McDonald’s has come under fire in recent years for its incursion into schools through various charitable, educational and anti-bullying programs. While the company says these programs promote “children’s well-being,” critics see them as stealth marketing tools for a captive, impressionable audience.
But now the company has created a new documentary for use in middle and high schools which promotes the McDonald’s brand so aggressively, it can hardly be called “stealth” marketing. Instead, it’s a veritable infomercial for the beleaguered fast food chain.
540 Meals: Choices Make the Difference documents an experiment conducted in 2013-14 by John Cisna, an Iowa high school science teacher, who sought to discredit Super Size Me by eating nothing but McDonald’s for 90 days and losing weight in the process. He says in the film that “this was all generated by the kids [his students],” but he admits in his self-published book, My McDonald’s Diet: How I Lost 37 Pounds in 90 Days and Became a Viral Media Sensation, that he actually hatched the plan himself after eating dinner with a friend (who happens to be a McDonald’s franchisee).
Cinsa turned the experiment into a high school project by enlisting three of his students to create his daily McDonald’s menus. These were capped at 2,000 calories, met the Daily Value for 15 (unspecified) nutrients and included every item on the McDonald’s menu at least once. Cisna also added a regular 45-minute walk to his formerly sedentary routine. By the end of the 90 days, Cisna had lost 37 pounds and his blood work was improved. He decided to continue for another 90 days, adding more intensive exercise, and achieved a total weight loss of 56 pounds.
Whatever the pedagogical purpose of the experiment, Cisna seems to have understood from the outset that his story would be catnip to both news outlets and McDonald’s. His franchisee friend supplied all of his McDonald’s food for free, and Cisna filmed his own amateur documentary about the experience which he posted on YouTube as: “Manages To Lose Weight And Lower Cholesterol With 90-DAY MC DONALD’S DIET.”
Local news media soon expressed interest, on which Cisna offered punchy sound bites like, “It’s our choices that make us fat, not McDonald’s.” He posted these local news stories on YouTube, again using clickbait titles like “Eats Nothing But McDonald’s for Three Months LOSES 37 POUNDS,” and eventually came to the attention of the Today show and Good Morning America.
McDonald’s has since officially retained Cisna as its paid brand ambassador and he now travels around the country to promote the fast food chain to middle and high schoolers, as well as dietetic students.
No one from McDonald’s media relations department or its PR firm would talk to me* about Cisna, 540 Meals or anything else associated with this new school program, nor is there any mention of Cinsa or the film on the McDonald’s corporate website. But it’s clear that at some point Cisna turned over the raw footage from his homemade documentary to McDonald’s, which then hired a commercial filmmaker to add voiceovers, music and on-camera interviews to create 540 Meals.
You can watch the entire 20-minute film here*:
McDonald’s has created an official Teachers Discussion Guide for use with the film, at least half of which is devoted to discrediting Super Size Me. The corporation also prepared a form letter to be sent out to schools by registered dietitians acting as paid McDonald’s “Nutrition Consultants.” In August, a group of Tri-State-area McDonald’s franchisees sent out their own press release to promote the film.
So what’s wrong with screening 540 Meals in schools?
It’s true that anyone will lose weight on a fast food diet if they consume too few calories to maintain their weight, just as anyone eating only “clean” food will gain weight if they eat too many calories. But 540 Meals is hardly a neutral lesson in calorie balancing. Instead, it instills in children as young as age 11 the explicit and potentially harmful message that “There’s nothing wrong with fast food. There’s nothing wrong with McDonald’s.”
Here are some specific concerns raised by the film:
540 Meals Omits Critical Information
Unlike Morgan Spurlock, who was in good physical shape at the start of Super Size Me, Cisna weighed 280 pounds when his experiment began. This Institute of Medicine calorie calculator indicates Cisna likely required over 3,150 calories a day just to maintain his elevated weight, which explains his rapid weight loss on 2,000 calories a day.
But what about a 5′ 3,” 120-pound, sedentary high school girl watching 540 Meals in science class? She’ll gain weight if she exceeds 1,700 calories a day — not many more than the 1,440 calories in a single McDonald’s meal of a Big Mac, medium fries and a small chocolate shake. Cisna would likely respond that 540 Meals will teach this hypothetical girl to be more careful in choosing McDonald’s items to meet her lower caloric needs, but there are two problems with that response.
First, neither 540 Meals nor the discussion guide ever offer young viewers the critically important disclaimer that “Your calorie needs may be significantly lower than John Cisna’s,” nor do they even discuss how one might go about calculating one’s daily caloric requirements. Instead, students are left with the vague but reassuring message that “choice and balance,” along with a 45-minute walk (which might burn off about 1/5 of a Big Mac) will allow them to eat whatever they want at McDonald’s on a regular basis. After all, Cisna tells kids this:
Some of the skeptics said, “Well, he only ate salads.” No. I had everything. I had Big Macs, I had the Habanero, I had Quarter Pounders with Cheese, I had ice cream cones, I had sundaes. And what’s really amazing, that people find unbelievable, is probably 95% of every day, I had French fries. I love French fries and that was a great part of it.
