Thursday, April 13, 2006

[Health] McDonalds cooks healthy overseas, unhealthy here

Dear McDonalds:

I am very surprised that you value the life of an American customer less than a Danish or Russian customer, and will defer eating at McDonalds' until you reduce trans fats further. Why? Read on.....

Trans-Fat Content in Fast Foods Varies Widely by Country, City
The Washington Post

Three Danish doctors found widely varying levels of unsaturated fatty acid known as "trans fat" in foods purchased at McDonald's Corp and KFC fast food chains in 20 countries. Studies show eating 5 grams of the fat per day increases the risk of heart disease by 25 percent.

In the large nuggets and fries meal, the amount of trans fat varied from less than 1 gram in Denmark to more than 10 grams in New York City, according to the research published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.{snip}The results show that "industrially produced trans fat can be eliminated without notable increases in the cost of foods or reduction in the quality or availability of foods," Steen Stender, author of the study, told Reuters.{snip}


And, the Wall Street Journal reports today on page D3:

At a NYC McDonald's, a large fries-and-chicken-nuggets combo was found to contain 10.2 grams of the trans fat, compared with 0.33 grams in Denmark and about 3 grams in Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic. A large order of french fries at a New York City McDonald's contained 30% more trans fat than the same order in Atlanta....


Any response from McDonalds will be posted here.