Burger King Statement concerning the change

Burger King officials say that they stopped including a fountain soda with their kids meals in order to offer guests more options that meet their lifestyle needs. Drinks will still be included with the kid’s meals, but the drinks will be fat-free milk, 100% apple juice, or low-fat chocolate milk. Soft drinks will still be listed, and will still be available to children, but they will not be listed on the kids menu.Long-Term Effects on the Soft Drink Industry

Over a period of time this new policy that has been implemented by three of the major fast food chains, Burger King, Wendy’s, and McDonalds, will have a possibility of making a great impact on the soft drink industry.
The majority of beverage preferences to accompany your meals are determined by what you were served as a child. Children who start to drink soda when they eat at fast food restaurants develop a taste for soda, and then they carry this craving for soda with them into their adult lives.
If children develop a taste for a health beverage like milk, or 100% juice, they will not be as likely to buy as many sodas when they become adults. This could have a huge impact on the soft drink industry.

Health Impact on Children

By cutting out the soda with the kid’s meal, and replacing it with a healthier alternative, the fast food distributors are actually making an improvement to the children’s health.
Soda does not provide any nutrients that is required by the human body. Milk and juice do have vitamins and nutrients that will be beneficial to the children. When you take the empty calories of the soda away and replace them with something that has nutritional value you improve the overall health of the child.
You will help to reduce childhood, and adult obesity by replacing these kid meal sodas with milk or juice. Sodas are sugar laden and they add calories that most people do not need. Sugar is an addictive substance, and once people become addicted to drinking these drinks they often increase their intake from one at meal time, to several throughout the day. The sodas add to the number of overweight people.
The substitution of apple slices for fat laden fries is also making a big difference in the health of our children, the weight of our population, and the health of our nation. We tend to eat what we were given as children. It may be a parent’s responsibility to choose foods for their child, but not all parents choose wisely because they have bad habits themselves. In order to improve the health of this nation, we must reduce the amount of calories people take in each day that have no nutritional significance.