But here’s the real kicker. Even Cisna wasn’t able to eat everything on the McDonald’s menu while sticking to the diet plan he so carefully outlines in the film. Under the skeptical eye of Today show dietitian Joy Bauer, Cisna admitted (at the 3:30 mark) that on days when his student menu planners required him to eat more highly caloric McDonald’s entrées, it was impossible to consume a total of 2,000 calories without also exceeding his Daily Value limit on fat. So for 21 out of the 90 days – almost a quarter of the experiment – he had to limit his calories even more severely, dropping down from 2,000 to 1,750. That’s a very low daily intake for a man of his considerable height (6 feet) and weight, but this relevant information is never disclosed in 540 Meals.
Calorie Information Rarely Trumps Fast Food Temptation
While Cisna is correct that calorie balancing is possible even at McDonald’s, studies have found that providing customers with calorie information in fast food settings generally doesn’t produce healthier choices – even when calorie counts are posted right on the menu board. Whether it’s due to the aroma of crispy, hot-from-the-fryer French fries or the sight of everyone around them eating juicy burgers, so few McDonald’s customers order salads that they account for just two to three percent of McDonald’s total sales.
As dietitian Bauer cautioned in the Today show report on Cisna’s experiment, “most people wouldn’t be able to mimic Cisna’s outcome because when faced with a fast food menu, they’d be too tempted to order a huge hamburger. . . .” Yet even in the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic, 540 Meals irresponsibly encourages notoriously impulsive pre-teen and teenaged kids to frequent McDonald’s – with all of its powerful sensory cues and unhealthful offerings – even more often than they already do.
No Discussion of Nutrition
Then there’s the issue of nutrition. During the 90-day experiment, Cisna refers to McDonald’s as his “grocery store,” implying that it offers a wide array of healthful foods, and he tells viewers frequently that his students were consistently tracking 15 nutrients. But 540 Meals never informs students that Cisna’s regimen was a far cry from the generally accepted definition of a healthful diet, i.e., one rich in whole grains and containing five to nine daily servings of fruits and vegetables. (French fries don’t count.)
Cisna rebuts this concern by pointing to his improved blood work, but as dietitian Bauer correctly pointed out on the Today show, “If you lose weight and you’re overweight to begin with, normally your cholesterol, your blood sugar, your triglycerides, they will come down, too.” In other words, Cisna’s blood profile improved despite the relatively poor nutritional quality of the food he was eating, not because of it.
Furthermore, according to Bauer, Cisna’s all-McDonald’s diet resulted in his consuming on a daily basis double the amount of sodium recommended for adults. This means he was only able to make his reassuring claim about “tracking 15 nutrients” by deliberately omitting sodium from the mix, even though it’s one of the main “nutrients of concern” in the American diet. But Cisna’s nutrient cherry-picking is another piece of relevant information that’s never mentioned to young viewers of 540 Meals.
“The Greatest Ad In the History of Mankind for McDonald’s”
Finally, of course, there’s the troubling prospect of aggressive McDonald’s brand promotion infiltrating middle and high schools under the guise of “health education.” Branding expert Abe Sauer, the only other person to have written about 540 Meals to date, summed it up well: “[It sounds] suspiciously like McDonald’s is looking for an edu-washed marketing campaign to get its brand in front of impressionable young minds with a tacit endorsement from authority figures.”
Still, though, it’s easy to see why McDonald’s would jump at the chance to exploit 540 Meals and close-up-ready Cisna for all they’re worth. After enduring a long period of declining sales, especially among young adults, the 540 Meals program must seem like a promising way to stimulate teens’ desire for McDonald’s food while inoculating them against the widely held belief that eating McDonald’s reguarly is bad for one’s health.
By the way, part of that inoculation actually includes Cisna tweaking a Mark Twain quote (shown below) and telling kids they shouldn’t trust any negative information about fast food or McDonald’s they might encounter on the Internet (14:05 mark):
Back when Cisna’s experiment was just starting to garner headlines, and well before McDonald’s turned it into an in-school program for impressionable kids, pundit Cenk Uygur rightly called it “the greatest ad in the history of mankind for McDonald’s.” Uygur went on to add, “This whole thing’s been a giant ad for McDonald’s, because you know what I want to do right afterwards? Go get a Big Mac.”
Precisely.
_____________
* I first learned of 540 Meals last month, when I was given a packet of materials about it prepared by a McDonald’s franchisee. I emailed a list of questions about the film to Golin, the PR firm retained by McDonald’s to oversee the company’s 540 Meals school outreach program. After receiving no response, I next contacted both Lisa McComb, Director of Media Relations at McDonald’s USA and Rebecca Hary, the company’s Director of Global Media Relations. But despite the company’s recent claim that it wants to be more transparent, neither McDonald’s executive responded to my repeated emails and phone messages seeking comment.
UPDATE 10/14/15: Be sure to read the latest on this story here: There’s been growing media coverage of 540 Meals as a result of this post, and McDonald’s has pulled down from the Internet the link to 540 Meals I shared above above. But as of right now, you can still see the film by clicking this link.
