McDonald's is making one of its most popular menu items smaller. Here's why this is genius

Updated

I have a controversial theory: Humans sometimes regret how much they eat.

I have another controversial theory: Humans sometimes eat too much because it's there.

This was something that many fast food chains capitalized upon. They believed if they gave humans a lot of food, they'd perceive it as extraordinary value.

As times have gone by and humans have inflated, many have realized that eating large amounts of food can be unhealthy.

And so it is that even fast food chains have started to think about such things.

This week, for example, McDonald's announced it's shrinking one of its very popular items, the McFlurry.

It's releasing Mini McFlurrys that give you a taste, but not a vast hit, of its quite passable ice cream.

What's even more moving is that there'll be five flavors: Cadbury Dairy Milk, Oreo, and Cadbury Crunchie, Flake Chocolate and Flake Raspberry.

This follows on from such wise marketers as Haagen-Dazs, which teases its ice creams in supermarket freezers with tiny little tubs.

This has certainly reduced my ice-cream intake over the years, so I bow to commend McDonald's on its wisdom.

Even if, as the beady-eyed may have noticed, there are downsides.

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First, the Mini McFlurrys are only available in the UK. Worse, some of the flavors are just a summer promotion.

Isn't it, though, precisely the sort of idea that might be an urgent and wise addition to the chain's U.S. menus?

Sometimes, you do just want a little taste of dessert -- especially after a fine helping of burger and fries -- to leave your mouth feeling cool and sweet.

Currently, though, you can find yourself ordering a big McFlurry and eating all of it, even though it makes you dangerously full.

Please get on with it, American McDonald's.

The nation will thank you.

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