A reader sent me a link to an article about how actor James Franco credits McDonald’s for keeping body and soul together when he was struggling financially. That’s not the point of this post, but here are some interesting quotes:
Actor James Franco has written a lengthy endorsement of his former employer, McDonald’s. Franco writes in a Washington Post op-ed that in the late ’90s he was a struggling actor living in Los Angeles. He was fired from a coffee shop and golf course and couldn’t find acting jobs.
He became desperate after his parents cut him off financially.
“Someone asked me if I was too good to work at McDonald’s,” Franco writes. “Because I was following my acting dream despite all the pressure not to, I was definitely not too good to work at McDonald’s.”
Franco says he began working in the drive-thru and practicing foreign accents on customers.
He was able to leave his job at McDonald’s after booking a Super Bowl commercial with Pizza Hut. Since then, he’s become one of the most successful actors in the industry, starring in The Interview, 127 Hours, and Spiderman. But Franco says he still feels affection for the fast food chain.
“I was treated fairly well at McDonald’s. If anything, they cut me slack,” Franco writes. “And, just like their food, the job was more available there than anywhere else. When I was hungry for work, they fed the need.”
Okay, that’s nice. It’s refreshing to see a Hollywood type who doesn’t consider McDonald’s an evil empire. (Full disclosure: I didn’t know who James Franco was until I read the article. It’s a sign of my impending decline into Old Fogeyhood. I see headlines about pop stars and think, “Who the heck is that?”)
But it wasn’t the article itself that caught my interest. It was a linked article about how McDonald’s plans to turn around its flagging sales:
McDonald’s unveiled on Monday its massive turnaround plan to revive business.
“Our recent performance has been poor. The numbers don’t lie,” McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook said in a 23-minute video overview of the plan. “I will not shy away from the urgent need to reset this business.”
Easterbrook said the company would strip away layers of management, focus more on listening to customers, and act faster to adapt to consumers’ changing tastes.
McDonald’s same-store sales have fallen for six straight quarters in the US, where the company is battling a pervasive public perception that its food is unhealthy and over-processed. The chain has also been hurt by a series of food safety scandals in Asia, which contributed to a 15% loss in net income last year.
The company will be restructured into four market segments: the US; international lead markets (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, UK); high-growth markets (China, Italy, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands); and foundational markets (the remaining markets in the McDonald’s system).
McDonald’s will also refranchise 3,500 restaurants through 2018, bringing its total percentage of franchised restaurants to 90% from 81% globally. The restructuring is expected to save the company $300 million annually by 2017, according to the company.
Going forward, improving food quality will be a top priority, Easterbrook said.
There were paragraphs in the article about how the company plans to restructure, re-franchise, etc., to save money. I don’t know or care what those involve. It’s the food quality issue that I believe will eventually make or break McDonald’s.
When Super Size Me was released, there were gleeful predictions among fans that it would sink McDonald’s. I never believed that. The people who cheered Super Size Me didn’t eat at McDonald’s anyway. Meanwhile, I sincerely doubt anyone saw Super Size Me and said to himself, “Oh my gosh! So that’s why I’m fat – McDonald’s has been selling me too much food! Well, that’s it, I’m never eating there again.” While researching Fat Head, I talked to two different franchise owners (both owned multiple McDonald’s restaurants) who told me Super Size Me didn’t affect their sales at all.
Morgan Spurlock didn’t hurt McDonald’s, but I’m pretty sure the paleo movement has. That’s why the CEO talked about food quality, not quantity. The question is whether or not Mr. Easterbrook and the rest of the McDonald’s brass understand what food quality means to the public these days.
Despite what some people think, I have no relationship (financial or otherwise) with McDonald’s and rarely eat there. But it so happens that the day before these articles ran, Chareva and I had one those tight-schedule nights, both of us trying to get the girls to and from different activities while taking care of our own errands. So we ended up meeting at McDonald’s for dinner and a daughter-exchange.
I ordered one of the 1/3 pound sirloin burgers – minus the bun — and it was actually pretty tasty. Not grass-fed, of course, but I don’t expect to find grass-fed beef in most restaurants. I don’t even eat grass-fed beef all the time at home. I don’t believe grain-fed beef is bad for us; just not as good for us as grass-fed beef. So I was fine with the burger.
But then there are the other items on the menu: buns made from mutant wheat, skim milk (whole milk isn’t even available), salads with Newman’s Own salad dressing – main ingredient: soybean oil.
The girls split a small order of fries. I didn’t eat any. Because of the carbs? Nope. My diet is low-carb but not zero-carb, and I’ll happily eat a serving of potatoes now and then. But McDonald’s fries are fried in vegetable oil. As Nina Teicholz explained in her outstanding book The Big Fat Surprise, the vegetable oils used in fast-food restaurants these days may be even worse than the trans fats they replaced:
Gerald McNeill, vice president of Loders Croklaan, which is one of the country’s largest suppliers of edible oil, told me something scary. He explained that fast-food chains including McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s have swapped out hydrogenated oils and started using regular vegetable oil instead. “As those oils are heated, you’re creating toxic oxidative breakdown products,” he said. “One of those products is a compound called an aldehyde, which interferes with DNA. Another is formaldehyde, which is extremely toxic.”
Aldehydes? Formaldehyde? Isn’t that the stuff that’s used to preserve dead bodies?
