CHEESY DOES IT AT McD’s

Healthier Happy Meals

Mayor McCheese just flipflopped on one of his core policies.

McDonald’s announced on Thursday that it will no longer include cheeseburgers with a standard Happy Meal — as part of an effort to help kids battle the bulge.

The fast-food giant will instead offer plain hamburgers or Chicken McNuggets on its kiddie menu, along with smaller portions of French fries.

McDonald’s will also stop serving chocolate milk inn the meals until a less sug-ary version is developed, and instead offer bottled water for the first time in Happy Meal history.

The chain hopes the changes will slice 20 percent of the calories from the Happy Meal and help the Golden Arches shake its rep among parents as a junk-food joint.

“I give the company credit for recognizing that it has a healthfulness problem that goes beyond image, and trying to do something about it, even if it still has a long way to go,” said Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.

The changes come with a bit of an asterisk. Parents who want a cheeseburger for their kids can still request one.

But McDonald’s hopes that by forcing people to ask for cheese, fewer will do so and, as a result, make healthier choices.

“The aura of good feeling they’ve had with kids and parents has eroded over the years,” said restaurant consultant John Gordon, of Pacific Management Consulting.

Calorie totals in the healthier Happy Meals will be 600 or less, and sodium levels will shrink to less than 650 milligrams.

Kids-meal cheeseburgers, for example, have 300 calories, while regular hamburgers have 250.

A small serving of fries — currently included in a Happy Meal — has 230 calories, while a kids-size portion is 110 calories. The changes will happen in June in the US and expand to McDonald’s eateries worldwide by 2022.

It’s not the first time the fast-food giant has tweaked its offerings to kids. In 2013, it removed soda from Happy Meals. The changes also come as kids’ obesity levels continue to rise. Nearly 20 percent of US adolescents are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some experts say the menu changes don’t go far enough.

“McDonald’s remains focused on selling hyperprocessed cheap industrial products, with lowquality carbohydrates and fats, an abundance of artificial additives, and a dearth of whole natural foods,” said David Ludwig, professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. “Until this business model changes, it’s fair to assume that any revisions to the menu are more about marketing than public health.”