'We Don't Sell Junk Food,' McDonald's CEO Tells Nine-Year-Old [Video]
Last week, McDonald's held a shareholder meeting to discuss the future of the company and strategies moving forward. What hardly anyone was expecting was a public relations snafu at the hands of a forward-thinking nine-year-old.
The girl, Hannah Robertson, works with her mom to develop healthy eating habits through their Rainbow Kitchen website. They believe that eating foods of all different colors will lead to a wide array of phytonutrients and healthier diets, and Hannah decided to use the meeting as an opportunity to slam McDonald's for their lack of healthy food.
"Something I don't think is fair is when big companies try to trick kids into eating food that isn't good for them by using toys and cartoon characters. If parents haven't taught their kids about healthy eating, then the kids probably believe that junk food is good for them because it might taste good."
Hannah went on to ask McDonald's CEO Don Thompson why his company continues to hold such business practices. It was at that point that Thompson uttered what may be one of the biggest whoppers in recent memory.
"We don't sell junk food, Hannah," Thompson told her, adding that his kids grew up eating McDonald's and also enjoy dining at home. "We provide high-quality food. We always have; it's real beef, it's real chicken, it's real tomatoes, real lettuce, real fruit, real smoothies, real dairy, real eggs, and we do it in a way that is also affordable."
It has been common knowledge for some time now that McDonald's is in many ways the pinnacle of the highly-processed, greasy food industry that has led to an epidemic in obesity. Though the term "junk food" usually refers to candy and cookies, there is not much evidence that McDonald's is any better.
One such example of the company's utter lack of nutritional food came from Morgan Spurlock's documentary "Supersize Me," in which he ate nothing but McDonald's for a month. The result? He gained an extreme amount of weight and had numerous health issues.
"My medical and public health colleagues have repeatedly acknowledged the science -- I think McDonald's-style fast food and the fast food practices [contribute] to the decline in children's health and McDonald's has yet to make substitute changes," said Andrew Bremer, a doctor who also attended the shareholder's meeting.
These complaints have often been brought up against McDonald's, but so far it does not seem to have made much of a difference. Regardless of the ethics behind their business decisions, McDonald's has done nothing wrong legally and continues to be the most successful restaurant of all-time.
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