UPDATE 10/19/15: There’s now a Change.org petition circulating to keep this film out of schools. Please sign and share it! Thank you.
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Melinda Hemmelgarn says
Bettina, thank you so much for exposing what should be illegal — corporate advertising — in public education. I’m embarrassed that there are dietitians (my colleagues!) who actually sign up to promote this nonsense.
I encourage parents to monitor their children’s schools to keep this kind of “education” out of students’ school days.
Need additional support? Check out the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/
The students may also be interested to know that the children living in northern Minnesota where the bulk of the potatoes for McDonald’s are grown, are exposed to pesticide drift from the potato farms near their schools. A “toxic tater” grass roots campaign is attempting to raise awareness and change agricultural practices.
http://www.toxictaters.org/
As for all this “critical thinking” that Mr. Cisna promotes, one key question for his students would be: what’s missing from McDonald’s menu?
Bottom line: “Good” nutrition is so much more than calories. Let’s help students think beyond their plates.
Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D.
Jennifer Singh, RD, LDN says
“Bottom line: “Good” nutrition is so much more than calories.” You said it, Melinda. We should ALL think beyond our plates.
I have to teach all of my clients to think of food as nourishment for our bodies and brains. Most people focus solely on calories, and lately, carbs. We need to focus on nutrition and is our food providing enough and in the right amounts. I can guarantee that Cisna’s McD’s diet was very low in important nutrients, not to mention studies show that a diet such as this increases unhealthy gut bacteria. I’d love to see his markers of inflammation!
It’s sad that schools turn to corporations such as McDonald’s for financial support, because in turn, our children suffer greatly. What’s worse, there are dietitians who back messages like this up. We need to wake up and stop allowing greedy corporations tell us and our children how to eat. They only care about their bottom line, not our health.
Thank you, Bettina, for sharing.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Thank you, Jennifer, for coming by and leaving this thoughtful comment. And I agree – it was really dismaying to see in Cisna’s Twitter feed that his speaking engagements include addressing future dietitians and nutritionists!
bw1 says
“And I agree – it was really dismaying to see in Cisna’s Twitter feed that his speaking engagements include addressing future dietitians and nutritionists!”
So you’re saying you don’t want college students exposed to dissenting, politically incorrect, or controversial ideas?
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Thanks so much for your comment, Melinda, and for the helpful links. I’d never heard of the “toxic tater” campaign!
bw1 says
Nothing is “missing” from McDonald’s menu. They have a niche, and they fill it well.
Their menu suits the needs and desires of millions of satisfied customers every day.
I agree that propaganda doesn’t belong in public schools, but Super Size Me started the ball rolling on that.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Melinda: Just wanted to belatedly thank you for this comment. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reply!
Matthew says
While this is a despicable ‘documentary’, I’d also like to point out that ‘Super Size Me’ is not a whole lot better. It essentially invited this sort of propaganda piece into the world by being propaganda itself; the results in the film were wildly exaggerated and arguably misrepresented due to the fact that the subject consumed fast food in vast excess beyond reasonable norms, simply to achieve the desired ‘point’.
There is a risk that children, especially when they begin to become young adults and can regularly make their own choices on food, may come to view the poor nutrition of fast food as simply hysteria when they don’t observe the same extreme effects presented to them as ‘normal’ by sources like ‘Super Size Me’.
bw1 says
Don’t you know that whether it’s OK depends on which side is doing it?
This entire blog can be accurately characterized as Bettina’s crusade to have government, through the schools, push HER beliefs about how people should eat.
The hypocrissy is astounding.
The only real solution is for parents to stop abdicating their parental responsibilities to government, i.e. get the government out of the lunch business, and, for that matter, out of the school business.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Matthew: I apologize for the very belated reply to your thoughtful comment! Sometimes when I view comments from the “back end” of my blog, I can’t always see which comments I’ve failed to reply to.
At any rate, I feel that the comparison of 540 Meals to Super Size Me is inapt. Super Size Me, even if “over the top” in its methods, is attempting to educate the public about the (independently documented) harm of overconsumption of fast- and highly processed foods.
540 Meals purports to be offering a counterargument to that film, but it’s clearly little more than a cynical marketing tool clearly designed to boost sales.
Why do I say that? Because if McDonald’s were truly serious about offering a reasoned counterpoint to Super Size Me, it wouldn’t leave out massive amounts of critical information that kids need to know: (1) How kids are supposd to go about figuring out their own calorie needs (which are likely to be far lower than the 300 lb Cisna)? That’s never addressed – not even hinted at – so how can this film claim to be teaching kids how to make “balanced choices” when they walk into a McDonald’s? (2) The nutritional quality of Cisna’s diet was abyssmal, almost entirely lacking in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and far too high in sodium, but not only is that not mentioned, viewers are given vague reassurances that his diet was healthy because “15 nutrients” were being tracked; (3) Even Cisna couldn’t stick to his own 2,000 calorie parameters without greatly exceeding his daily value for fat, because McDonald’s offerings are, on the whole, far too high in fat; (4) One typical McDonald’s lunch (Big Mac, small fries, small shake) constitutes most of many people’s daily calorie quota, and that would certainly be true for younger viewers of 540 Meals. I could go on and on.
