National Heart Foundation Tick Given to Nine McDonald's Meals

The National Heart Foundation has given their tick of approval to nine meals from McDonald's. At first I thought this meant those nine meals were healthy enough to eat regularly, but reading carefully I noticed that this is not the case at all. The National Heart Foundation's website says that you should only eat once per week at McDonald's and if you do eat there you should have the meals with the tick. The reason why the tick was given was not because the meals are healthy but because the meals are healthier than some other meal that they chose. This I think is just confusing. I have written to the National Heart Foundation about this issue. Below is my letter.

To Heartline,

I have seen the nine meals in McDonald's given the tick of approval. Even though these nine meals are given the tick, the National Heart Foundation website recommends that each person only eats from McDonald's once per week. This low frequency suggests that although the nine tick meals from McDonald's is healthier it may not be healthy.

The website says that the tick is awarded to food that is healthier than some other standard, but how is this other standard chosen? Can food providers choose which food they want to compare it to? For example, the McChicken meal with salad and water is compared to a McChicken meal with fries and Coke, but couldn't anything be seen as relatively healthy if compared to something that is extremely unhealthy. For example, if the Coca Cola Corporation wanted to give the tick to its drink then couldn't it apply for the tick and ask that the Coke be compared to rat poison? Is this how it works or is the food compared to other foods in its category. If so, then I would like to know how the National Heart Foundation defines the categories of food.

In order to fix this confusion to help me and other people choose health food, I recommend the National Heart Foundation give food a number or index that summarizes how healthy the food is. The number can be called a healthiness index (like the consumer price index or the consumer confidence index). This will allow consumers to compare whether one food is healthier than another based on which has the higher healthiness index. Whether the tick is given or not is difficult because there is the question of how healthy does the food need to be to be defined as healthy. By giving a numerical index then the consumer can decide for himself or herself how healthy he or she wants to be.