He went on to tell me how these heated, oxidized oils form polymers that create a “thick gunk” on the bottom of the fryer and clog up the drains… Partially hydrogenated oils, by contrast, were long-lasting and stable in fryers, which of course is why they were favored. And beef tallow, McDonald’s original frying fat, was even more stable.
As I told Chareva over dinner, if McDonald’s ever went back to beef tallow for frying, I’d probably eat there more often. As it is, if we go out for burgers and fries (and we’re not pressed for time), we go to Five Guys – largely because the French fries are fried in peanut oil. They taste way better than the fries at McDonald’s, and while peanut oil isn’t the best of fats, it’s acceptable.
I don’t know what Mr. Easterbrook has in mind for improving food quality, but from what I’ve seen lately, McDonald’s is heading in the wrong direction. They still seem to think food quality means low-fat and low-cholesterol. Their big idea for breakfast is the Egg White Delight McMuffin. Egg whites? Seriously? Hell, not even the goofs on the USDA Dietary Guidelines Committee think egg yolks are a problem anymore.
They didn’t ask me (like I said, we have no relationship), but if they did, here’s what I’d tell the McDonald’s brass:
Yes, you’re losing sales to consumer concern about food quality. But that concern is driven by the paleo movement and the gluten-free movement, not the anti-fat hysteria of the 1980s and 1990s. If you want to bring back customers, forget the low-fat nonsense and try a few ideas like these:
- Announce that you’re returning to beef tallow for frying. Yes, The Guy From CSPI will throw a fit, but he’s old news and I don’t think people take him seriously anymore. There have been plenty of articles in both scientific journals and the popular press declaring that the war on saturated fat was a huge mistake. At the press conference, wave some of those around, along with a copy of The Big Fat Surprise.
- Ditch the skim milk and start serving whole milk. There is zero evidence that skim milk is better for our health, and plenty of evidence suggesting that full-fat dairy is better.
- Dump the Egg White Delight. Egg yolks are not and never have been a health hazard. If anything on an Egg McMuffin is a health hazard, it’s the wheat muffin. Which brings me to …
- Become the first fast-food restaurant chain to switch to gluten-free buns and muffins. We’ve tried the gluten-free buns by Udi’s, and they taste just like any other hamburger bun. Not everyone is going gluten-free, but plenty of people are. I promise nobody is going to demand buns with gluten in them. Yes, the gluten-free buns cost more, but what the hell, you’re McDonald’s. You’d be selling millions of millions of them, so I’m sure you can strike a good deal with a provider.
- No disrespect to Paul Newman, but get rid of the soybean-oil dressings. There are plenty of recipes out there for delicious dressings that use healthy fats like avocado oil and full-fat yogurt. I’m sure someone would mass-produce them if McDonald’s was the client. If I could get a chicken salad at McDonald’s and a quality dressing to go with it, I’d eat there far more often.
Yes, I know McDonald’s tried “healthy” options before that flopped. You all probably still have painful memories of the McLean Burger. But you see, those “healthy” options flopped because they tasted awful. People don’t go to McDonald’s to buy tasteless, low-fat food.
The changes I’m suggesting don’t punish anyone’s taste buds. In fact, they’d improve the taste of the food while simultaneously improving the quality.
Give those a shot, and Ronald McDonald may live to a ripe old age.
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Those are great suggestions. Sadly, I don’t see McDonald’s finding (let alone following) them until there is such a massive sea change in public demand that the phrase “low fat” is nothing but a distant memory, and we’re still a long way off from that.
I’m glad the franchise owners didn’t seem to suffer at the hands of CSPI guy, but I suspect it was a different story for the corporate executives, who had to take the direct impact of the media’s love affairs with the low-fat hysteria, Super Size Me, and all the other anti-McDonald’s propaganda out there. I’d bet they’re very self-conscious of appearing insensitive to obesity, so they’re going to showcase whatever bull they can think of that aligns with the media’s version of healthy food choices.
Not that it’ll help. The self-important elitists of the popular media will never see or acknowledge McDonald’s as anything but “an evil big corporation that makes people fat for profit” (and other similar language more appropriate for the Eastern hemisphere).
And real ice cream. We want real ice cream. Have you ever had real soft ice cream? Why is it so hard to find? And real fries, with the skin on. The only way to make fries. And hot sauce (not barbecue sweet sauce).
Carl’s Jr. recently took a leap and started offering “All-Natural” grass fed beef burgers. And you have been able to order any sandwich on the menu as a “lettuce wrap” for years now. Order a All-Natural, lettuce wrap double, hold the dressing, and you have a winner. I don’t know if Hardee’s offers these as well, but Carl’s seems to be ahead of the game. Damned tasty too.
Incidentally, we just learn now that bottled water sales are surpassing soda sales: http://on.ft.com/1IxczcK
Come on, fast food industry, there’s plenty of customer need lying in this direction, for you to satisfy.
re: … bottled water sales are surpassing soda sales …
Raises new issues that people need to consider, including:
• non-native fluorides & chlorides (thyroid & gut biome hazards)
• Bpa and Bps in polymer bottles
• Residual detergent & sanitizers if in re-used glass bottles
• Who knows what other junk if not credible spring water
I was wondering last night: is ANYTHING in the modern food market the same product you could have bought 150 years ago? Even the veggies are all modern hybrids, unless you have a local organic heirloom section of the store.
How about Poland Spring Water (now owned by Nestle);
it’s been on the market for over 150 years.
