Everyone knows that fast food is unhealthy. Another thing that 'everyone' seems to accept is that what you do or do not eat is a matter of personal responsibility. Yet consequently corporate responsibility does not matter as much until children are poisoned by toys, some crap covered spinach gives people the screaming runs killing a few or a car speedup and can not be slowed down, then we are all about corporate responsibility, no matter the cows out of the barn as it were.
Right now, the CDC has called adult onset diabetes an epidemic. So how serious can it really be and what does that have to do with McDonald's? Well to be short, very and everything. One of the largest factors in obesity and the epidemic of adult onset diabetes (which is not just affecting adults, by the way) is the amount of simple carbohydrates someone has in their diet. As I am sure you know that simple carbohydrates are mostly taken in by refined foods like white sugar, white bread, white potatoes, sugary drinks, blah, blah, blah. AKA the menu at McDonald's.
Now of the millions of hamburgers that McDonald's sells each day, not one is on a whole grain bun. Not only is the bun not whole grain, nor are the biscuits nor the tortillas, not anything on the menu. The difference between refined and whole is a rather great one. Refined may have nutritional value returned to it by 'enriching' it, but it still is nutritionally deficient next to a whole grain, more nutrients and more fiber content. Could it be that McDonald's eschews the whole grain bun because it would be more filling than an 'enriched' bun would?
Ahhh what McDonald's (may I call you Ronald?) knows. They have nutritionists on staff, so we can safely assumed that they know the difference between the nutritional value of a whole grain bun compared to a white bread bun, as well the impact of refined grains on the human body. So why have they not made this almost insignificant change in their menu? Maybe they like watching their customers get fat and die. But does that mean they are lawsuit worthy? You tell me, please.
Let's step back for a second. If you remember the whole thing about the tobacco suits then you would know where this is going. Of course who would want to remember that? Well just for the sake of memory lets take a look. The tobacco companies were sued because states realized they could not pay the medical bills of people who smoked and were being treated for lung cancer. And this because the tobacco companies knew that their product was killing people and had lied (by omission) to them about what they were ingesting into their bodies.
So what are the number one and number two health care crises that the nation is facing as we eat McDonald's. They would be diabetes and hypertension. Would a change to whole grain buns by McDonald's change the amount of hypertension and diabetes in America today. Yes it would. You see as soon as McDonald's makes a change the whole fast food industry changes as a matter of cost. When McDonald's by whole grain buns, it make whole grain products a lot cheaper to produce and more acceptable to the public to eat.
They could make hamburgers less fattening, they could make their chicken less sodium filled. In the mean time, cash strapped states are looking at medical bills for treating diabetes and hypertension because they are not able to turn away even indigents for issues that could have been dealt with earlier by a change in diet. Now here's the thing, we are going to have to raise taxes to pay for the medical treatment of people who ate McDonald's but did not really get that they were killing themselves because at every turn MdDonald's and the rest of the fast food industry has fought against doing what is best for their customer and this country.
I like McDonald's, I love McDonald's, but I want them to do better by this nation. We are facing a healthcare crisis or two. We could write it off as a matter of personal responsibility, but there is more than enough evidence to say that we were manipulated into an addiction to fast food because of the content of salt, sugar and fat. We know this, like we know that nicotine is addictive as well.
McDonald's and the rest of the fast food industry are placing their bets that they will be able to put off losing a rather large lawsuit while they are able to make hay, as it were. They are making small and questionable changes to their menus. They have salad (ugh) and well other salads (yet they have no hamburger salad WTF?). They have chicken, that is so full of sodium you should stroke out after two bites. They do offer Gatorade and water instead of sodas, but neither of them in 32 oz cups. So they have made some changes, but in a court of law, those changes could well be considered an admission of guilt to the larger issue.
So Mickey D, what's it gonna be? Are you going to act like a responsible corporate citizen, or are we going to have to take Mayor McCheese out back and have some lawyers, judges and juries show him what's what?
