DQ hits tipping point for happier meals: Column

Come September 1st, when you walk into a Dairy Queen, you’ll find that soda is no longer the default option for the children’s meal, which will now come with milk or water. Chances are you haven’t heard about the change, and that’s cause for celebration — a sign that we are fast approaching a tipping point where fast food joints are expected to serve healthy food as a matter of course.

The fact that such changes no longer make big news marks a major — and welcome — shift. Consider that in 2012, Subway was the only chain that where sugary drinks did not come standard with kids’ meals. At the time, an analysis of nearly 3,500 kid’s chain restaurant meal options by The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) found that 97% of them did not meet the CSPI’s nutritional standard for four to eight year olds.

Since then, with heightened awareness that sugary drinks are a top culprit in childhood obesity, diabetes and dental decay, fast food heavy hitters have jumped on the bandwagon, swapping sugary drinks for low-fat milk or juice. Among them: McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Chipotle, Arby's, Panera Bread, and Burger King.

It’s important to appreciate how significant such changes are. Childhood is when we figure out what a meal should look like. What comes with that Happy Meal helps set those expectations. What children eat will shape their tastes for decades to come.

To be sure, soda is still available for purchase in these restaurants, and sugary drinks are still the default beverage for standard adult meals. But the changes in kids’ meals send a strong signal that fast food culture is evolving.

While many call for more sweeping changes to fast food restaurants on their offerings and marketing tactics, for now I’ve joined their cheering squad, and I am genuinely glad to see that early results seem to show that healthy children’s meals can turn a healthy profit. To be sustainable, a health-forward menu must support a business model.

“In the beginning, it seemed silly; then it became controversial, then it became progressive, then it became obvious.” This quip, often credited to Harvard economist Lant Pritchett, captures the process of how people perceive game changing ideas. We’ve seen this with smoking, with seat belts, and happily we are well on our way to seeing it with chain restaurants and sugary drinks. There may well come a time when soda with meals seems just plain strange.

Dr. Y. Claire Wang is an associate professor and co-director of the Obesity Prevention Initiative at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and an OpEd Project Public Voices Fellow.

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