Want To Live Healthy? Chick-Fil-A Says You Might Want To Eat Their Nuggets Every Three Hours
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It’s a nugget of health advice you can’t help but feel might be biased.
Late last week, Rodger Sherman, a self-proclaimed “internetsman” for SB Nation, came upon a particularly chuckle-worthy message from fast-casual chain, Chick-Fil-A. Using their packaging to advocate its customers adopt at least one healthy habit this new year, they then graciously suggested one such habit could be eating an 8-count pack of their grilled chicken nuggets every three to four hours.
Chick-Fil-A suggests adding "one healthy habit" to your day, like eating chicken nuggets every three hours pic.twitter.com/PO3ADjyWUZ
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger_sherman) January 27, 2016
Chick-Fil-A’s exceedingly humble suggestion can’t help but bring to mind other sterling examples of self-promotion wrapped in health advocacy. The most recently notorious example is almost certainly when Kellogg's aired a series of ads for their Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal between 2008 and 2009 and claimed research had shown it would improve kids’ attentiveness, memory and school performance. In 2013, the company was forced to pay out $4 million dollars to settle a class action lawsuit over its misleading advertisements.
Chick-Fil-A’s plug isn’t quite as egregious, given that a serving of eight nuggets does only contain 140 calories while boasting 23 grams of protein and 530 grams of sodium. And the basic underlying tip isn’t baseless — there is some research showing that spacing out your meals might help promote better eating habits. Other research, however, has concluded the exact opposite and found that meal frequency had no difference on the total amount of calories taken in; there was even evidence that meal nibblers were more likely to suffer inflammation than those who stuck to two meals a day.
Similarly, should Chick-Fil-A customers branch out and substitute their nuggets for other menu items elsewhere, they’d probably be in trouble. Earlier this January, a study found that 92 percent of restaurant items, whether chain or local, exceeded the recommended caloric intake for a meal, which ranges from 300 to 500 calories, depending on the person.
All in all, it seems likely the best place to go for diet advice probably isn’t a fast food restaurant.