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Maybe Mickey Ds will be successfully sued, but I don't agree that it compares with the suit against the cigarette industry. First of all, cigarettes are addictive, whereas, one can assume that an addicted person is exposing themselves (due the the addiction) to a specific amount of harm. On the other hand, a McDonald's meal is a meal choice--not an addiction.
A person might eat anywhere from one McDonald's meal a month or every six months, to three time a day, everyday. Who's to know--and who makes distinction in declaring what high fat or low nutritional values foods (of all foods) are harmful? How can a McDonald's hamburger be declared harmful and held cupable for ones health, when there are many, many, people that reject whole grains and opt for refined white bread that they buy from the supermarket?
In as much as addiction goes, there are currently studies that indicate that certain amounts of fat, salt and sugar key chemical changes in the brain that encourage you to eat more than you need to. In a word, addictive. And because of the content of the foodstuffs that McD's sells leads to the number one and two causes of death in the nation, but more importantly it leads to the most hospitalization, which leads to higher healthcare costs on an uninsured population, which means that it will be picked up by local coffers, which McD's will have to contribute to in a much more substantial way.
The thing is McDs is making a mint off of making people sick. As an incentive to imbibe less of a problematic substance is to increase the tax on that substance and to uses that tax to pay the cost of that problem. Such as it is with gas tax, liquor and cigarette taxes. It is not simply a hamburger that is unhealthy, actually they are so much more unhealthy than we let on. It is not simply a matter of fat, salt and sugar, but also the costs to the environment at large. But there is no point in going into all of that.
Does heightened personal responsibility release corporations from their responsibility? Do they even have a need for corporate responsibility?
I'm not saying that McDonald's doesn't offer a piss-poor menu because I don't do McDonald's, but a fast food junkie could also be addicted to a pint a day of butter pecan ice cream, as well--which, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), is the most unhealthy, saturated fat having, heart disease food ever.
I guess my point is, in contrast to the tobacco industry which can easily be connected to its human destruction, it is far more difficult to hold McDonald's, or any one source responsible for a people's poor health and food addictions. There are so many foods that are as unhealthy as Mickey Ds, if not more so. Will Hagen Daaz also have to pay for its role in the path to heart attacks and diabetes?
Again, I'm not sayin' that they should not be compelled to do better, but as the consumer of their food, shouldn't you be compelled to do better, as well? Would you the consumer be as addicted to a whole wheat bun and ground turkey as you are to the white bread and sub-standard burger? And what about the guy that is addicted to a half-pound of bacon and a half-dozen eggs for breakfast, or the girl who sits in bed with a pint of butter pecan of ice cream every night
We are not taking into consideration the damage done by other purveyors of addictive food, but, believe you me, that if McD's goes down the whole fast food industry will straighten out. If someone downs a pint of Hagen Daaz, the grocery store is not to blame, because they offer as much nutritionally dense foods as they do nutritionally poor ones. Which in a way McDonald's can say they offer, but they really do not and definitely not at the budget prices.
If you should ever go into a McDs, look at the difference between hot and cold foods. They do not have nearly enough nutritionally dense foods on on their hot end.
But on your point about personal responsibility, drug dealers should not be prosecuted because of their contribution to the economy or that makers of bad prescription drugs should not be held accountable for the damage they do either. At the end of their fantastic commercials, do you hear anyone say "Studies have shown over use of the products in this advertisement have my to lead to type 2 diabetes, and hypertension, the leading causes of death in America today as well as the high healthcare costs in keeping people inflicted with these diseases alive." or "Warning, one QuarterPounder with Cheese combo contains 75 % of the USDA recommended amounts of sodium and fat content needed for one adult in one day."
Do you see the sodium, caloric and fat content on the menu? Next to the price? Anywhere it would make sense to see it? Yet how far do you have to look to see the damage done from the profits that McDs reaps?
Also because they purchase the most of what they do, everything is made to their specifications. If McDonald's wants spinach. it would totally change the spinach industry and the price of spinach as well. The shareholders of McDs has been dancing to the music of profit for over 40 years, it is time for them to pay to the piper (just like the rest of America is).