This product image provided by McDonald's shows packaging for the restaurant's new chicken McWrap sandwich wraps. The world's biggest hamburger chain says the new sandwich wrap will come in three varieties: Chicken & Bacon, Sweet Chili Chicken and Chicken & Ranch. The company already offers similar wraps in other parts of the world, including Europe. (AP Photo/McDonald's)

Interview Representative says new menu options are part of the fast-food chains endeavor to achieve variety and balance.

It sounds like the set-up to a joke: The director of nutrition for McDonalds came to town.

Wait. The fast-food giant the same place lambasted in the documentary "Super Size Me" for encouraging poor nutrition has one of those?

It does, and Cindy Goody was in Utah last week to speak at the Utah Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Annual Meeting.

Goody, who is responsible for providing accurate and timely nutrition information to McDonalds customers, also stopped by The Tribune to promote the McWrap. These portable meals contain chicken and greens and are one of the new menu items meant to appeal to the health conscious.

Goody also answered questions about nutrition and fast food. (Questions and answers have been edited for space.)

People dont eat at McDonalds for the nutrition. What do you do?

Were making nutrition more mainstream at McDonalds today. In the past couple of years weve launched fruit and maple oatmeal, [and] blueberry banana nut oatmeal. Premium chicken sandwiches have buns made with 8 grams of whole grains. With the launch of the new Happy Meal [last year, it] automatically includes a smaller-sized kid fries [reducing calories from 230 to 100] and automatic inclusion of apples and we reformulated our 1 percent chocolate milk to now fat-free chocolate milk. All of that came from careful listening to moms in particular and recognizing people are becoming more mindful about what theyre putting in their mouth.

Adding healthy options may make people feel better about eating at McDonalds, but those "healthy" options could still have a lot of sugar, sodium and fat. Can you really make processed foods healthy?

Read the original:
McDonald’s director of nutrition says its food is healthy