Quick, why do you go to McDonalds? French fries, nuggets and burgers and other friend junk? Well, now you can also have pasta!

As part of its ongoing drive to offer healthier fare, McDonalds has now put pasta on its children’s menu.

The Pasta Zoo and Zoo Goo - a meal comprising doughy animal-shaped pasta, a dollop of tomato sauce and low-fat milk served with a chocolate-filled Sipahh straw - was debuted in New Zealand restaurants yesterday.

A medley of roasted veggies is said to make up the filling inside the pasta pieces. McDonalds is touting the new McPasta as ‘nutritious and fun,’ but nutritionists are not buying it.

Bronwen King, a public health nutritionist with the Canterbury District Health Board said,

It appears to be a very carbohydrate-laden starchy meal without a lot of nutrients.

While King appreciated that McDonalds was trying to offer healthier foods to its customers, she said that the end product does not live up to the claims made by McDonalds.

King also said that the promotional material listing nutrients does not adequately list all the nutrient and vitamin content.

McDonald’s spokesman said that labeling on the meal met industry requirements, and that parents were not terribly interested in a detailed nutrient breakdown.

But the most important test is, obviously, the taste test. Children who tried the pasta did not mind either way. Neither did the parents.
As one mother put it:

It (nutritious food) is not really why we come here. We are just happy if they eat something.

Wonder when the pasta squirms its way to Indian McDonalds?

Source: Stuff