Archives for the 'fast food' tag
CSPI Nuts Would Prefer Kids Fast Than Eat Fast Food
Michael Jacobson, blowhard founder of blowhard nutrition group CSPI, appeared on Good Morning America earlier today (under a pseudonym, apparently) to tout a new study by the group. (Video here.)
His target this time? Just another helping of the same: blah blah fast-food restaurants and blah blah blah kids’ meals.
Jacobson’s language today, though, was particularly incendiary. Literally.
“A restaurant meal is a mine field,” Mike Jacobs of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, or CSPI, told “Good Morning America.” “It’s junk everywhere and the explosions are going to be in your stomach, your heart.”
[...]
[Even though every fast-food restaurant offers healthy] options, Jacob believes that children will still suffer.
“Overweight, then obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes,” he said. “That’s what’s coming down the road.”
And exploding kids’ hearts! Don’t forget their exploding little hearts!
Jacobson failed to mention in between nonsensical imagery of spontaneously combusting children that what will ultimately be coming down the road are more ridiculous CSPI lawsuits against fast-food companies.
Why I Love Globalization, Reason #478
It’s not often we are able to step outside of our American fastfoodcentric worldviews, but this AFP article about the Filipino fast-food chain Jollibee–he’s jolly! he’s a bee!–sure brought me out of mine.
Jollibee is the biggest restaurant chain in the Philippines, operating almost 1,500 outlets for its signature Jollibee hamburgers along with pizzas, baked goods, French pastries and other dishes.
It has 194 outlets abroad including China, the United States, Dubai and Indonesia.
The U.S.? Huh? Who knew?
Actually, Jollibee claims about a dozen U.S. locations, including a Vegas outlet and one opening in New York City (well, Queens) later this year.
Visit Jollibee here. Very detailed Wiki entry here.
Any reader been to a Jollibee either in the U.S., the Philippines, or elsewhere?
When it Comes to Kids and Ads, Fast Food Companies Can’t Win
Companies advertising in Canada have voluntarily agreed not to show unhealthy foods in ads targeting kids. If that sounds voluntary and fine enough it’s because it is. Naturally, not everyone is happy, led by so-called health advocates.
Elizabeth Frank, a dietitian in Lunenburg, N.S., looked over the company commitments and welcomed the initiative.
“With the amount of time children spend watching TV and the misinformation there is in there, I think it’s about time they started to concentrate on good nutrition,” she said.
In the case of McDonald’s, the company said its advertised meal aimed at children under 12 will contain no more than 600 calories, no more than 35 per cent of calories from fat, 10 per cent from saturated fat and 25 per cent total sugar by weight.
Its advertised meal for kids under 12 will either be four-piece McNuggets with apple slices, caramel dip and one per cent milk; or a hamburger meal with the apples and milk.
[...]
Frank said some of the amounts are still “pretty high” in the McDonald’s meal.
“The amount of fat and sugar could be lower, as far as I’m concerned,” she said.
“And 600 calories for a 12-year-old child … that’s a lot of calories in one meal. That would be more than they would get, say, if your mother made you a sandwich, and gave you an apple and milk to take to school. You wouldn’t get as many calories, and you would get a healthier meal of it.”
Skim milk and apples your mom gives you have less calories than the same stuff at McDonald’s? Really? On the other hand, does it take a dietician to conclude that fast food is generally not as healthy as what mom packs in a lunchpail? Uncanny, that Ms. Frank is.
Fat foes are like any other nannies — give them a voluntary inch and they’ll grunt and moan until some asinine legislator takes up their cause.
More here from the Canadian Press.
Note: Blogged from the bar at RFD.
