A survey in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine showed that children thought the food which comes in a McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) wrapper tastes better than food in a plain wrapper. That is, of course, if there is actually a burger in both.
According to The New York Times "almost 77 percent, for example, thought that McDonald's french fries served in a McDonald's bag tasted better, compared with 13 percent who liked the fries in a plain white bag." The same held true with carrots.
Given that amount of fatty food that the chain serves and the problems with child obesity, the medical community, as one might expect, went wild. One of the doctors involved in the survey commented: "The best response the fast-food industry could make to this information is to alter their menus to include a majority of healthful foods instead of encouraging consumption of high-fat, high-calorie foods."
McDonald's executives took a different view. The company said that it has been selling branded apples, milk, and other healthy food for some time.
McDonald's is being a bit cute here. Most of the food it sells is high in fat and if children were given a daily diet of the stuff they would most likely become corpulent withing a few months. The fast food chain could hardly be called a shining light for the health food industry.
But, it is not the chain's job to make sure that we are healthy. It is just their job to feed us.
Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-14-2007 @ 8:09AM
Jim said...
You gotta love the nanny state advocates. Since when are adults incapable of deciding what they should eat? Since when are parents incapable of telling their kids, "no, you may not eat at McDonalds every day?" This is a non-issue promoted by the nanny state advocates who believe THEY, through government programs, know best. By the way, McDondald's carries a line of salads and a low-cal Paul Newman dressing. It's still legal to exercise common sense and freedom of choice - for the moment anyway.
8-14-2007 @ 8:21AM
al schrader said...
I love McDonalds, but they didn't invent
the hamburger, my relatives did in Hamburg , Germany.
And I have just invented a new hamburger
called the Strammer Max burger.
You can email me for more info.
Chef Alfred
alfredschrader@aol.com
8-14-2007 @ 9:04PM
Brendon Carr said...
Food high in fat is not the problem. So much food high in fat is the problem. Eat smaller portions of the same fatty food, exercise moderately, and you won't be corpulent.
8-20-2007 @ 10:40AM
Brian Patterson said...
My son got e coli 0157 H:7 in 2002 from eating a McDonalds meal. He was in the hospital for 7 days on morphine. Both McDonalds and Zurich Ins denied liability, yet the CDC National Pulse Net database found PFGE matches. My advice to anyone is to save your receipts and a portion of uneaten food for proof of purchase and test confirmations.