The Mighty Kids Meal has been out for years. I didn't even think they still made them, but then again I tend not to look at the Happy Meal menu.

From what I recall, it's intended for "older" children, essentially for kids who are too old for Happy Meals but still want a toy.

It's not balanced nutrition (though the milk and apples are a huge improvement over fries and soda, if people choose them), and I have major issues with lots of other aspects of McDonald's marketing. But I just can't get exercised over something that's supposed to be a main meal containing one-third of an average daily caloric requirement.

Yeah, I remember Mighty Kids Meals coming out right after I was too old for them, in the mid-90s. On the plus side, I think they can be helpful for adults who, for whatever reason, are stuck eating at McDonald's, they can get a meal with a little less food.

I remember several years ago I was at a Runza restaurant, which is a chain in NE. They were offering chocolate milk instead of pop with their kids meals. And while the milk is better in that it has calcium and such, it was whole milk -- it had about twice the calories of a pop that size. I thought that was sort of strange, very lesser of two evils.

While as a vegan, I don't like to see even *more* animal products being promoted to kids, I would ask you to consider striking the line about "children's obesity being a significant problem." Aside from the fact that a causal weight-health connection has not been supported by research in any age group, the idea that children are suddenly getting fatter is also a myth, deployed for political and economic purposes (see, for instance: http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/05/epidemic-that-wasnt.html).
I love this blog, and it usually does a good job at exposing the social construction of the normate body -- so I expect better than the perpetuation of the 'obesity epidemic' myth. Thanks!

Thanks for making that point, lauredhel. It drives me nuts (not picking on this post, just a general pet peeve) when someone points out that a Starbucks scone has 400 calories or something, and then sits back on their heels waiting for me to be shocked. Um, it's my breakfast, I'm OK with it having 400 calories. I mean, take two "shocking" meals that size plus a 1,000-calorie or whatever McDonald's meal for dinner, and you have an under-2000-calorie intake for the day, which is less than what people generally eat unless they're on a diet. The nutrition would be abysmal and I'm not recommending people do this, but calorie-wise I'm not too concerned about it.

I recently saw a post on Big Fat Deal tangentially referencing information that 9-year-olds supposedly need 1,400-2,200 calories a day, so as a dinner the amount of calories in the meal wouldn't fit too badly. Again it's very poor-quality food so I'm certainly not saying nothing is problematic about McDonald's, just saying I don't find the calories a big deal.

I do agree with the obvious manipulative nature of the "Mighty Kids" name. I guess it's better to be "mighty" than "happy" these days, eh? Actually that's sort of a metaphor for our whole society, now that I think about it. :)

Yeah, they've had the bigger option for years, as other comments have noted. In truth, I suspect it's very popular for parents to share with their kids, especially the nugget version--it divides up evenly between three people, and it's pretty cheap table rent for the play area.

Vidya,

Thanks for the link! I added it to the post, pointing out that the claim is contested, and I may put up a new post about the whole question in the next week.

Getting really sick of all this marketing bashing. I mean you know McD's food isnt good as all the time food....so what do you care if others do it? We have gotten to into the whole "protect everyone in the world" mindset. Maybe you think these people are making the wrong decision etting thier kids eat this. But guess what? THEY ARE NOT YOUR KIDS!!! WTF do you care (the W is for WHY in this case). Live your life, raise your kids, life goes on. We are pretty overpopulated as it is anyway and it isn't getting any better kids...

What people must realize is that places like McDonald's are foodservice-based companies that mainly specializes in fast food. Their specialty is not in fine gourmet, health food, or home cooking, and with the exception of some of their more recent offerings, I don't believe they ever have claimed to be anything except a fast food joint, just like dessert and pastry shops like Dunkin' Donuts don't claim to be anything other than what they are. Yet a place like Dunkin' Donuts is never the target of such scrutiny. I'm really getting tired of people blasting McDonald's. Sure, their marketing practices are sometimes questionable, but we need to stop pointing our fingers at them because they offer fast food. They have always offered this, and often when they find that something is extremely harmful to the health of the body, they make changes to their products. Moreover, the problem of obesity is caused by the lazy society that America has become. McDonald's has been around for decades, but it hasn't been until now that people have become so irresponsible for their nutritional and physical needs.

I don't think Mighty Meals are available at all McDonald's locations. I checked at a local one yesterday, and they didn't have them. Maybe we don't have mighty kids in Vegas or something.

Seth, stuff the fat hatred. The statements you make about weight, nutrition, and activity levels are simply untrue.

I'm curious why the post highlights the fact that the meal has 780 calories. Since a moderately active preteen child should be getting in the range of 2000 calories a day, and this is presumably one of three meals he/she will eat in a typical day, why is that problematic? (Also, while, again, these animal-product-laden meals are certainly not particularly healthy, we need to remember that kids need high levels of fat intake for proper brain and nervous system development; a child raised exclusively on a 'low-fat' diet is likely to suffer some degree of irreversible brain-growth damage.)

Let me throw something else into the mix.

The Chicken McNugget Happy Meal was one of my favorites when I was growing up. Back then, a Happy Meal had 6 nuggets. (For reference, I'm 29, so this was the early to mid 1980s.)

I'm not sure when the Happy Meal went to 4 nuggets. But it sound like they're basically rebranding bigger portions for bigger (older) kids.