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Is McDonalds Selectively Killing Americans?

SteveGrenard

Philosopher
S
Joined
Oct 6, 2002
Messages
5,528
er, without realizing it, of course.

Mc Donald's fast food in the US contains more artery-clogging fat than the food it serves in many other countries, according to a new study.

A study of the company's restaurants around the world found very wide variations in the amount of 'trans' fat in its food from country to country, from city to city within the same country and from restaurant to restaurant in the same city.

http://www.irishhealth.com/?level=4&id=9339
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CFLarsen said:
Are you saying that they do it on purpose?

What's your point?
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No, if you read my post it says "without realizing it." of course. In idiomatic English that means they are not doing it on purpose. I am sure the people who did this study of McDonald's fats have a point which is to alert
the media and get McDs to change their policies. The point here is to get other people's points on this diversive issue which has been out before but now has a new angle on it: foreign (to US) outlets of McDonalds are serving less harmful fats than American McDs.
 
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CFLarsen said:
So what is the point of this thread?
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I answered you. Please answer me: what is the point of you asking what the point is? Do you have a problem with these findings? Are they suspect? Do you have proof they are wrong? Is the McDonald's in Copenhagen dishing up healthier foods to you than the one serving me in New York?
 
I heard about this the other day. The local news was saying that Los Angeles McD's are worse for a person's health than other McD's in the US. That surprised me more than country-to-country differences. I would have thought that at least inside one country the food, and the way it is prepared, would be very standardized.
 
SteveGrenard said:
I answered you. Please answer me: what is the point of you asking what the point is? Do you have a problem with these findings? Are they suspect? Do you have proof they are wrong? Is the McDonald's in Copenhagen dishing up healthier foods to you than the one serving me in New York?
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all this report says is that different regions have different food preferences, even if they purport to be the same dishes. Is this really a significant finding? Is it a topic which merits much discussion? Claus isn't saying the findings are wrong, just that they don't tell us anythings very interesting in themselves, now if you had an interesting interpretation of these results, that would be a different matter.
So, what do you think is interesting about these findings?
 
Lisa Simpson said:
I would have thought that at least inside one country the food, and the way it is prepared, would be very standardized.
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the US has regional foods, therefore it would stand to reason that the US has regional tastes, it makes séance for large chain restaurants to vary their recipes in order to cater for those different tastes.
 
brodski said:
all this report says is that different regions have different food preferences, even if they purport to be the same dishes. Is this really a significant finding? Is it a topic which merits much discussion? Claus isn't saying the findings are wrong, just that they don't tell us anythings very interesting in themselves, now if you had an interesting interpretation of these results, that would be a different matter.
So, what do you think is interesting about these findings?
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What's interesting is that some of us are eating less healthier foods than others even though they appear to be the same foods. The difference based on some secret demographic profile developed, no doubt, by focus groups, taste testing and surveys conducted by the chain restaurants such as McDonalds. Is our food being designed to suit our tastes but not our well being?
I would like to know if it was possible to do both.

What's interesting is that none of us should take anything we see on the menu for granted although we know a lot of people do.
 
SteveGrenard said:
I answered you.
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Steve, you are still up to your dishonest games.

You edited your post 2 minutes after I asked the question, and then claimed you had already "answered" me.

Why do you even try? You know I catch you. I've done it again and again, yet you continue...

SteveGrenard said:
Please answer me: what is the point of you asking what the point is? Do you have a problem with these findings? Are they suspect? Do you have proof they are wrong? Is the McDonald's in Copenhagen dishing up healthier foods to you than the one serving me in New York?
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Actually, yes it is.

At a McDonald's in New York, a large meal of fries and chicken nuggets was found to contain 10.2 grams of trans-fatty acids, compared with 0.33 grams in Denmark and 3 grams in Spain. At KFC operations in Poland and Hungary, a large hot-wings-and-fries order had 19 grams of trans fats or more, compared with 5.5 grams for wings and fried potato wedges in New York.

