McDonald's Shuts Down Employee Website Advising Workers to Avoid
Fast Food...
January 08, 2014
Story at-a-glance
McDonald’s recently ended up with a PR nightmare after
suggesting its own employees forgo fast food fare for healthier
options like salad and water
In response to the controversy, McDonald’s shut down the website
in question, which was aimed at providing “work and life advice”
to employees
The average fast food worker makes less than $9 per hour, and
more than 50 percent of US fast food workers are enrolled in
some form of public assistance program, costing US tax payers an
estimated $7 billion annually
The Western diet, high in ultra-processed food, is a major
source of many of our modern diseases. McDonald’s and other fast
food restaurants are not necessarily the root of the problem,
though. They’re simply an outgrowth of the food system
US food subsidies are grossly skewed toward factory-farmed
meats, grains, and sugars. What you end up with when you get
paid to mass produce those ingredients is a cheap fast food diet
By Dr. Mercola
McDonald's is the poster child for the modern Western diet
and all the health problems that it engenders. As a general
rule, "food" was designed to supply your body with all the
nutrients it needs.
Processing destroys many of the nutrients and is the primary
contribution to most of the chronic degenerative diseases many
experience today. I would also argue that food processed to the
point of
not decomposing after more than a decade is not actually
realfood and shouldn't be consumed...
Ironically, the fast food giant recently ended up with a PR
nightmare after suggesting its own employees forgo fast food
fare for healthier options like salad and water. As reported by
Business Insider:1
"Several excerpts from the posts, which were created
from a third-party vendor, warned against the negative
effects of fast food, evengoing so far as labeling
a cheeseburger and fries, core items on its menu, as an
'unhealthy choice.'"
The site also warned employees that fast-food meals are
"almost always high" in calories,
fat, sugar, and salt—and rightfully so, I might add. Warning
employees of the health hazards of the very food they produce
and serve, however, does not make for good PR.
In response to the controversy, McDonald's shut down the
website in question, which was aimed at providing "work and life
advice" to employees. According to a company spokesman,2
the information was "taken out of context," thereby generating
"unwarranted scrutiny and inappropriate commentary." Employees
will still be able to receive work and life advice over the
phone.
Is Fast Food Giant Skirting Social Responsibilities?
McDonald's has received a variety of unflattering attention
lately. Last month, fast food workers around the US rallied in
protest of low wages, demanding the hourly wage to be raised to
$15 per hour.
At present, the average fast food worker makes less than $9
per hour, and according to a recent study by the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, more than 50 percent of US fast
food workers are enrolled in some form of public assistance
program,3
costing US tax payers an estimated at $7 billion annually.
You might be asking yourself why you're being forced to
subsidize fast food profits, especially when you consider that
such foods are at the heart of our current health crisis...
Contrary to popular belief, nearly 70 percent of fast food
workers are actually adults, and the main wage earners in their
family. Gone are the days when fast food joints were staffed
primarily with high school students. This too, I believe, is a
sign of how the food culture has changed in this country.
Fast food restaurants are a primary source of food for a lot
of people these days. British chef
Jamie Oliver is but one vocal "real food" advocate who
addresses this issue head-on, pointing out that our food culture
has changed so drastically over the last 30 years that a
majority of today's youth do not even know what fresh, whole
food is.
Fast food restaurant work is also full-time employment—if not
a career, albeit a poor-paying one—for many. Case in point:
Nancy Salgado, a single mother, claims she still makes $8.25
after working for McDonald's for a decade! The following video
went viral last October, when Salgado was threatened with arrest
for shouting out a protest during a talk given by McDonald's
president Jeff Stratton.
"It's really hard for me to feed my two kids and
struggle day to day. Do you think this is fair, that I have
to be making $8.25 when I have worked for McDonald's for 10
years?" she shouts.
How Government Farm Subsidies Have Created a Disease-Ridden
Country
There's little doubt that the Western diet, high in
ultra-processed food, is a major source of many of our modern
diseases. McDonald's and other fast food restaurants are not
necessarily the root of the problem, though. They're simply an
outgrowth of the food system created and upheld by the US
government.
As you can see below, US food subsidies are grossly skewed
toward factory-farmed meats, grains, and sugars, with very
little fresh fruits and vegetables or healthy fats from nuts and
seeds. What you end up with when you get paid to mass produce
those ingredients is a cheap fast food diet.
The following chart was published by the Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine4
(PCRM) back in 2007, yet little has changed since then. The fact
that a hamburger can be had for less than an organic salad is a
major contributing factor to why fast food is consumed as
frequently as it is. The same goes for soda, loaded with cheap
high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), compared to a bottle of plain
water.
Needless to say, if your diet consists of burgers and
super-size sodas, your meals may be cheap, but it is also
excessively high in grains, sugars, and factory-farmed meats.
This is a recipe for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, just
to name a few of the conditions that commonly befall those who
consume "the Standard American Diet."