But, alas:
– no assurance of exactly what spring the water came from
– apparently no longer offered in glass bottles with cork-lined caps
They are at least moving away from Bpa (but show no awareness of Bps). The polyethylene bottles may be the safest.
It’s a pick-your-battles era. A paleo perfectionist could dehydrate and/or starve to death pretty promptly.
I would eat McDonalds fries and salads too if there was good oil in them. And maybe you could just order the meat to go with it, or some chicken wings maybe. Something that was real.
Those are great suggestions Tom, but it is going to take a while to seeany real changes.
That is what I tell my wife all the time, “only if Maccas offered some low carb options, they would get my business back.” I reckon they should let people choose what kind oil they want their fries to be coocked in. That poisonous vegetable oil or natural animal fat. They should advetise choice, no one can argue with choice can they? Oh yeah that guy from CSPI doesn’t want people to choose for themselves along with the media. Like your doco “Fat-Head” showed that they think we are too stupid to think for ourselves. I reckon Mcdonalds should embrace Paleo/lchf options until then, I have to cook all my meals.
I don’t expect to see the changes I suggested, either. I don’t see any evidence that McDonald’s executives understand the real problem — not when they’re offering Egg White Delights.
Well I went to Maccas(Mcdonalds) today. This is my second time this year. They have the new touch screens where you select what you want by tapping your selections. You also have the choice of paying in person to a cashier or paying at the touch screen computer. If pay at touch screen computer, all you do is display your number on the table you are sitting and they will bring your food to your table. They placed about 8 of the touch screen computers. My wife and me chose the “make your own burger option” and it was freaking expensive. I chose the bunless option with angus beef, tomato, cheese, bacon, and onion. It is like their Grand Angus from their “Selection” rage but with out the buns and medium coffee. She ordered soda water. It came out to freaking 30$AUD! The burgers were over 10$ each. So I decided to cancel and went with a double quater pounder which was 6.75 and medium coffee which came up about the same price as the one “build your own burger” option. Maccas almost got it right, but why must I pay extra for a bunless burger? I was disappointed by the experience.
Maccas? I’m guessing you’re Australian. According to Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, McDonald’s still uses beef fat for frying in Australia.
I wrote the CEO Steve Easterbrook and told him he should spin-off some of those McDonalds instead of closing them and switch them to a Keto menu. They have all the tools and delivery chain to make it work. Having a separate brand name would put some distance between the two brands and they should cater to people doing the keto lifestyle by listing net-carbs for things and this should also help people with diabetes and other issues that need to watch their carb intake including athletes.
I got back the form letter saying, ‘The immediate priority for McDonald’s is to restore growth under a new organizational structure and ownership mix designed to provide greater focus on the customer, improve our operating fundamentals, and drive a recommitment to running great restaurants.’ blah, blah, blah.
They aren’t going to take a chance, they’re going full lemming off the cliff.
New structure isn’t what they need.
Those are great suggestions. Sadly, I don’t see McDonald’s finding (let alone following) them until there is such a massive sea change in public demand that the phrase “low fat” is nothing but a distant memory, and we’re still a long way off from that.
I’m glad the franchise owners didn’t seem to suffer at the hands of CSPI guy, but I suspect it was a different story for the corporate executives, who had to take the direct impact of the media’s love affairs with the low-fat hysteria, Super Size Me, and all the other anti-McDonald’s propaganda out there. I’d bet they’re very self-conscious of appearing insensitive to obesity, so they’re going to showcase whatever bull they can think of that aligns with the media’s version of healthy food choices.
Not that it’ll help. The self-important elitists of the popular media will never see or acknowledge McDonald’s as anything but “an evil big corporation that makes people fat for profit” (and other similar language more appropriate for the Eastern hemisphere).
Yeah, as long as most people (and ignoramuses who write media health articles) believe in artercloggingsaturatedfat, it will be difficult for McDonald’s to switch to full-fat milk and beef tallow without being portrayed as villains in the press. Someday, maybe.
And real ice cream. We want real ice cream. Have you ever had real soft ice cream? Why is it so hard to find? And real fries, with the skin on. The only way to make fries. And hot sauce (not barbecue sweet sauce).
I’m down with the real fries.
Carl’s Jr. recently took a leap and started offering “All-Natural” grass fed beef burgers. And you have been able to order any sandwich on the menu as a “lettuce wrap” for years now. Order a All-Natural, lettuce wrap double, hold the dressing, and you have a winner. I don’t know if Hardee’s offers these as well, but Carl’s seems to be ahead of the game. Damned tasty too.
I believe Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s are the same company.
The only problem with Hardees/Carls Jr. is their overly sexist TV commercials, which more closely resemble porn. Yes, I’m declining into Old Fogeyhood too.
How the heck did I miss those?
Yeah Carls seems to be one of the better massive fast food chains when it comes down to it, but if they would just ditch their commercials i think it would help their appeal to some people.
I haven’t seen those commercials, but I take it they’re a bit offensive.
Not offensive to me. I think they’re clever and fun to watch. Nothing subliminal about them. Brilliant move by CKE. Yum yum! 😉
Incidentally, we just learn now that bottled water sales are surpassing soda sales: http://on.ft.com/1IxczcK
Come on, fast food industry, there’s plenty of customer need lying in this direction, for you to satisfy.
re: … bottled water sales are surpassing soda sales …
Raises new issues that people need to consider, including:
• non-native fluorides & chlorides (thyroid & gut biome hazards)
• Bpa and Bps in polymer bottles
• Residual detergent & sanitizers if in re-used glass bottles
• Who knows what other junk if not credible spring water
I was wondering last night: is ANYTHING in the modern food market the same product you could have bought 150 years ago? Even the veggies are all modern hybrids, unless you have a local organic heirloom section of the store.
