Fast-food giant bites back
Hong Kong residents love McDonald's. We consume hundreds of thousands of burgers every day. But is it possible to eat McDonald's for every meal and stay healthy? The fast food-chain claims it is and that other people who have tried the Spurlock experiment did not gain weight - and one actually lost 4.5 kilograms.
'Morgan Spurlock did not eat three meals a day at McDonald's,' says company spokesman Walt Riker, who calculates Spurlock ate more than 5,000 calories a day. 'He snacked tremendously and stopped exercising to get this result ... He rigged it. He could have found three meals a day at McDonald's that fitted into a balanced diet. We back up our food with nutritional information so customers can work this out.'
Riker scoffs at Spurlock's claims of liver damage. 'This was not a scientific experiment. It was a film with actors,' he says. 'It's been rigged to achieve the premise of the film. It is about binge eating. If he had binged on carrots or on Chinese food the result would have been the same.'
Two other people repeated Spurlock's experiment and challenged the documentary-maker's findings. 'Soso Whaley in New England lost weight [she says she lost 4.5kg], and Chas Wheeler, a bodybuilder, took almost as many calories [with no ill-effects or weight gain]. That's because he kept exercising,' says Riker. 'You can achieve a balanced diet at McDonald's, and millions do every day. Our customers are smart - the way they are presented in the film is insulting.'
After long being on the defensive owing to class-action obesity suits, the McLibel case and scathing books such as Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, McDonald's has begun aggressively fighting back. It has introduced 'healthier alternatives': salads and 'white meat' chicken McNuggets, and the McCafe sandwich shops. It has launched an advertising campaign citing the quality of its ingredients and started printing nutritional information about its products on the back of tray-liners at all outlets.
Not all the healthy options available in the United States can be bought in Hong Kong, but some local branches offer salads (pictured), high-calcium, low-fat milk, mango yoghurt and fish McDippers, which the chain says are a healthy option. The super-size option on meals is still available for an extra $2.
The fast-food chain has become part of local culinary culture since the first McDonald's restaurant open in 1975 in Paterson Street, Causeway Bay. There are more than 200 branches in Hong Kong employing more than 10,000 staff. The price of a Big Mac here is cited as among the lowest in the world, alongside Macau and Romania.