The bottom line for me on the comparison of the two films is this: The worst case scenario of kids watching Super Size Me is that they might be turned off fast food, and that result can only benefit them in the long run. The worst case scenario of kids watching 540 Meals (and I would argue this is a very likely scenario) is kids eating far more fast food than they do now.
In a time in which one out of three kids are overweight or obese, I’d much rather take the former chance than the latter, wouldn’t you?
John Sphar says
The book “Super Size Me” should be reprinted and republicized. Also, the Internet was not even a glimmer in Mark Twain’s eyes. I reached this important page from
http://www.dietdoctor.com/the-effect-of-quitting-sugar?utm_source=Diet+Doctor+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d2ef721bc4-Test&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_41db911777-d2ef721bc4-463624801
which is a great page about how we should really eat. They are talking abou ketogenic dieting.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
I’ll check it out – I actually didn’t know there was a book!
bw1 says
“Instead, it instills in children as young as age 11 the explicit and potentially harmful message that ‘There’s nothing wrong with fast food. There’s nothing wrong with McDonald’s.'”
Wow, talk about shrill and dogmatic statements. I’m actually surprised you managed to allow that it’s only “potentially” harmful.So, let’s get this straight – you are upset that students are exposed to the proposition that things you find harmful are, in fact, OK. How does that differ from conservative parents upset that their children are exposed to the proposition that homosexuality is OK, since I’m doesn’t sit well with a progressive like you?
There IS nothing wrong with fast food, or McDonald’s, when used wisely. I say that as someone who despises McDonald’s as least-common-denominator culinary pablum. I say that as someone who sees just as many McDonald’s commercials as anyone else, but who has spent less than $25 at McDonald’s in 30 years.
Also as someone who dropped 44 pounds in 30 days while eating lunch every weekday at Taco Bell, and whose brother ate lunch at Wendy’s every weekday for 4 years and has never had a BMI above 23.
You claim the film is full of misleading half truths, omitted facts, contrived scenarios, and other fallacies, but let’s see how your “critique” holds up to comparable scrutiny:
“In other words, Cisna’s blood profile improved despite the relatively poor nutritional quality of the food he was eating, not because of it.”
Fallacy: Distinction without a difference. He ate the food in question, and his blood profile improved. Despite or because of is irrelevant, because falsifying the causality relationship McDonald’s haters assert is just as meaningful as establishing a contrary causality. To put it in terms a non-scientist lawyer like you might better understand, if you provide your client an ironclad alibi, you don’t need to provide proof that someone else committed the crime.
“But what about a 5′ 3,” 120-pound, sedentary high school girl watching 540 Meals in science class?”
Talk about stacking the deck with a straw man! If she’s sendentary, she has bigger problems. The impact of exercise on ALL health outcomes is well established, as is the fact that no dietary regimen can overcome the negative effects of being sedentary, but sufficient exercise can ameliorate a lot of dietary sins. Are we to understand that all your rhetoric is predicated on the assumption that kids are going to be sedentary?
“nor do they even discuss how one might go about calculating one’s daily caloric requirements.”
Is this film the sum total of their scholastic instruction? Are they not taught basic research skills? Have they never heard of Google?
“Instead, students are left with the vague but reassuring message that “choice and balance,” along with a 45-minute walk (which might burn off about 1/5 of a Big Mac) will allow them to eat whatever they want at McDonald’s on a regular basis.”
“Whatever they want?” How does a menu assembled by others according to rigid nutritional criteria translate to “whatever he wants?” Another fallacious mischaracterization.
“But here’s the real kicker. Even Cisna wasn’t able to eat everything on the McDonald’s menu while sticking to the diet plan he so carefully outlines in the film….Cisna admitted … that on days when his student menu planners required him to eat more highly caloric McDonald’s entrées, it was impossible to consume a total of 2,000 calories without also exceeding his Daily Value limit on fat. So for 21 out of the 90 days….he had to limit his calories even more ”
Wow, is this the way you advocate teaching children nutrition, by pushing logical and mathematical fallacies? The diet plan had an UPPER LIMIT of 2000 calories per day. If he ate 1500 calories in a given day, 1500 < 2000 means he was compliant. Further, your "kicker" carries the clear corollary implication that to fail to eat one's maximum
calorie allowance in any given day constitutes "breaking your diet plan." How is THAT a positive message? That's like telling students they are financially irresponsible if their credit card balance drops below the limit for a day.
"studies have found that providing customers with calorie information in fast food settings generally doesn’t produce healthier choices – even when calorie counts are posted right on the menu board."
The fallacy here is that they had any intention of making choices that conform to your criteria*. I don't set foot in a fast food place more than once a month, and then only on a day when my workout exceeds 1200 calories. On those occassions, my only criteria is satisfying my most base gustatory desires.
*What constitutes healthy dietary choices is subject to debate. In particular, the entire "fat-evil/carbs-good" mantra of the last 30 years is being turned on its ear by current research.
