new buns are now used for Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, Filet-O-Fish, and McChicken sandwiches.
In 2016 the food giant announced that it would remove artificial preservatives from breakfast menu items, including sausage patties, omelet-style eggs on McGriddles, breakfast sandwiches, and scrambled eggs on breakfast platters.
The fast-food chain has regulated antibiotic use since 2003, but in 2017, the company developed an updated antibiotic policy to “preserve antibiotic effectiveness in the future through ethical practices today,” according to a report.
One of the policy’s main goals is to eliminate antibiotics, defined by the World Health Organization as Highest Priority Critical Important Antibiotics (HPCIA), from all its chicken supply worldwide by 2027. McDonald’s reported that HPCIA use has already been eliminated in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.
The chain also created a beef antibiotic strategy in 2018, and conducted global pilot tests to better understand and refine antibiotic use, as reported in McDonald’s Beef and Dairy Beef Antibiotic Policy March 2022. More updates on specific beef antibiotic targets and goals are expected in late 2022, but the chain is a bit behind schedule as reduction targets were supposed to be set in 2020.
Climate change has been at the forefront of new policies for fast-food chains, and McDonald’s is no exception.
“In 2021, we joined the United Nations Race to Zero campaign, pledging to put McDonald’s on the path to net zero emissions by 2050,” the chain announced last year.
This means reducing and offsetting emissions from its restaurants, corporate locations, and those created by its farming and supply chain partners. McDonald’s joined over a thousand other companies that also made similar commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, like Nestle, Kraft Heinz, and Starbucks.
They say Disney World is magical, and it just might be. In 2020, McDonald’s debuted a first-of-its-kind net zero energy restaurant at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. The unique location creates all of its renewable energy on-site, covering 100% of its annual energy needs.
There’s a solar panel roof, an automated energy system, and even family-friendly educational elements that teach customers about renewable energy.