Fast Food's Crash Diet—Is it For Real?

In May 2003, after Eric Schlosser's best-seller, Fast Food Nation, exposed the dangerous, unsanitary and environmentally harmful state of our industrial-food system, McDonald's posted a Social Responsibility Report and joined the Green Business Network (GBN). As a result, Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce (1993) and a pioneer in environmentally and socially responsible enterprise, resigned from GBN with a letter accusing the organization of abetting McDonald's in greenwashing their business. "To have a company such as McDonald's on the [GBN] Steering Committee is an insult to the idea of being green. Now that the idea of sustainability in business is gaining traction, it is important that its meaning not get lost in the glossy trappings of corporate speak," Hawken wrote. He argued that corporations such as McDonald's have tried to limit the concept of green business to recycled tray liners and reduced waste stream, without making deeper systemic changes. "Doing so does not make a business green. . . . It is about the awareness that we are part of a complex living system, not simply trying to be part of a short-term fix."

A little more than a year later, the industry faced a new publicity crisis spurred by Morgan Spurlock's documentary, Super Size Me, which monitored the director/producer's steady decline from overall excellent health to being overweight, depressed and sexually disinterested during 30 days of an all-McDonald's diet. The film opened May 7 to a huge buzz and made nearly $4 million in the first three weeks, placing it in the top 10.

Since then, we have been seeing McDonald's and other fast-food restaurants trying to show—quickly—that their offerings are healthy, socially responsible and green. On May 6, the day before the film opened, McDonald's announced they would no longer offer the Super Size option in the U.S. The company claims that this "menu simplification" and all other such changes have nothing to do with the film. On the same day, however, McDonald's unveiled its New Tastes Menu, which includes the Go Active Adult Happy Meal: a bottle of water or medium fountain drink, a salad, a pedometer and a walking-tips booklet featuring ideas from Oprah's trainer, Bob Greene.

Walking into a remodeled McDonald's in Portland, Oregon, one immediately sees how the company is seeking to change its image. The familiar yellow-and-orange color scheme has been cooled down to green and stainless steel. Lightboard images of active adults jogging and eating salads have replaced Ronald McDonald presiding over greasy hamburgers and fries. A character called Willie Munchright, who encourages kids to eat right and exercise, is part of McDonald's "What's On Your Plate" nutrition and education program. The McDonald's website has been revamped to make it easier to find nutritional information.

Some nutritionists say they won't quibble about the motive if the result is healthy, but they aren't satisfied yet. "I think it's great that they are taking steps to improve their menu and offer healthier options," says Alex Jamieson, a certified holistic health counselor and vegan chef who is Morgan Spurlock's worried girlfriend in the film, "but it's only a first step. There's a lot more that needs to happen." Dr. Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, agrees: "These salads are very high in fat, especially once you've added 300 calories of salad dressing, and there is not enough fiber or nutrients to offset that." She also notes that "you can get five hamburgers for the price of one salad"—an indicator that, although McDonald's "claims to be promoting responsible portions," their pricing still favors buying calorie-heavy foods and larger portions. "It's still a much better deal to go with the large fries instead of the small. Unless you have a price strategy to encourage people to eat smaller portions, they won't do it," Nestle says.

Michael F. Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, cautions that consumers should be wary of fast-food greenwashing: "In some cases, fast-food companies are making positive changes, but this is in response to adverse publicity and the movie Super Size Me," Jacobson says. For example, a lawsuit filed on behalf of BanTransFats.com, Inc. (BTF), a California-based non-profit, in July 2004, challenged McDonald's for continuing to use trans-fat-heavy cooking oil after its much-publicized pledge to use 48 percent less by February of that year. BTF also sued Kraft in May 2003 over the trans fats in their Oreo cookies; as a result of Kraft announcing that it would eliminate trans fat in some lines of Oreo cookies and reduce it in others, BTF dropped the suit.

"We have no assurances that these changes are permanent, which is why we need legislation to protect consumers. Half a dozen states, including New York, are currently considering legislation to require chain restaurants to list calories on menu boards," Jacobson says. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has been working with Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro on the Menu Education and Labeling Act (MEAL), which would mandate that fast-food and other chain restaurants list nutritional information, including calorie count and fat content, alongside each item on its menu. In March 2004, Ruby Tuesday chain restaurants became the first to announce that they would print nutritional information on their menus, a move applauded by CSPI. A spokesman for McDonald's did not respond to telephone messages inquiring whether McDonald's was planning to do the same; the company currently puts no nutritional information on its menus but displays it in some restaurants as a separate poster, according to the documentary.

McDonald's is not the only fast-food company to lighten up its image in the wake of Super Size Me. KFC recently pulled ads promoting its fried chicken as a healthy, low-carb food following a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission by CSPI in November of 2003. "People were led to believe that this is a healthy product, and it is not. It's full of fat and salt," says Jacobson. Arby's has introduced Market Fresh salads to its menu. Like the ones offered by McDonald's, Arby's salads can be high in fat—the Santa Fe salad contains 57 grams of fat with salad dressing (the average daily limit set by the FDA is 65 grams). "Obesity doesn't have just one cause, and it doesn't have just one solution. We need a dramatic change in the American lifestyle to beat this," Dr. Nestle says. To start with, no matter what the companies claim, it pays to look a bit more closely at what they're selling.