"Whether it’s due to the aroma of crispy, hot-from-the-fryer French fries or the sight of everyone around them
eating juicy burgers, so few McDonald’s customers order salads that they account for just two to three percent of McDonald’s total sales."
That's a fallacious implication when the majority of McDonald's sales are at the drive thru window. It's just not possible that peoples' choices are due to pre-existing preferences because that doesn't support the all important narrative.
“most people wouldn’t be able to mimic Cisna’s outcome because when faced with a fast food menu, they’d be too tempted to order a huge hamburger. . . ."
Wow, you and Bauer have an awfully low opinion of your fellow human beings, and Cisna, my brother and I must be elite super beings from the planet Krypton. Of course, your entire nannystatist view regarding dietary choices pretty much depends on the elitist assumption that most people are incapable of guiding their own lives prudently.
"Yet even in the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic"
for which there is ja great deal of evidence that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are more responsible than McDonalds.
"540 Meals irresponsibly encourages notoriously impulsive pre-teen and teenaged kids to frequent McDonald’s….even more often than they already do."
Does it? Or does it simply counter all the material you and your co-idealogues are constantly pushing into the schools that McDonald's is the great satan? You seem to think the schools should be pushing YOUR agenda – are you just upset that someone else co-opted your idea?
"During the 90-day experiment, Cisna refers to McDonald’s as his “grocery store,” implying that it offers a wide array of healthful foods"
The most direct reading of his use of the termis that it was the place he went to get his food during that period. The idea that it says anything about what they offer is a tortured inference in service of your narrative. Maybe you should be in marketing.
"But 540 Meals never informs students that Cisna’s regimen was a far cry from the generally accepted definition of a healthful diet, i.e., one rich in whole grains and containing five to nine daily servings of fruits and vegetables."
Generally accepted by whom? Updated research has turned the "generally accepted" definition of a healthy diet on its ear at least twice in my lifetime, and there's a strong indication in current research that grains, whole or otherwise, do not belong.
"Furthermore, according to Bauer, Cisna’s all-McDonald’s diet resulted in his consuming on a daily basis double the amount of sodium recommended for adults."
Another tenet of dietary wisdom that research is increasingly disproving is the whole sodium phobia.
"Finally, of course, there’s the troubling prospect of aggressive McDonald’s brand promotion infiltrating middle and high schools under the guise of 'health education.'"
If the schools are entitled to push propaganda like Super Size Me as education then McDonald's is entitled to offer the opposing view. Your expectation of unilateral indoctrination power is arrogant and presumptious. Note that McDonald's predates the obesity epidemic by at least two generations.
"while inoculating them against the widely held belief that eating McDonald’s reguarly is bad for one’s health."
Excuse me, what was that word you used? BELIEF? If you're allowed to promote a BELIEF in the school, then those who don't hold it are equally entitled to promote the opposing BELIEF. If you have a problem with that, I suggest sending your children to a private school where you are fully entitled to control the dialog. Alternatively, I'm sure there's an totalitarian nation somewhere in the world whose leaders share your dietary doctrines.
Again, I despise McDonald's; I just don't share your Orwellian desire to make other peoples' children do so.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
For those who of you who aren’t long time Lunch Tray readers (or comment followers), I can tell you from five plus years of extensive and (speaking for myself) exhausting go-rounds with “bw1,” that no counter-argument from me will ever move his/her needle on any issue I discuss on this blog. He/she and I have clashed over the persistant use of junk food in school classrooms, the practice of bringing in birthday cupcakes to school, the improvement of school lunch standards and more. (Apparently, although I didn’t know it until he/she left a second comment here today, we even disagree over the desirablity of state-funded primary and secondary education, a hallmark of pretty much every advanced nation on the planet.) So rather than spend hours of my Sunday crafting a point-by-point response to bw1, I’ll simply leave his/her comment here for others to read and agree with – or not – as they see fit.
bw1 says
“I can tell you from five plus years of extensive and (speaking for myself) exhausting go-rounds with “bw1,”
There haven’t been many “go-rounds” because you typically offer this same non-response.
“that no counter-argument from me will ever move his/her needle on any issue I discuss on this blog.”
How would you know, you never offer any. And now you can’t even stick to the true facts:
“He/she and I have clashed over the persistant use of junk food in school classrooms”
Nope – I’m fully with you on that count.
“the practice of bringing in birthday cupcakes to school”
OK, that’s one.
“the improvement of school lunch standards”
Wrong again. I’m all for improvement – locally driven and locally implemented. In your own school district, have at it.
“and more. (Apparently, although I didn’t know it until he/she left a second comment here today, we even disagree over the desirablity of state-funded primary and secondary education”
Wrong again. I never said anything about FUNDING. You attended a private university, but probably half your classmates had their education publicly FUNDED.
“So rather than spend hours of my Sunday crafting a point-by-point response to bw1,”
or even addressing the central theme….
A.A. says
@bw1 Your quote: “There IS nothing wrong with fast food, or McDonald’s, when used wisely.” It was difficult to have any faith in a single thing you wrote after this statement.
