UNLIKELY AS IT may sound, a respected nutritionist has heaped praise on McDonald's and suggested it may not be such a bad thing for people to pay a visit.
The unexpected accolade is in response to a promotion by the fast food giant to sell pedometers, or step counters, in its 200-plus Hong Kong restaurants for $8 each, in what it says is an effort to persuade its diners to get off their backsides and do more exercise.
The initiative, launched in conjunction with the Hong Kong Hospital Authority's campaign to get Hong Kong people to walk 10,000 steps a day, has been a runaway success. Since it began in August, more than 200,000 pedometers have been sold - which suggests there are quite a number of McDonald's customers striding purposefully around the city trying to hit the 10,000 target.
'I think it's a great initiative and it's good to see McDonald's is getting involved in something like that,' says nutritionist Gabrielle Tuscher. 'Maybe it will get people more interested in their health and getting more exercise into their lives.'
Although Tuscher stops short of advising people to go to McDonald's to pick up a pedometer while they last, she says that if someone was going there anyway, then picking up a pedometer along with as healthy a meal as possible wouldn't do much harm.
'It's catch-22 in a way,' she says. 'You have to go there and buy something that's unhealthy to get this pedometer. In Hong Kong, they don't have the options at McDonald's that they have in some countries overseas.