How about Poland Spring Water (now owned by Nestle);
it’s been on the market for over 150 years.
But, alas:
– no assurance of exactly what spring the water came from
– apparently no longer offered in glass bottles with cork-lined caps
They are at least moving away from Bpa (but show no awareness of Bps). The polyethylene bottles may be the safest.
It’s a pick-your-battles era. A paleo perfectionist could dehydrate and/or starve to death pretty promptly.
I would eat McDonalds fries and salads too if there was good oil in them. And maybe you could just order the meat to go with it, or some chicken wings maybe. Something that was real.
Those are great suggestions Tom, but it is going to take a while to seeany real changes.
That is what I tell my wife all the time, “only if Maccas offered some low carb options, they would get my business back.” I reckon they should let people choose what kind oil they want their fries to be coocked in. That poisonous vegetable oil or natural animal fat. They should advetise choice, no one can argue with choice can they? Oh yeah that guy from CSPI doesn’t want people to choose for themselves along with the media. Like your doco “Fat-Head” showed that they think we are too stupid to think for ourselves. I reckon Mcdonalds should embrace Paleo/lchf options until then, I have to cook all my meals.
I don’t expect to see the changes I suggested, either. I don’t see any evidence that McDonald’s executives understand the real problem — not when they’re offering Egg White Delights.
Well I went to Maccas(Mcdonalds) today. This is my second time this year. They have the new touch screens where you select what you want by tapping your selections. You also have the choice of paying in person to a cashier or paying at the touch screen computer. If pay at touch screen computer, all you do is display your number on the table you are sitting and they will bring your food to your table. They placed about 8 of the touch screen computers. My wife and me chose the “make your own burger option” and it was freaking expensive. I chose the bunless option with angus beef, tomato, cheese, bacon, and onion. It is like their Grand Angus from their “Selection” rage but with out the buns and medium coffee. She ordered soda water. It came out to freaking 30$AUD! The burgers were over 10$ each. So I decided to cancel and went with a double quater pounder which was 6.75 and medium coffee which came up about the same price as the one “build your own burger” option. Maccas almost got it right, but why must I pay extra for a bunless burger? I was disappointed by the experience.
You had to pay more to NOT take the bun? Okay, something’s wrong with this picture.
Maccas? I’m guessing you’re Australian. According to Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, McDonald’s still uses beef fat for frying in Australia.
We do actually make a point of eating at fast food restaurants that serve more healthy options (even though we rarely eat fast food at all). When in Vegas – the Heart Attack Grill is a must – their fries are cooked in lard and you can get as much cheese and bacon on your burger as you want. We also like Chipotle, of course. But now there are way more options – Smashburger is great so is Elevation Burger (both cook fries in Olive Oil). We do like 5 Guys as well.
I think that’s where McDonald’s needs to go, more in the direction of Five Guys.
Funny they call it The Heart Attack Grill because of the lard. If anything will give you heart disease, it’s the chemically extracted seed oils that replaced lard and tallow.
Praise the lard, yes! Buffalo Wild Wings also cooks in lard. Choose them over others.
After I heard about Super Size Me I decided to eat at McDonald’s every day for the summer. I was in college on a shoe string budget, so eating a $0.99 sandwich (or two) for my lunch everyday made sense to me.
I think the real truth of the matter was that I just liked the taste of those sandwiches—the price and the film made a good excuse to give myself so that I could do what I really wanted. Here’s hoping that people will eventually do what they want, media hysteria be damned.
I’m down that with.
Hey, you were much better off than laymen noodles, the other poor student go to. Now if you trashed the buns, but even if not
the buns were at least a fermented food.
Yo expand on remarks I made on another food wonk forum, in response to the news of the kale-based item on the McD menu:
This looks more like a “designed to fail” move than something that could move McD toward sanity. I would not be surprised if some faction in management wants “healthy” and another does not, and the latter made sure the trial is doomed.
Non-customers avoiding McD on health concerns will see it as a symbolic token move that does nothing significant to reduce the toxin load on the menu. Those diners already lost to Chipotle are not coming back.
Existing McD customers in general do not care about health, and will see it as a pointless nourishment nanny move to be abandoned later, like the McLean burger.
Customers already deceased are even less likely to change their dining habits.
If MCD is serious about shifting to healthy food (and not just chasing what they see as market whims), they need to stand up an entirely new brand in different buildings, and plan to wind down the clown. Thanks to those market forces, this is essentially underway now, but the replacement brand is nowhere in sight. If I held any MCD on the NYSE, I’d sell short.
I think they can still save the brand. They’ll never get the paleo purists, but the purists never ate there anyway. But there are plenty of non-purists out there — I consider myself one of them — who are okay with occasionally eating fast food that may not be good for our health as long as it’s not actually bad for our health. The vegetable oils in the fryer, the soybean oil dressings — those are bad for our health.
I wrote the CEO Steve Easterbrook and told him he should spin-off some of those McDonalds instead of closing them and switch them to a Keto menu. They have all the tools and delivery chain to make it work. Having a separate brand name would put some distance between the two brands and they should cater to people doing the keto lifestyle by listing net-carbs for things and this should also help people with diabetes and other issues that need to watch their carb intake including athletes.