I have a son whose only nutritional education (in school) so far was a small portion of 7th grade health class. They received a hand-out of the “Food Guide Pyramid.” Kids don’t make wise choices a lot of the time. It’s part of growing up. I learned quick not to rely on what he’s taught in school.
Nutritional education begins and continues at home. If you think for a moment that most people make wise choices, then why is there a national (and global) obesity epidemic? People do not make wise choices, whether through lack of information or misunderstanding of information, we just clearly do not.
Teacher + McDonald’s franchisee friend = the teacher coming up with an “experiment to teach critical thinking.” Uh huh. The guy sold himself to McDonald’s. He’s teaching the wrong class.
bw1 says
“@bw1 Your quote: “There IS nothing wrong with fast food, or McDonald’s, when used wisely.” It was difficult to have any faith in a single thing you wrote after this statement.”
Why? Substantiate your position – WHAT is wrong with McDonald’s that cannot be overcome by intelligent moderation on the part of their customers? Are you saying that one trip to McDonald’s in a lifetime dooms one to obesity and poor health? If not, how many? If you can posit a non-zero number of McDonald’s visits that do not irreversibly destroy one’s health, then my quote is unassailably accurate. If you can’t, then no one should take anything you say
seriously, especially since I’ve seen dozens of people stop at McDonald’s and purchase nothing but a single zero calorie cup of black decaf coffee. The fact remains that people CAN AND DO eat a healthy diet that includes fast food, including McDonald’s, in moderation, and the independent variable is the individual consumer and his/her choices.
“I have a son whose only nutritional education (in school) so far was a small portion of 7th grade health class. They received a hand-out of the ‘Food Guide Pyramid.’”
Wow, I’d look for a new school. By seventh grade, I’d had extensive education on nutrition, and we didn’t even have the internet.
“I learned quick not to rely on what he’s taught in school. Nutritional education begins and continues at home.””
Good advice. Modern public schools are worthless. All that nutritional education I got? All of it had the stamp of approval of the very authorities to whom Bettina regularly appeals, and a huge percentage of it has been proven wrong in the intervening decades of research.
“If you think for a moment that most people make wise choices,”
I don’t. However, unlike Bettina, I do not believe that entitles me to limit their choices or control the information to manipulate their choices. The first time that propaganda piece “Super Size Me” was shown in a classroom, with the enthusiastic approval of Bettina and her co-ideologues, the schools abandoned nutritional education and moved into indoctrination. The classroom message changed from the factual known effects of certain food components in certain
quantities on the human body to the belief that “McDonald’s is the devil.” At that point, it’s a matter of balance and equal time principles. McDonald’s didn’t initiate the indoctrination; they’re just responding to it.
Super Size Me is a contrived piece of propaganda, premised on the same absurd notion of spending several weeks eating nothing but McDonald’s. Who does that, except to prove a point? If I ate nothing but McDonald’s for a month, my health would be the least of my problems – I’d go broke. (You can get the same meal with a handmade milkshake, served on a china plate with real flatware, by a waitress, for less money at Steak’n’Shake.)
“then why is there a national (and global) obesity epidemic?”
Not because of what people eat. If you want a corporate scapegoat, try Atari, Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony. Don’t blame Ronald McDonald, blame the Mario Brothers. Yes, people make bad hoices. They choose to let their kids sit on the couch and play video games. (Then again, if they send them out to play in the yard, a different branch of the authoritarian hand wringers segment will report them for neglect and endangerment.)
“People do not make wise choices, whether through lack of information or misunderstanding of information, we just clearly do not.”
Yeah, and it’s just a darn shame that we live in a free country where they’re allowed to do so. Maybe the Taliban has something there, eh?
“Teacher + McDonald’s franchisee friend = the teacher coming up with an “experiment to teach critical thinking.” Uh huh. The guy sold himself to McDonald’s. He’s teaching the wrong class.”
No, he had an idea, and McDonald’s liked it. My brother had the same idea, amd did pretty much the same thing, just not the ambition to formalize and document it. In any event, it’s irrelevant – if belief X can be presented in a public school, belief not(X) is entitled to equal time for rebuttal.
David Pete says
Wow! Do you always simply dismiss that which goes against your beliefs??
Marc says
I agree with you. I believe that is a great teachable moment for students and teachers. They are taught to read with a critical eye. They should be able to watch this and research what it’s saying and decide what they should believe or not believe. I don’t believe that taking this out of schools helps anything. Are we supposed to only put what we agree with into schools or is supposed to a place where they learn how to think?
Catherine Cretu says
This is such an interesting discussion. I watched the film, but have not read the ‘Teacher’s Guide.”
Let’s face it, we have a very unhealthy mass food supply in this country, including most foods that are available in our grocery stores, and most of us know very little about the food we consume. If this film were to be included as part of an entire, balanced instructional unit on nutrition, it no doubt would contribute to some very lively and valuable discussion in class. However, if a teacher chooses to use this film and the accompanying guide as a sole or primary source for nutritional instructional material, students are at risk of being unduly influenced by McDonald’s clear conflict of interest on the subject.