But in Germany, Russia, and Denmark, the same meal had less than 1 gram.
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Hands up, people: Who wasn't aware that trans fat is bad for you?

ETF speling.
 
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SteveGrenard said:
What's interesting is that some of us are eating less healthier foods than others even though they appear to be the same foods. The difference based on some secret demographic profile developed, no doubt, by focus groups, taste testing and surveys conducted by the chain restaurants such as McDonalds. Is our food being designed to suit our tastes but not our well being? I would like to know if it was possible to do both.

What's interesting is that none of us should take anything we see on the menu for granted although we know a lot of people do.
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There is nothing mysterious or sinister about this. The reason why Denmark's BigMacs are so low in trans fat is because Denmark has a specifically lower tolerated level of it than the rest of the EU.

It isn't due to some "secret" demographic profile developed. Why should it be secret? We know that various countries prefer more or less fat in their foods.

What is the big deal here?
 
Lisa Simpson said:
They aren't talking about regional foods. The study was about chicken nuggets and fries, which are across the board.
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But part of a regional food is how that food is prepared, they may be the same basic recipes, but different pallets will prefer subtlety different preparations. McDonald's is just tailoring its recipes to what will sell the best in each different region, I don't see what is so unusual about this.
 
SteveGrenard said:
What's interesting is that some of us are eating less healthier foods than others even though they appear to be the same foods. The difference based on some secret demographic profile developed, no doubt, by focus groups, taste testing and surveys conducted by the chain restaurants such as McDonalds. Is our food being designed to suit our tastes but not our well being?
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Your food is being designed to sell. If people are concerned about how healthy their food is WTF are they doing eating fast food in the first place? There is no secret plot here, if a more fatty burger sells better in New York, and a less fatty one in Copenhagen, or even Dallas, why should McDonald's not cater to that demand?
 
According to the McDonald's homepage, we can buy a "Premium Crispy Chicken Ranch BLT Sandwich" in the US, but not in Denmark.

In Bahrain, you can get a grilled kofta - a.k.a. "McArabia".

Obviously, they cater to different markets. Why the surprise? Why the need to create a controversy, where no controversy exists?
 
brodski said:
But part of a regional food is how that food is prepared, they may be the same basic recipes, but different pallets will prefer subtlety different preparations. McDonald's is just tailoring its recipes to what will sell the best in each different region, I don't see what is so unusual about this.
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Because McD's has always promoted itself with "the food you buy in Los Angeles is the same as the food you buy in New York." Not, "hey, you can get greasier food in LA!"
 
Lisa Simpson said:
Because McD's has always promoted itself with "the food you buy in Los Angeles is the same as the food you buy in New York." Not, "hey, you can get greasier food in LA!"
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I didn't know they used that as a USP. In which case, it is slightly problematic, but not surprising.
 
CFLarsen said:
According to the McDonald's homepage, we can buy a "Premium Crispy Chicken Ranch BLT Sandwich" in the US, but not in Denmark.

In Bahrain, you can get a grilled kofta - a.k.a. "McArabia".

Obviously, they cater to different markets. Why the surprise? Why the need to create a controversy, where no controversy exists?
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It's not what they call it or if they have some specialty items to reflect regional preferences. It's the way they cook it .... the type of fats or grease they use in the US markets were found to be promoters of artheriosclerosis compared to the shortening used overseas. You don't think this is controversial? Obviously several hundred media outlets think it is as do the researchers who discovered this.
 
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CFLarsen said:
According to the McDonald's homepage, we can buy a "Premium Crispy Chicken Ranch BLT Sandwich" in the US, but not in Denmark.

In Bahrain, you can get a grilled kofta - a.k.a. "McArabia".

Obviously, they cater to different markets. Why the surprise? Why the need to create a controversy, where no controversy exists?
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Right. Here in L.A., they have items catering to our large Hispanic population. But this study was not about the unusual items. It is only about chicken nuggets and french fries.
 
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