I got back the form letter saying, ‘The immediate priority for McDonald’s is to restore growth under a new organizational structure and ownership mix designed to provide greater focus on the customer, improve our operating fundamentals, and drive a recommitment to running great restaurants.’ blah, blah, blah.
They aren’t going to take a chance, they’re going full lemming off the cliff.
New structure isn’t what they need.
I opt out for a bunless burger when go to a burger place, but I normally stay away from McD because the last time when I went there (it was 4 years ago) and tried their burger without a bun it was a tiny and pathetic (almost certainly warmed-out in a microwave), almost tasteless little portion of food. My favorite burger place is Hardee’s – they serve normal-sized charbroiled burgers wrapped in lettuce leaves, Burgerking is close second because their letuce is chopped.
I like the bunless burgers at Five Guys. The burger patties are decent-sized and juicy.
Last month I sent an Email suggestion to the marketing department of McDonalds to offer a nice bun-less option on the new Third-Pound Sirloin Burger. Also, I suggested that they offer low carb blue-cheese dressing.
I received a form letter reply basically saying, “We get so many unsolicited ideas and proposals that we choose to ignore them all.”
And that’s how they ended up in trouble.
Great article Tom! Love your suggestions. Basically, McDonald’s needs to serve food that actually rots if not sold! How about that cheeseburger that looks the same two years later as it did the day it was bought? That’s not food – it’s something alien to human consumption!!!
Does it taste the same after two years? That would scare me.
Well, our (ahem) old pal Morgan Spurlock did a bonus feature on the DVD edition of Super Size Me where he bought several burgers and sandwiches from McDonald’s along with some fries, put them in glass jars, and left them to rot for a matter of weeks or months. The fries were the only thing that showed no sign of rotting or spoiling in any way; everything else was covered in various colors of mold. I remember watching it in high school during biology, along with the film itself. (This was some time in early 2009 or so; I graduated high school in 2011).
While we’re on the subject, allow me to add that during the time we watched the movie, I can’t recall anybody saying, “Wow, I don’t want to go to McDonald’s anymore,” but I heard several people say that watching the movie and seeing all the food from McDonald’s made them think about it and want to go there even more. All the more proof that people don’t care how much people tell them that McDonald’s is bad; if the food is relatively cheap, tastes good, is convenient when they don’t have time to make a meal, and satisfies their sense of hunger at that particular moment, then any health or social welfare considerations are secondary for them.
” I sincerely doubt anyone saw Super Size Me and said to himself, “Oh my gosh! So that’s why I’m fat – McDonald’s has been selling me too much food! Well, that’s it, I’m never eating there again.”
Ten years ago when my kids were 8 and 6 we used to go to McDonald’s about once a week. Then one night I rented Super Size Me and my family watched it. Nothing much was said by my kids but a few years later when I suggested that we eat at McDonald’s since we hadn’t eaten there in years my kids strongly resisted. They said that that food will kill you like the guy in the movie.
Our alternative is Chik Fil A. Not certain if it’s that much better but the chicken seems to be real, the waffle fries have skin on, and the lemonade says it’s real and seems to be real. And the employees are so damn nice. Any request is met with “My pleasure”. Also, their salads are really good. The dressings use soy bean oil but I’m not worried about a little of that once in awhile.
One way to get back to beef tallow french fries is for McDonald’s to show the sludge in the fryers of their competitors and do some kind of chemical analysis comparison. I very rarely eat fried foods when I go out because I always wonder how old that oil is and what kind of crazy chemicals have been formed over all the time that the oil has been used.
Chik-Fil-A salads dressings are loaded with chemicals, soy/canola oils and yeast extracts.
Sadly, I think that if they did make these changes, that they’d be cutting off both the fat/calorie believers and also the real food movement. I see and hear all too often real food enthusiasts mentioning how bad hot dogs and fries are for you, without even thinking for a second that those foods could easily be made real and healthy. I buy grass-fed sugar/nitrate-free hot dogs from US Wellness, and I’ve cooked my own fries (and eaten at Five Guys more than a few times). I think that these people, and they probably make up a large chunk of real fooders, would probably never eat at a place called Mc Donalds, simply because its still called Mc Donalds.
Every empire eventually falls..more so if theyre clueless
If they tried a fresher, natural approach (maybe even a paleo approach) to food where real food ingredients were used while still providing competitive pricing, I would also eat there more often…
I mean their current buns barely taste like bread…and the cheese is gross..the food overall just tastes too processed…
They need to forget about following low fat/calorie dietary trends, and just offer as close to real, wholesome food as possible..
Anyway, something about their current ingredients causes stomach pain…so I avoid eating there for the most part..
And add enough salt (at least ½ oz per day) to normalize the blood prssure as too low salt intake increases the blood pressure.
Yes, it’s true, more salt does not increase blood pressure, it’s a medical myth to increase blood pressure drug sales.. . . .
We do actually make a point of eating at fast food restaurants that serve more healthy options (even though we rarely eat fast food at all). When in Vegas – the Heart Attack Grill is a must – their fries are cooked in lard and you can get as much cheese and bacon on your burger as you want. We also like Chipotle, of course. But now there are way more options – Smashburger is great so is Elevation Burger (both cook fries in Olive Oil). We do like 5 Guys as well.
I think that’s where McDonald’s needs to go, more in the direction of Five Guys.
