McDs dispel super-size McMyths
The next step - vending a carefully formulated product that resembles a sandwich - was already explored extensively in the movie, Super Size Me. Morgan Spurlock’s burger-in-cheek stunt showed just how bad a McDonald’s diet can be.
But, according to Dr Cathy Kapica, Global Director of Nutrition for the fast food giant, that movie - successful as it was - was not about McDonald’s at all.
“It was about one man’s stupidity,” she says, countering the argument that all McDonald’s food is bad for you.
However, the movie has galvanised public opinion and now the Big Mac has been sidelined in favour of salads and fruit - part of an attempt by McDonald’s to hold onto the 50 million customers who squeeze through its restaurant doors around the world every day.
The company is biting back against the health lobby, countering the argument that it is chiefly responsible for growing levels of obesity, particularly among children.
“Many of our local business units are offering new salad, fruit, and vegetable choices to complement our traditional core menu favourites,” says Dr Kapica, in Dublin with to bring the message of a leaner McDonalds.
“We are rolling out new options that make fruits and vegetables fun for young people,” she explained.
Bristling with evangelical enthusiasm, she added: “At McDonald’s, we serve top quality food. Our hamburgers are 100% beef, with no additives or fillers. Our milk and produce are purchased from local and regional suppliers to be farm-fresh when served.”
Dr Kapica is part of an advance guard of McDonald’s big cheeses who have brought their global fight “to tell the truth about our food” to Ireland with the publication of a booklet called The Facts About McDonald’s.
According to Marcus Hewson, managing director, McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland, misinformation has been perceived as fact and has been laid at the door of McDonald’s in Ireland.
“McDonald’s Ireland supports customers, particularly children and parents, in their efforts to achieve balanced, active lifestyles,” he said.
Even before Spurlock’s film, McDonald’s took a revolutionary step, moving from greasy fingers to green fingers with the introduction of salads in May 2003.
But one item in particular grabbed the headlines: the Chicken Caesar salad, with more fat and calories than McDonald’s world-famous hamburger.
Marie Farquharson, editor of Slimming magazine, said: “That did reveal a lot of McDonald’s naivety about it because it just assumed that by its very nature a salad would be healthy.”
McDonald’s is now beginning to print nutritional facts on the packaging of its burgers and fries.
Nutritional information on items such as the Big Mac, which contains 30g of fat, are currently only available in leaflets or on the company’s website. McDonald’s said it hoped to have the new packaging in 20,000 of its 30,000 fast food restaurants worldwide by the end of 2006.
The global fight-back appears to be working as the company is enjoying its own salad days after two years of the first business slump in its history. Two years after making its first-ever loss, the world’s biggest fast food company is back in the black and is now looking forward to super-size profits.