As a lifelong organic gardener, I suppose I would be considered somewhat of a food “radical” myself. I certainly was shocked to find myself in an argument with my brilliant young nephew several years ago, who was studying sustainability at Columbia University, when he adamantly and ardently insisted that we cannot feed the world without the widespread use of GMO’s in agriculture. He had been instructed, in what I felt was a very one-sided view, by a very bright, charismatic, and inspiring professor, whose research was being funded by–you may have guessed it–Monsanto. And let me assure you, there was no public funding provided for his VERY EXPENSIVE education.
Since that time, my sister and I have made it a policy to send him articles and studies that argue other perspectives on what we “believe” to be more sustainable paths to ending world hunger.
So I guess ultimately I agree with those who have posted comments on the need for parents to pay attention to what is going on in their children’s schools. I’m afraid there is just no substitute for parental scrutiny and vigilance, and in spite of any efforts to control or standardize education from on high, education will most likely continue to remain a fairly local enterprise. So let the parent beware.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Catherine: Thanks for this comment and I’m so sorry for the belated reply. I agree completely with this: “there is just no substitute for parental scrutiny and vigilance, and in spite of any efforts to control or standardize education from on high, education will most likely continue to remain a fairly local enterprise. So let the parent beware.” However, this is not like a sex ed film where parents will be told in advance that it’s being screened. So I’m not sure how even a vigilant parent would know in advance that a science teacher or principal is planning to screen 540 Meals. Thanks again for coming by TLT and sharing your thoughts.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Marc: I agree wholeheartedly with Catherine below: ” if a teacher chooses to use this film and the accompanying guide as a sole or primary source for nutritional instructional material, students are at risk of being unduly influenced by McDonald’s clear conflict of interest on the subject.” It’s my fear that very few schools will do anything but show the film as intended by McDonald’s – simply as nutrition education. That seems to have been the case so far at the screenings which have taken place. Moreover, to Catherine’s point below, parents are very unlikely to be told in advance that the film is being shown. (This isn’t like a sex ed film where parents will need to sign off first.) So even vigilant parents won’t know about it until after the fact.
Robin Solis says
I think it may go even deeper 🙁 How about corporations that decide to starve scholastic initiatives and lobby against schools in order to strangle the school systems so that the they will have to take corporate sponsorship.
Dierdre Smith says
There is nothing wrong with fast food or with McDonalds, when eaten very sparingly. Fast food isn’t even on my 10 year olds radar. In fact, she would much rather eat at the local sushi bar when given the choice for lunch. That said, if you must eat fast food choose healthy!
Susan Medina says
I agree with you 100% McDonalds has alot of choices not just a big Mac or quarter pounder I don’t think these people are looking past that even the items in a kids meals can be switched out with fruit and milk so they are not getting fries and soda so all these haters need to back off
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Susan: I”m not a McDonald’s “hater” and I’m glad they offer healthier sides with their kid meals. My petition has to do with this film specifically and whether it’s appropriate to be shown in schools. Thanks for coming by, though, to share your views.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Dierdre: Sorry for the late reply – I’ve been a little deluged! 🙂 I agree about eating fast food sparingly. That’s all the more reason why I’m concerned about a film being shown in schools in which the teacher not only doesn’t model eating it sparingly, he eats it every day for six months, three meals a day, and then tells kids he STILL eats McDonald’s every day, even though his “diet” is over. My concern is that, whatever the purported goals of this film, the end result will be a lot more kids eating a lot more fast food a lot more often. Thanks for coming by TLT.
Qwerty says
Your Change.org petitions McD’s to withdraw their promotional material. You’re kidding. You’re demanding that a company stop advertising itself?
Your petition should be directed to the schools accepting this commercial material as “educational”.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Qwerty: I would never ask a company to stop advertising, only that it not advertise in schools. We send our kids to school to be educated, not barraged with corporate marketing. And I’m certainly not alone in feeling this way – new USDA rules (currently in the proposal stage) would bar the advertising of unhealthy food on school campuses. Moreoever, it’s a lot easier to ask McDonald’s to pull back this program than it is to get every school in the country to agree not to show it! Thanks for your comment here.
bw1 says
“We send our kids to school to be educated, not barraged with corporate marketing. ”
But being barraged with fallacy-ridden propaganda demonizing a corporation is just fine, right?
Super Size Me was in the schools first. You didn’t seem to have any complaint about that.
Tracy Marie says
I understand your concern regarding this “film”. However, the photo you have of a “lunch tray”, at the top of your web page, looks Very “unappetizing”. I love fruits and veggies, especially broccoli. But I turned up my nose at what was on your “tray”. In addition to that, the ONLY [bold, not “shouting”] reason people do not buy the Salads at McDonald’s is they are Outrageously Overpriced! My children love fresh salads, including many types of “dark” greens. When we went to McDonald’s once for the express purpose of buying salads (because we were very tired and did not want to do the work involved in chopping our own fresh, raw veggies), THEY said “NO!” no to such prices. We selected and priced the items we had intended to buy, took the total and a menu to the grocery store. We bought Full “packages” of every item we needed to make each of the salads we had selected. (When I say “packages”, I’m referring to the bundles they make of greens, containers to hold fresh radishes, mushrooms, etc. Not, plastic bags of pre-cut lettuce.) Obviously we had to but full bottles of three different types of “dressings”, along with seasonings, like ginger, and pine nuts to make similar flavored mixtures to match those on the menu. We had over 4 days worth of “salad makings”, with less than Half of what we would have spent at McDonald’s, for ONE meal for each of 3 people. That’s why people don’t buy their salads at McDonald’s!
