Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
McDonald’s joins the food movement???
McDonald’s ran a full-page ad in yesterday’s New York Times:*
“At McDonald’s we’re on a journey: What’s important to you is important to us.”
The ad says McDonald’s is taking these actions [with my comments]:
- Removed artificial preservatives from Chicken McNuggets and other items [Fine, but no big deal in my book.]
- Removed high fructose corn syrup from hamburger buns [And replaced it with what? Sugar? This matters? I’m guessing the price of HFCS must be close enough to the price of sugar to make this possible.]**
- Committed to only source chickens that have not been treated with antibiotics [OK. Now we’re talking important. For this alone, McDonald’s deserves high praise. My only question: by when?]***
The ad also summarizes the company’s additional actions, done and promised:
- Burgers are 100% beef
- Eggs are freshly cracked
- Salads feature baby spinach, kale, Tuscan red leaf lettuce, and carrots
- Buttermilk chicken uses real buttermilk
- Milk is sourced from cows not treated with rbST
- 2 billion sides of fruit were served (including 59 million clementines)
- Espresso beans are Rainforest Alliance Certified
- Eggs will be cage-free by 2025
Amazing, no?
It’s worth a field trip to see how all this works in practice. I’m on it.
Additions, corrections, and updates
*Jill Cornish writes that the ad also appeared in the Washington Post.
**I get a Bingo for this one. Martijn Katan writes: “The price of beet sugar fell below that of HCFS in April 2015. By June 2016, 1 lb of HFCS-55 cost $0.412 as opposed to $0.297 for beet sugar.” He even sends a reference: www.cornnaturally.com/Economics-of-HFCS/price-calculator.aspx
***Andy Smith points out that “In 2015, McDonald’s announced that it would stop buying chicken raised with non-therapeutic, medically-important antibiotics by 2017– but a few weeks ago announced that it had already done so.” He too provides a reference: See QSR. “McDonald’s Eliminates Antibiotics From Its Chicken,” QSR Magazine, August 2, 2016. Retrieved at https://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/eliminates-antibiotics-its-chicken.
Thank you readers! Much appreciated.
