Earlier this month, Warren Buffett faced criticism at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting over the fact that many of the companies he owns or invests in sell products chock full of processed sugar.
Now, one of the companies in Berkshire’s sugar empire is getting a bit healthier, at least for kids. Dairy Queen, according to a letter written by one of its executives that was released by an advocacy group, is pulling soft drinks from its kids menu. The letter, which is dated May 11, says the company along with its franchisees had voted to make the switch. The ice cream chain said the change would take place as soon as September 1 because that’s how long it would take the company to change its restaurant menu boards. After that, only water and milk will be the only beverages on the kid’s menu at Dairy Queen restaurants.
Dairy Queen appears to have made the switch in response to pressure from advocacy groups. The letter is addressed to Jessica Almy, who is listed as a senior nutrition policy counsel at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The move follows similar actions by fast-food chains, like Burger King, McDonald’s and Wendy’s, which have pulled soft drinks from their kid’s menus.
A Dairy Queen spokesperson confirmed the letter was real and said the decision was made in April and is part of a long-term effort to make DQ’s restaurants healthier. In recent years, Dairy Queen has expanded its salad offerings, added a chicken wrap to its offerings, and introduced bananas and apple sauce to its kids menu.
Still, Dairy Queen is far from healthy. Soft drinks will still be available on the regular menu. A small Dairy Queen M&M Blizzard, which is an ice cream mixed with M&Ms, has 640 calories, 21 grams of fat, and 85 grams of sugar. This month, Dairy Queen is offering a cotton candy flavored blizzard. And the kid’s menu still comes with a choice of an ice cream cone, an ice cream sandwich, or a Dilly Bar, which is chocolate-covered ice cream on a stick.
At Berkshire’s annual meeting, a shareholder said that the conglomerate is effectively very long sugar, a Wall Street phrase for when you have loaded up on an investment. The shareholder questioned whether that made sense given the known health risks associated with excessive sugar consumption and the fact that consumers are changing their habits.
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Buffett basically laughed off the question. He referred to his well-documented, horrible eating habits. Buffett, who is 85 and seemingly healthy, passed a box of See’s Candy (a company that’s also owned by Berkshire) to his partner Charlie Munger, who was on stage, and said that if he had to eat broccoli all these years, he would have been long dead from unhappiness. “Eating broccoli is like going to jail,” Buffett said. Munger said sugar is good for your arteries, which is widely believed to be untrue by the medical community.
Along with Dairy Queen, Berkshire (BRKA) owns Heinz, which recently announced a merger with processed food giant Kraft. Berkshire also has a large stake in Coca-Cola. But it does have a small hedge if the U.S. ever does go on a serious health kick. Berkshire owns Brooks, which specializes in running shoes.
