It’s not a prank or a bad joke: a fast food restaurant is actually recommending that you consume chicken nuggets every day for better health.

Chick-fil-A suggests diners “kick off the New Year” and shed the extra pounds by eating its grilled chicken nuggets, as shown by advice printed on its takeout bag.

“Eat smaller meals (like an 8-count pack of grilled nuggets) every three to four hours,” reads part of the takeout bag label, which also suggested balancing the diet with more exercise.

The Internet may already be grilling the fast food chain for this strategy, but Chick-fil-A touts that its chicken nuggets are grilled, with eight pieces containing 23 grams (0.8 ounces) of protein and 530 milligrams (0.02 ounces) of sodium, which falls under the daily recommended 2,300-milligram (81-ounce) limit based on U.S. dietary guidelines.

In addition, the same serving offers only 140 calories, 1 gram (0.03 ounces) of sugar, and less than one-third of the healthy individual’s daily cholesterol limit.

Many experts are advising people to eat smaller meals throughout each day, which deviates from the idea of consuming fewer larger meals particularly as the day ends. Five to six small meals a day are proposed to stabilize blood sugar as well as assist in maintaining metabolism and muscle mass.

Subscribing to the so-called Chik-fil-A diet, however, comes with the danger of underestimating the number of calories in fast food meals – even with a single visit to the restaurant. About 92 percent of these meals, for instance, exceed recommended daily calorie amounts.

And, of course, there’s the budget aspect. Grilled nuggets six times every day would cost more than $23 a day – allotted for nuggets alone and excluding drinks and other add-ons that one may be tempted to order.

Exposure to food cues, too, such as seeing fast food and junk food advertising, is believed to influence people’s craving, eating habits and weight gain.

Photo: Mike Mozart | Flickr