Funny they call it The Heart Attack Grill because of the lard. If anything will give you heart disease, it’s the chemically extracted seed oils that replaced lard and tallow.
Praise the lard, yes! Buffalo Wild Wings also cooks in lard. Choose them over others.
Never been to one. Now I believe I’ll give them a try.
Randal- I heard that too. Turns out, the news is even better. Buffalo Wild Wings fries their Wings, Fries and onion rings in beef tallow. Way ahead of commercial hydrogenated commercial lard, which is way ahead of vegetable oils.
Correction, Randal: Buffalo Wild Wings cooks in beef tallow. I looked it up, and they said so themselves after a vegetarian sued them for false advertising.
After I heard about Super Size Me I decided to eat at McDonald’s every day for the summer. I was in college on a shoe string budget, so eating a $0.99 sandwich (or two) for my lunch everyday made sense to me.
I think the real truth of the matter was that I just liked the taste of those sandwiches—the price and the film made a good excuse to give myself so that I could do what I really wanted. Here’s hoping that people will eventually do what they want, media hysteria be damned.
I’m down that with.
Hey, you were much better off than laymen noodles, the other poor student go to. Now if you trashed the buns, but even if not
the buns were at least a fermented food.
Tom have you ever had fries cooked with beef tallow? I was wondering how it would compare taste wise.
The only thing that tastes better as a frying medium (in my opinion) is duck fat. Tallow is awesome.
There’s a restaurant in Boise, Idaho (I don’t know the name of it), that serves fries cooked in duck fat. The Travel Channel has (or had) a series called “Food Paradise,” and this particular restaurant was featured on the episode about deep fried foods.
James
Tim- Agree. We don’t have a fryer, so we make “steak fries” by first baking the potato, chill in the fridge, then slice and fry in a skillet with duck fat. The best.
I recall watching Food Network one day, and Guy Fieri made fries with duck fat on one of his shows. I know that cholesterol and saturated fat aren’t bad, but I was conditioned into that belief for so long as a child that I instinctively thought that fries in duck fat sounded icky. That, and the fact that cooking with poultry fat isn’t as attractive to me as fat from mammals.)
Yo expand on remarks I made on another food wonk forum, in response to the news of the kale-based item on the McD menu:
This looks more like a “designed to fail” move than something that could move McD toward sanity. I would not be surprised if some faction in management wants “healthy” and another does not, and the latter made sure the trial is doomed.
Non-customers avoiding McD on health concerns will see it as a symbolic token move that does nothing significant to reduce the toxin load on the menu. Those diners already lost to Chipotle are not coming back.
Existing McD customers in general do not care about health, and will see it as a pointless nourishment nanny move to be abandoned later, like the McLean burger.
Customers already deceased are even less likely to change their dining habits.
If MCD is serious about shifting to healthy food (and not just chasing what they see as market whims), they need to stand up an entirely new brand in different buildings, and plan to wind down the clown. Thanks to those market forces, this is essentially underway now, but the replacement brand is nowhere in sight. If I held any MCD on the NYSE, I’d sell short.
I think they can still save the brand. They’ll never get the paleo purists, but the purists never ate there anyway. But there are plenty of non-purists out there — I consider myself one of them — who are okay with occasionally eating fast food that may not be good for our health as long as it’s not actually bad for our health. The vegetable oils in the fryer, the soybean oil dressings — those are bad for our health.
I opt out for a bunless burger when go to a burger place, but I normally stay away from McD because the last time when I went there (it was 4 years ago) and tried their burger without a bun it was a tiny and pathetic (almost certainly warmed-out in a microwave), almost tasteless little portion of food. My favorite burger place is Hardee’s – they serve normal-sized charbroiled burgers wrapped in lettuce leaves, Burgerking is close second because their letuce is chopped.
I like the bunless burgers at Five Guys. The burger patties are decent-sized and juicy.
Out West, In-N-Out Burger also has a lettuce wrap option, known as “protein style.”
Why should they be concerned with the guy from CSPI? No one who listens to him eats at MD except in emergencies anyhows.
And olive oil is the canonical oil for salad dressing and it can’t
be too expensive by the tanker car lot.
I’m pretty sure the bulk of their customers don’t give a FF about
low fat. Of course, going low fat and eating gross amounts of sugar is screaming yellow bonkers.
The Guy From CSPI used to draw unquestioning adoration as a “consumer advocate” from the media. I don’t believe he does anymore. I think McDonald’s could ignore him now.
Last month I sent an Email suggestion to the marketing department of McDonalds to offer a nice bun-less option on the new Third-Pound Sirloin Burger. Also, I suggested that they offer low carb blue-cheese dressing.
I received a form letter reply basically saying, “We get so many unsolicited ideas and proposals that we choose to ignore them all.”
And that’s how they ended up in trouble.
Great article Tom! Love your suggestions. Basically, McDonald’s needs to serve food that actually rots if not sold! How about that cheeseburger that looks the same two years later as it did the day it was bought? That’s not food – it’s something alien to human consumption!!!
Does it taste the same after two years? That would scare me.
Well, our (ahem) old pal Morgan Spurlock did a bonus feature on the DVD edition of Super Size Me where he bought several burgers and sandwiches from McDonald’s along with some fries, put them in glass jars, and left them to rot for a matter of weeks or months. The fries were the only thing that showed no sign of rotting or spoiling in any way; everything else was covered in various colors of mold. I remember watching it in high school during biology, along with the film itself. (This was some time in early 2009 or so; I graduated high school in 2011).
