Last month I attended a McDonald’s First Taste event in New York City. The event was designed for media and bloggers to be able to sample some new menu items, meet with key McDonald’s representatives, and speak with McDonald’s nutrition manager and chef. We also had the opportunity to speak with a registered dietitian who focuses on nutrition in the Latino community.

While our family is not against fast food and do occasionally eat it, we realize that we need to be careful with our choices and monitor how much and how often we eat fast food. Attending the McDonald’s First Taste event allowed me to learn more about the various choices McDonald’s offers that will make a visit to the restaurant a more balanced visit, food-wise. I also learned about the Bag a McMeal section of the McDonald’s website, where you can choose menu items to create a more-balanced meal and monitor the nutritional information. This is good if you’re wanting to choose lower-calorie or lower-fat options from the McDonald’s menu before heading to your local McDonald’s. It definitely gives you a good perspective on what you may have been eating thus far and how you can choose better options.

I spoke with both Julia Braun, McDonald’s nutrition manager, and Sylvia Melendez-Klinger, an independent registered dietitian who focuses on nutrition in the Hispanic community. Both ladies provided insightful information regarding the McDonald’s menu. Check out the videos below to learn some tips from Sylvia on putting together a meal that meets your calorie needs, plus her take on what the Latino community can do to make healthier eating choices.

Sylvia Melendez-Klinger on Creating a Balanced Meal at McDonald’s

Sylvia Melendez-Klinger on How Latinos Can Eat Healthier

I also took the opportunity to ask Julia Braun about marketing to children at McDonald’s. Hear her response regarding McDonald’s stance on responsible marketing to children.

Julia Braun on Marketing to Children at McDonald’s

A couple of the new menu items we sampled included a mango pineapple smoothie, an Asian salad McDonald’s is bringing back for a limited time, and new sauces for the Chicken McNuggets, including a ranch sauce which will please my daughter who dips pretty much everything into ranch dressing. Of course, McDonald’s wants you to try out some of their new menu items, so they’re offering a giveaway to ModernMami™ readers with a gift card so you can do just that. Remember to also give the Bag a McMeal site a try and see what meal combinations you can come up with. Sylvia provided some tips on how you can even keep your meals around the 500 calorie mark. What 500-600 calorie meals can you create for a better fast food meal choice?

McDonald’s Gift Bag Giveaway

One Three* readers will win a McDonald’s gift bag, which contains the following items:
*Update 6/11/11: I’ve been told by the PR company that I can giveaway three bags instead of just one!

• Tips and recipes from Chef Dan
• Lavender scented eye mask
• Pineapple scented candle
• Mango scented candle
• Notebook with pen
• Bamboo pen
• Balance bracelet
• $25 McDonald’s Arch Card

How to Enter

Required entry: If you’d like to enter this contest, simply leave a comment below telling us which McDonald’s 600-calorie (or less) meal combination you prefer.

Extra entries (optional):

Each of the following will count as 1 extra entry. You’ll need to leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Follow @modernmami on twitter.
2. Tweet the following: Enter to win a McDonald’s gift bag & gift card from @modernmami! http://bit.ly/lKjQxv #mcdonalds #giveaway #contest
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6. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing the details of this contest. Be sure to include a link back to this post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Friday, June 17, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST. You must be 18 or older and have a valid U.S. address to enter. Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winners will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.) Winners will have 48 hours to respond and claim prize, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.

Disclosure: I attended the McDonald’s First Taste event courtesy of VPE PR and McDonald’s. All expenses paid. No compensation received.

Photo credits: McDonald’s

This is a sponsored post.

I will be the first to admit that our family could probably make some healthier choices when it comes to our food selection. We’re not a family that eats only organic, fresh food and we also don’t exclude food in our house based on certain ingredients. We do cook quite a bit and enjoy home-made meals, but we do take shortcuts many times. In no way am I saying that we eat junk all the time. I’m just saying that we are not super-picky about what we buy. We definitely enjoy eating, enjoy good food, and generally go by the “in moderation” rule.

That said, we do try our best to limit the amount of sodium and fat in any pre-packaged foods we buy – especially because there is a history of high blood pressure and heart disease on my side of the family. If there’s a low-sodium version of the same food, I buy it instead of the regular. I also try to look for the lower-fat versions, as long as the calories aren’t increased, which often happens with low-fat or fat-free foods.

I was glad to find out from a recent study funded by ConAgra Foods, that brands who have the term “healthy” in their name are held to a higher nutrition standard by the FDA. The Healthy Choice brand of ConAgra Foods is the only major brand in its category that can call all of their products healthy by the FDA definition. That means that all their meals must be:

• low in fat
• low in saturated fat
• controlled in sodium and cholesterol
• and must supply at least 10% of the daily value for three beneficial nutrients (calcium, protein, fiber, iron, vitamin A or vitamin C)

As someone that a) works from home and b) has a newborn, I’ve had too many days in the past few months where I’ve skipped lunch simply because I was too busy with the kids, work, or just plain lost track of time. Frozen meals often work for me because I can easily heat them up and at least I don’t miss any meals. It also helps that they are pre-portioned, since serving size is something I have trouble gauging.

As part of this campaign, I was asked to try a couple of Healthy Choice meals. I sampled the Beef Teriyaki Café Steamers meal and the Marinara Manicotti Formaggio from the Complete Meals line. I appreciate that both include quick nutritional information on the front of the box and list how many calories the meal has. Aside from personal preference and preferred flavors, it definitely helped me in choosing one meal over the others when I could easily see key nutritional information. A plus was that both meals had vegetables and whole-grains.

Though I know that our family still has some work to do before we can say that we lead a healthy lifestyle, I can also celebrate the small healthy choices we already make. Things like adding vegetables to our home-cooked meals, reducing the amount of sodium in foods (home-cooked or pre-packaged), and enjoying fresh fruit.

What healthy choices do you and your family make?

Disclosure: I was compensated for participating in this Healthy Choice campaign through TheMotherhood.com.