Tellingly, in contrast to third-world countries, in the US,
higher rates of obesity is actually linked to poverty,
suggesting that the American "poor man's diet" (which tends to
be exceptionally high in
processed foods and fast food) has a drastic and adverse
impact on your metabolism. Indeed, many on the most limited food
budgets, such as those who receive food assistance dollars, live
in "food deserts"—areas without grocery stores, and perhaps only
a convenience store or a fast-food restaurant where they can
purchase their food.
The Food Lobby Wields Great Power Over Public Health...
Thanks to the tireless efforts of the powerful food lobby,
Congress keeps subsidizing foods that we really should be eating
LESS of – including factory farmed meats and corn (which ends up
as HFCS that is used in nearly every single processed food and
sweet beverage on the market.) The farm bill also has a direct
impact on
what your child gets fed in school, and what food assistance
programs will distribute to poorer households.
I believe many of our society's chronic health problems could
be resolved if attention was paid, at the highest levels of
government, to the root problem – our agricultural subsidies. If
growers of subsidized fresh vegetables were in a clear majority,
you might start to see some fine advertising campaigns promoting
the consumption of those veggies.
Unfortunately, the Department of Agriculture is deeply
entrenched with the agri-business, and current legislations
protect the profits of these large industries at the expense of
public health. Sadly, you also see this influence in nutrition
science. It is actually not designed to help you make sound
dietary choices but rather to allow food companies to make
health claims to increase profits, and this is a primary reason
why you cannot get sound dietary advice from the US government.
Processed Food Contains Many Potentially Dangerous Ingredients
I've written numerous articles highlighting the hazards of
specific fast food fare, and why such heavily processed foods
cannot be considered "real food." This includes:
Chicken McNuggets, which have made it into mainstream
news on a number of occasions because of the potentially
hazardous additives they contain.
Soda can contain any number of health harming
substances, from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to
benzene and
aspartame.
French fries are loaded with the worst
types of fat on the planet -- typically highly refined and
genetically modified omega-6 oils, such as corn, canola,
and soybean oils.
Thankfully, the FDA recently announced it may
remove trans fats found in margarine, vegetable
shortening, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils from
the list of "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS)
ingredients. This would be the first step toward ridding the
American diet of this harmful fat.
McDonald's seasonally-available
McRib sandwich contains more than 70 ingredients,
including a chemical used in gym shoes. And the pork is
actually a restructured meat product made from the less
expensive innards and scraps from the pig.
It's quite clear that fast food leads to obesity and insulin
resistance. As demonstrated in one 15-year long study,5
eating fast food just twice a week can make you gain 10
pounds and double your risk of developing insulin
resistance, compared to eating it less than once a week. The
bottom line is that if you want to stay healthy, and keep your
children healthy, you have to avoid fast food and other
processed foods, and invest some time in your kitchen, cooking
from scratch.
What Makes for a Healthy Diet?
I firmly believe that the primary keys for successful weight
management and optimal health are:
Severely restricting carbohydrates (refined sugars,
fructose, and grains) in your diet
Increasing healthy fat consumption
Unlimited consumption of non starchy vegetables. Because
they are so low calorie, the majority of the food on your
plate will be vegetables
Limit the use of protein to less than one half gram per
pound of body weight
Healthful fat can be rich in calories, but these calories
will not affect your body in the same way as calories
from non-vegetable carbs. As explained by
Dr. Robert Lustig, fructose in particular is "isocaloric but
not isometabolic." This means you can have the same amount of
calories from fructose or glucose, fructose and protein, or
fructose and fat, but the metabolic effect will be
entirely different despite the identical calorie count. Eating
dietary fat isn't what's making you pack on the pounds. It's the
sugar/fructose and grains that are adding the padding.
So please, don't fall for the low-fat myth, as this too is a
factor in the rise in chronic health problems such as heart
disease and Alzheimer's. Your brain, heart, and cardiovascular
system need healthy fat for optimal functioning. In
fact,
emerging evidence suggests most people need at least half of
their daily calories from healthy fat, and possibly as high as
85 percent. My personal diet is about 70-80 percent healthy fat.
Add to that a small to medium amount of high-quality protein and
plenty of vegetables. You actually need very few carbs
besides vegetables. However, by volume the largest portion of my
plate is clearly vegetables.
Take Control of Your Diet and Your Health
I don't think fast food companies like McDonald's are as
clueless about the health impact of their food as they would
like you to believe. And advising their employees to forgo fast
food fare and soda for more wholesome food is indeed good
advice. The thing is, it's advice that applies to every single
one of their customers as well... Healthy eating is actually far
easier than most people think. Here's a quick and dirty summary:
if you're new to healthful living, these four basic steps can
put you on the right path toward vastly improved health,
regardless of what your government's dietary guidelines are:
Focus on raw, fresh foods, and avoid as many processed
foods as possible (for those who still have trouble
understanding what "processed food" is: if it comes in a
can, bottle, or package, and has a list of ingredients, it's
processed)
Avoid foods that contain fructose (check the label for
ingredients like corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup)
Limit or eliminate grain carbohydrates, and replace them
with
healthful fats, such as avocados, butter made from raw
grass-fed organic milk, grass-fed meats, and organic
pastured eggs, coconuts and coconut oil, and raw nuts such
as macadamia
Replace sodas and other sweetened beverages with clean,
pure water