A group of sixth graders from a Stratford, CT public school recently attended a nutrition workshop. This field trip was intended to teach children good eating habits and how to seek out healthy foods. Kids even got the chance to step into the kitchen and make their own sandwiches. So far so good, until you find out where this “nutrition workshop” took place — at a local McDonald’s.
As Change.org’s Health Editor, Brie Cadman, recently reported, for the past five years, McDonald’s has been dabbling in the nutrition education business. Local schools can bring in groups of students, and McDonald’s employees teach the kids about how to make “healthy” choices. As the Connecticut Post recently reported, the Golden Arches sponsors workshops at its restaurants where students “learn about calorie counts, sodium levels, fat content and other information about the important of nutritious foods.” This coming from a fast food joint selling Big Macs that boast more than 500 calories a pop.
Unless McDonald’s is teaching these kids that its fast food is entirely too high in “calorie counts, sodium levels, and fat content,” the restaurant has no business running any kind of nutrition workshop. It’s no secret that the Golden Arches serves up some of the most unhealthy vittles around. An Angus Bacon and Cheese sandwich, for example, holds 790 calories and 39 grams of fat. Even a kids’ meal cheeseburger has 300 calories in it — and that’s before you add on the fries and sugar-y beverage.
Food marketers are are eager to latch onto the latest diet and nutrition trends to promote their questionable goods. Some of these descriptors might be useful — such as low-salt — but catchy labels don’t tell us much about the nutritional content of the product. However, many consumers think they do.