Besides all this, although salads are healthier, they actually pack-a-punch, having More calories than Some combos. And french-fries are Not more healthy just because one fries them at home.
So, when all is said and done, it does not matter if the “Lunch Lady” makes the meal or “mom” at home. It’s is still our choices that matter.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Tracy Marie – you raise an interesting point not mentioned in my post. If salads at McDonald’s are out of reach for many consumers, that’s all the more reason why this film is unlikely to result in teens and preteens heading to McDonald’s and making the right nutritional choices. Thanks for coming by to share this comment.
Sherry says
Some of these petitions are grossly ridiculous. Have you seen what the schools serve our children for lunches? Most days a hungry dog wouldn’t want to eat it. My youngest eats lunch at 10:40. So by 3:30 they beg for anything fast. Not only are kids playing on their game or watching TV while they eat but my kids have homework from the time they come home to almost 9 everyday. Portion control is how I look at food not exactly what we eat.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Sherry: So far, almost 55,000 people indicate they agree with me, but I’m sorry you find my petition ridiculous. Keep in mind, though, that the petition is not anti-McDonald’s food per se. Rather, it’s narrowly directed at this film and whether it belongs in schools or not. Thanks for coming by.
bw1 says
“Keep in mind, though, that the petition is not anti-McDonald’s food per se.”
Then where’s the companion petition asking schools not to show Super Size Me?
Susan Medina says
You are saying take mcd’s out of the lunchroom because its not healthy that may be the only meal some kids get to eat everyday and not everything on the menu is unhealthy I just bought a bunch of mickey D’s gift cards and gave them to school kids that only get 1 meal a day and your probably thinking why didn’t I get gift cards to somewhere more ” nutritional” mcd’s is right next door to school so get off your high horse people and maybe put up a petition to stop childhood hunger if you saw a child that did not eat that day and the only option was mcd’s would you say “NO” to that kid you can’t eat mcd’s because its not nutritional COME ON PEOPLE GET REAL
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Susan: My petition has nothing to do with the food served in schools. And I’m keenly aware of the problem of childhood hunger, which is why I’ve been an advocate for five years working to support and improve the National School Lunch Program, which serves almost 32 million kids a day, 21 million of whom are economically disadvantaged. My petition has to do with nutrition education and the incursion of corporate advertising in schools. But it sounds like we might disagree even on those issues – that’s fine, I appreciate comments from all perspectives here. Thanks for coming by.
Sue says
Regardless of what we think ‘nutritious’ means and regardless of the results of Mr. Cisna’s experiment, McDonald’s and the rest of the fast food industry are serving up abhorrent amounts of animal agriculture pollution and cruelty. Maybe his students could study that next!
Shiela Brown says
Hello Bettina,
A few years ago while I was in my senior year at the university, I took a course entitled, “Environmental Geology”. Exceptionally interesting course. One of our field trips was to the local waste treatment plants. Now, that may not sound too wonderful but it was very interesting. Being a college town, we had a huge choice in fast food. Great for students who don’t want to spend a lot of money or time cooking. However, it wreaks havoc on waste treatment. Nutritional is not what I would call fast food, in particular places like McDonalds. I would call it plastic. Yes, plastic. Ask any municipal waste treatment, especially a college town, the “plastic” type waste that they can’t break down easily. They are having quite a time trying. I don’t eat at McDs anymore and the other places I stay away for many items except those items that actually resemble real food. No cheese like substances or any processed meats.
I lived in Japan for five years. At first, American fast food was sparse. However, after while it was all over the local area. Japanese kids, in particular the teenagers, started to have more obesity problems and acne issues. They may eat well at home, however, when they are out during the day, many eat at places like McDonalds, KFC, etc. Not only are they enjoying the American way of fast food, but are now having the physical issues they never had in their society.
These are things you can check for yourself if you want. Speak to those in charge of city municipal waste treatment, especially college towns. And, speak to anyone that is an older Japanese person who has been back and forth there over the years.
Thanks for doing the good walk. Will sign your petition.
Shiela
Diana says
I realize that using McDonald’s for the experiment would seem like advertising and I rarely eat at McDonald’s but this is a way to get students attention. You can’t argue the outcome of the experiment with his blood reports and weight and how he uses the students to pick out the choices while considering calories and nutrition of foods. And there’s the exercise. Give your kids more credit. If you do your parenting correct they aren’t going to eat McDonald’s everyday 3 times a day but when they do don’t you think this teacher’s experiment will stick in their minds and maybe they will make good choices. He could have used ways like columns of food to choose from etc. but that would not have been as fun for the kids and they probably would have forgotten everything about it by the next year. I bet they remember that little experiment a long time! Parents have made this into a McDonald commercial! Just saying……