While we’re on the subject, allow me to add that during the time we watched the movie, I can’t recall anybody saying, “Wow, I don’t want to go to McDonald’s anymore,” but I heard several people say that watching the movie and seeing all the food from McDonald’s made them think about it and want to go there even more. All the more proof that people don’t care how much people tell them that McDonald’s is bad; if the food is relatively cheap, tastes good, is convenient when they don’t have time to make a meal, and satisfies their sense of hunger at that particular moment, then any health or social welfare considerations are secondary for them.
One a recent little cheating bender, I had a McDonald’s Angus burger (or something along those lines)… It’s easy to see their problem, the thing was just a tasteless, textureless mush. Just horrible, really. Not at all worth a cheat meal. And the fries, which are supposed to be great (if you don’t ask questions about how they are cooked) but no, they weren’t that good either. Bleh.
I also hit Five Guys every now and then in cheat mode-and they have a burger worth cheating for! Unlike McD’s, the meat tastes like meat, nice and juicy. And awesome fries.
Do you think maybe there’s a relationship between food quality and profits? Just maybe?
I think that’s what McDonald’s is learning — or better learn quickly.
I believe McDonalds fries are only considered good now based solely on past reputation when they did used to be good–back in the days of frying them in tallow. We live literally across the street from McDonalds and the fries will be cold and disgusting by the time we drive home. This is the main reason we only go there maybe once a year when we’re in a tight time crunch and desperate. We usually curse ourselves all over again for doing it, too, because it’s inevitably horrible.
” I sincerely doubt anyone saw Super Size Me and said to himself, “Oh my gosh! So that’s why I’m fat – McDonald’s has been selling me too much food! Well, that’s it, I’m never eating there again.”
Ten years ago when my kids were 8 and 6 we used to go to McDonald’s about once a week. Then one night I rented Super Size Me and my family watched it. Nothing much was said by my kids but a few years later when I suggested that we eat at McDonald’s since we hadn’t eaten there in years my kids strongly resisted. They said that that food will kill you like the guy in the movie.
Our alternative is Chik Fil A. Not certain if it’s that much better but the chicken seems to be real, the waffle fries have skin on, and the lemonade says it’s real and seems to be real. And the employees are so damn nice. Any request is met with “My pleasure”. Also, their salads are really good. The dressings use soy bean oil but I’m not worried about a little of that once in awhile.
One way to get back to beef tallow french fries is for McDonald’s to show the sludge in the fryers of their competitors and do some kind of chemical analysis comparison. I very rarely eat fried foods when I go out because I always wonder how old that oil is and what kind of crazy chemicals have been formed over all the time that the oil has been used.
I almost never eat fried food in restaurants for the same reason. Plus the food fried in those nasty vegetable oils doesn’t even taste good. Not worth it.
Chik-Fil-A salads dressings are loaded with chemicals, soy/canola oils and yeast extracts.
McDonalds’ has a $1.99 triple cheeseburger out now. Most places it is not on the published menu and you have to ask for it. Get three patties and only throwing away one bun.
Sadly, I think that if they did make these changes, that they’d be cutting off both the fat/calorie believers and also the real food movement. I see and hear all too often real food enthusiasts mentioning how bad hot dogs and fries are for you, without even thinking for a second that those foods could easily be made real and healthy. I buy grass-fed sugar/nitrate-free hot dogs from US Wellness, and I’ve cooked my own fries (and eaten at Five Guys more than a few times). I think that these people, and they probably make up a large chunk of real fooders, would probably never eat at a place called Mc Donalds, simply because its still called Mc Donalds.
That’s the risk. But I don’t think they have to go pure paleo to win back customers. The purists never ate there anyway.
I seldom ate there because I got heartburn, even in my high carb daze.
I disagree with the idea that potatoes should be eaten only unpeeled. There is where the highest concentration of solanine there – the potato’s choice of a self-defense substance. While the amount is small , a solanine is toxic. Probably, some people more sensitive to it than others. I see it when observing my son – he experiences an easy to notice dip in his energy after eating unpeeled potatoes or a yucca fries . Now he avoids such foods for an obvious reason. He frequents a rock-climbing gym, and it gives him the opportunity to notice pretty accurately what gives him more energy and what makes him less able.
Many don’t complain on anything after eating unpeeled potatoes, but even more people will tell you that eating a white bread does them no harm.
Yup, we peel our potatoes for that reason. Can’t believe I used to eat fried potato skins.
Every empire eventually falls..more so if theyre clueless
If they tried a fresher, natural approach (maybe even a paleo approach) to food where real food ingredients were used while still providing competitive pricing, I would also eat there more often…
I mean their current buns barely taste like bread…and the cheese is gross..the food overall just tastes too processed…
They need to forget about following low fat/calorie dietary trends, and just offer as close to real, wholesome food as possible..
Anyway, something about their current ingredients causes stomach pain…so I avoid eating there for the most part..
Definitely dump the low-fat, low-calorie nonsense. I don’t believe they need to become the fast-food version of Whole Foods, but dumping the vegetable oils and offering gluten-free buns could go a long way in bringing back customers.
And add enough salt (at least ½ oz per day) to normalize the blood prssure as too low salt intake increases the blood pressure.
Yes, it’s true, more salt does not increase blood pressure, it’s a medical myth to increase blood pressure drug sales.. . . .
