NYT: McDonald's "Dollar Menu" Fosters Obesity Among Blacks, Hispanics
Posted by: Clay Waters
4/20/2006 9:57:01 AM
Business reporter Melanie Warner has a front-page story Wednesday on the success of McDonald's and its bargain "dollar menu."
But this being a Warner story, she can't let it pass without delving into the liberal anti-obesity political angle, raising without directly mentioning the spectre of nanny-state regulation of fast food.
"McDonald's has attracted considerable attention in the last few years for introducing to its menu healthy food items like salads and fruit. Yet its turnaround has come not from greater sales of healthy foods but from selling more fast-food basics, like double cheeseburgers and fried chicken sandwiches, from the Dollar Menu.
"While that may have helped many low-income customers save money, there could be a heavy health cost. McDonald's has marketed the Dollar Menu to teenagers, young adults and minorities who are already plagued with an especially high incidence of obesity and related health problems like diabetes.
"Many nutritionists say fast food is one of the worst things in the American diet, because of its calories, trans fats, lack of fiber and added sugars and processed carbohydrates. 'If you're looking at the Dollar Menu in terms of how much food you get it really appears as a good bargain,' said Connie Schneider, a nutrition adviser for Fresno County in California. 'But if you're looking at it as how many nutrients are you getting for a dollar, it's the least economical.'
"McDonald's says it seeks to provide options for its customers, at both low and higher prices."
In an irony probably missed by the Times, the company is criticized for appealing to and serving the wishes of minority customers, and the Times suggests McDonald's carries some blame for the rise in U.S. medical costs.
"Dollar Menu ads aimed at young blacks and Hispanics often focus on how much hearty food can be bought for just $1, a message many young consumers are eager to hear.
"'The problem here is that you're dealing with a segment where you have these huge obesity issues and you're making eating Big Macs and double cheeseburgers look like it's fun and exciting,' said Jerome Williams, a professor of advertising at the University of Texas, Austin, and one author of an Institute of Medicine report last year on the marketing of junk food to children and teenagers.
"David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital in Boston, calls marketing fast food to blacks and Hispanics a 'recipe for disaster.'
"'Fast-food consumption has been shown to increase calorie intake, promote weight gain and elevate risk for diabetes,' Dr. Ludwig said. 'Because African Americans and Hispanics are inherently at higher risk for obesity and diabetes, fast food will only fuel the problem.'
"According to an analysis of government data published this month in The Journal of the American Medical Association, 45 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 36.8 percent of Mexican-Americans aged 20 and over are obese, as opposed to 30.6 percent of non-Hispanic white adults.
"Blacks and Hispanics are also more likely to suffer from obesity-related diseases. Blacks are 1.8 times as likely to have Type 2 diabetes than whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Mexican-Americans, the largest Hispanic subgroup, are 1.7 times as likely. And 42.9 percent of blacks have cardiovascular disease, while 33.3 percent of whites do, according to the American Heart Association.
"Obesity and related diseases also carry a high financial cost. Problems created by obesity increase the nation's health care costs by $93 billion a year, mostly from Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, according to a 2003 study done by RTI International in North Carolina."
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