Food for Thought

CNRC aids McDonald's efforts to promote balanced lifestyles

The CNRC is taking its healthy lifestyle messages to where thousands of children eat every day, McDonald’s.

The fast-food giant’s growing concerns about children’s health prompted it to ask the CNRC for help creating sound nutrition messages for  its comprehensive, mulit-year Balanced Lifestyles platform. 

“We [the CNRC] decided to participate in this campaign because we thought it would be a great way to reach children and families with our messages,” said CNRC Director, Dennis Bier, M.D., a BCM Professor of Pediatrics-Nutrition.

The campaign includes tray liners that feature nutrition and health tips, which the CNRC helped to develop. The flip side of the liners provides nutrition information about McDonald’s products.

“With the increasing number of obese children in the United States, it is important to educate Americans about children’s nutritional needs. We hope to get across the messages about how to be healthy, how to make good food choices, and why exercise is important,” Bier said.

Bier is a member of the McDonald’s Advisory Council, a group of nutrition scientists assembled by the restaurant to advise on nutritional concerns. However, the agreement between the CNRC and McDonald’s is strictly voluntary; it is not a financial agreement, nor is it bound by a contract.

“Through this program, we have the potential to reach a diverse audience. More than 20 million customers a day eat at McDonald’s. If we can reach just a few of them through the nutrition facts on a tray liner, we’ve succeeded,” Bier said.