At an
investor’s conference, Don Thompson, chief executive officer, explained
that salads only make up 2% of their US sales. Thompson said: “I don’t see
salads as being a major growth driver in the near future.”
To make sure
their profit margin increases, McDonalds will begin pushing hamburgers and
chicken sandwiches to make customers want fruit and vegetables. Because
the McWraps have tomato, cucumber slices and shredded lettuce, McDonalds sees
this as a way to give customers a healthy option.
Thompson claims to eat McDonalds “every, single day” while so
commenting that “balance is really important to people.”
He remarked
that people can eat at McDonalds every day and still lose weight. At
the same time Thompson announced that he has begun exercising more and lost 20
pounds, McDonalds released the
Mega Potato, the item on their menu with the highest caloric count.
This item is
worth 1,142 calories which is more than half the recommended calorie
intake of an average woman. Thompson’s nine year old daughter defended her
father’s corporation, stating that McDonalds does not “sell junk food”.
This comment sent shockwaves through the internet and put the
little girl in the spot light. A mother commented at the conference that
McDonalds uses toys to coerce children into eating their “unhealthy” food.
McDonalds
said that the comments were unacceptable and hoped that supporters of the fast
food chain would not speak ill of a child for her opinion. Just by glancing
at the McDonalds menu, it becomes clear that most of the items are at least 1,000 calories or
more – as in the “big breakfast”.
Perhaps when
Thompson said that McDonalds would be selling more fruits, he meant that the
corporation is the largest purchaser of apples in
the US.
McDonald’s
salads contain cilantro lime glaze and the orange glaze. Within the glaze lies propylene glycol —
a chemical that is not legal to use in cat food because its safety has not yet
been proven. In addition, propylene glycol is also used “as the killing and
preserving agent in pitfall traps, usually used to capture ground beetles.”
They are
also exceeding other corporations in purchasing potatoe –
which are a vegetable.
Fast food
burger meat is treated with ammonia as
a bonding agent, which is approved by the FDA. Ammonium hydroxide used to be in
the production of McDonald’s hamburgers. The chemical, used in fertilizers,
household cleaners and even homemade explosives, was also used to prepare
McDonalds’ hamburger meat.
The dollar menu at
McDonalds has a side salad as an option that is worth 310 calories.
The ever so
popular Chicken McNuggets contains chemicals
such as sodium phosphates, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum
phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, and calcium lactate.
McDonalds,
like other fast food companies have started using polyfluoroalkyl
phosphate esters (PAPs) to coat the wrappers they
use to help prevent the food from getting soggy from the grease used in
cooking. The chemical also causes changes in cholesterol levels, alters sex
hormones, and produces tumors, retards brain development, and infant death in
animal studies.
The Egg
McMuffin is prepared with
“Liquid Margarine: Liquid Soybean Oil and Hydrogenated Cottonseed and Soybean
Oils, Water, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Mono and
Diglycerides, Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate (Preservatives), Artificial
Flavor, Citric Acid, Vitamin A Palmitate, Beta Carotene (Color).”
The McCafe
Mango Pineapple Smoothie is made out
of: “Water, Clarified Demineralized Pineapple Juice Concentrate, Mango Puree
Concentrate, Pineapple Juice Concentrate, Orange Juice Concentrate, Pineapple
Puree, Passion Fruit Juice, Apple Juice Concentrate, Natural (Botanical Source)
and Artificial Flavors, Contains less than 1% of the following: Peach Puree,
Cellulose Powder, Pear Juice Concentrate, Xanthan Gum, Peach Juice Concentrate,
Pectin, Citric Acid, Colored with Fruit and Vegetable Juice and Turmeric
Extract, Ascorbic Acid (Preservative).”
Studies have
shown that 1/3rd of children between the ages of 4 to 19 in the US eat fast food daily and
fast food stores closer to schools coincide with
overweight children.
Source:worldobserveronline.com