I read somewhere that the problem is more competition with healthier fast food, Where I live, in the Denver area, we have Five Guys, Mad Greens (salads), Chipotle, Larkburger (gluten free buns, kale salads), Tokyo Joes (meats and steamed veggies, no carb options, stevia teriyaki sauce), Smashburger, you name it. I see these places really taking off and places like McDs, Burger King and Wendys suffering.
You’re right, people DO want healthier options that involve natural meats, gluten free and sugar free options, no carb or low carb options. That’s what these other fast-ish places offer.
And I think McD’s will have to move in that direction to reclaim their lost customers.
Wow, I had no idea that we had Five Guys in Colorado. Of course, I’m in the very SW area of the Denver Metro Area, so there still aren’t any close enough to frequent for me. Crossing my fingers, though. I just had Five Guys at the Atlanta airport on a recent trip, and it was fabulous.
How about McGrok’s. Coming to a neighborhood near you…
Great post, Tom. I agree with you about this; if Mickey D’s would just use real foods instead of frankenfoods, I bet they’d see a surge in sales. They don’t even have to do this with all their restaurants; just try it in 5 or 10 first. I bet they’d be surprised.
I have to tell you, my hubby and I tried tallow fried potatoes for the first time this year. Tallow I rendered myself from a grass fed locally raised cow we bought. All I can say is OMG. There are no words to describe how unbelievably delicious that is! Just…. YUM.
Thanks Tom,
I like constructive comments (about the policy of existing multinational firms – that employ many people) much better than the simplistic “big corporations are evil” bashing on other nutrition blogs.
It’s a market economy, and they (corporations) will change if enough people will demand it, – and are willing to pay for it.
(in contrast to ideology driven government policy)
Tom have you ever had fries cooked with beef tallow? I was wondering how it would compare taste wise.
They still used beef tallow when I was a kid. That was a long time ago, but I remember the fries tasted great.
The only thing that tastes better as a frying medium (in my opinion) is duck fat. Tallow is awesome.
There’s a restaurant in Boise, Idaho (I don’t know the name of it), that serves fries cooked in duck fat. The Travel Channel has (or had) a series called “Food Paradise,” and this particular restaurant was featured on the episode about deep fried foods.
James
Tim- Agree. We don’t have a fryer, so we make “steak fries” by first baking the potato, chill in the fridge, then slice and fry in a skillet with duck fat. The best.
I recall watching Food Network one day, and Guy Fieri made fries with duck fat on one of his shows. I know that cholesterol and saturated fat aren’t bad, but I was conditioned into that belief for so long as a child that I instinctively thought that fries in duck fat sounded icky. That, and the fact that cooking with poultry fat isn’t as attractive to me as fat from mammals.)
The low-fat, low-cholesterol, chicken breasts and seed oil ship has been sailing for over 30 years and its cargo has been drilled into our heads for that long. It will take a while for the general population to re-think proper diet.
For starters, MacDonalds should join the ‘real food’ club and thus avoid being labeled as low-carb, low-fat, vegan, etc. That alone would be an advantage. Real food like Mother Nature made it. Not manufactured in a factory.
I believe, however, that the ship is turning faster than we anticipated, thanks to the wisdom of crowds effect kicking in.
Some day check out the ingredient list for MacDonald’s fries in the USA and those sold in the UK.
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/22/usa-mcdonalds-fries-have-14.html
Hmmm… maybe the fish and chips crowd knows something?!!?!?
Not an appealing list. They’ll sell more fries when the ingredients are potatoes, tallow and salt.
Why should they be concerned with the guy from CSPI? No one who listens to him eats at MD except in emergencies anyhows.
And olive oil is the canonical oil for salad dressing and it can’t
be too expensive by the tanker car lot.
I’m pretty sure the bulk of their customers don’t give a FF about
low fat. Of course, going low fat and eating gross amounts of sugar is screaming yellow bonkers.
The Guy From CSPI used to draw unquestioning adoration as a “consumer advocate” from the media. I don’t believe he does anymore. I think McDonald’s could ignore him now.
One a recent little cheating bender, I had a McDonald’s Angus burger (or something along those lines)… It’s easy to see their problem, the thing was just a tasteless, textureless mush. Just horrible, really. Not at all worth a cheat meal. And the fries, which are supposed to be great (if you don’t ask questions about how they are cooked) but no, they weren’t that good either. Bleh.
I also hit Five Guys every now and then in cheat mode-and they have a burger worth cheating for! Unlike McD’s, the meat tastes like meat, nice and juicy. And awesome fries.
Do you think maybe there’s a relationship between food quality and profits? Just maybe?
I think that’s what McDonald’s is learning — or better learn quickly.
I believe McDonalds fries are only considered good now based solely on past reputation when they did used to be good–back in the days of frying them in tallow. We live literally across the street from McDonalds and the fries will be cold and disgusting by the time we drive home. This is the main reason we only go there maybe once a year when we’re in a tight time crunch and desperate. We usually curse ourselves all over again for doing it, too, because it’s inevitably horrible.
McDonalds’ has a $1.99 triple cheeseburger out now. Most places it is not on the published menu and you have to ask for it. Get three patties and only throwing away one bun.
We still go there as a last resort when we’re out and about. Two double cheeseburgers each– no buns, no ketchup and extra onion and pickle. The quality’s hit or miss and the workers never seem too happy about having to put the burgers in bowls (I worked there in high school and it is a pain), but it works in a pinch.