Breast Cancer Awareness and…McDonald’s?

Greetings to all!

When I opened up Lifeline Magazine (a publication of the Y-ME breast cancer organization), I was appalled to see an article about McDonald’s in the sponsor spotlight section. The article involved two women who are both breast cancer awareness spokeswomen, and who were once breast cancer patients.

I found great irony in that both of these women work for the McDonald’s corporation. One of the ladies is a McDonald’s Corporation global chief diversity officer, and the other lady owns seven McDonald’s chains. One lady quoted, “It makes me proud to see that McDonald’s is willing to step up and get involved so actively. It reinforces the message that breast cancer touches everyone and McDonald’s is committed to making a difference-and committed to helping Y-ME ensure that no one faces breast cancer alone”.

How wonderful! McDonald’s corporation actually CARES about the health of their clientele! What complete BS! I’m sorry, but this corporation does not give a flying hoot about the health of who is eating at their restaurant. Are these women aware of the chemicals that are put into McDonald’s food, the amount of calories in the food that their corporation sells?

Of course they don’t, McDonald’s doesn’t offer nutritional information in their restaurants anymore! (hmmm, I wonder why?).

McDonald’s food is not healthful, and I don’t believe that they really care about health issues. Are they aware of their contribution to the obesity epidemic in United States? How their food is contributing to the rise of diabetes, heart disease, and possibly cancer?

I am not saying McDonald’s food is the sole contributer to an unhealthy nation. However, they are the world’s largest fast food corporation, and they sure do make it very easy for consumers to purchase their food (out of love, of course).

If you have a minute, take a look at this excerpt by author Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation-excellent book). The article touches on why the food at McDonald’s tastes so good.

http://www.rense.com/general7/whyy.htm

If you don’t want to check out the website, I’ll give you an example. Here are the ingredients to “strawberry flavoring”, which is typically found in fast food restaurant milkshakes:

A typical artificial strawberry flavor, like the kind found in a Burger King strawberry milk shake, contains the following ingredients: amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone (10 percent solution in alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent.

I am skeptical that McDonald’s teamed up with Y-ME for anything other than to increase their sales-to market to a different audience. Sorry, but that is the truth. If they were concerned about health issues, they would go back to preparing their food the way it was originally prepared-FRESH. Wow, what a concept.

Lifeline should have thought twice before running this article.

In conclusion, I’d like YOU to think twice about anything you read and eat. I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but you MUST think for yourself. We are given so much information, and it is hard to know what and who to believe. Read in between the lines, do your research, and think. When you do, you will discover that not all the information you receive is 100% valid.

Here’s to your well-being! :o)

~Jeannette