United States – The history of the current fast food company McDonald’s dates back to April 15, 1955, but the first restaurant of this company was opened by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in California in 1940.
McDonald’s is currently the largest fast food restaurant chain. It is spread in more than 110 countries, and includes more than 32,000 McDonald’s brand restaurants, and about 47 million customers visit its branches every day.
Although this huge American company emphasized its strict health controls, including cleanliness, order, speed, treatment, etc., campaigns were launched against it at the beginning of the third millennium, including lawsuits filed against it, which almost pushed it to collapse.
At that time, McDonald’s was accused of being the main cause of the spread of obesity among children in the United States. In 2010, the San Francisco government, for example, was considering imposing a ban on Happy Meals offered by McDonald’s to children.
Karen Wells, who at the time was responsible for the company’s restaurants in the United States, accurately summed up the situation by saying, “McDonald’s has become synonymous with unhealthy food, just as Pampers has become synonymous with the word diapers.”
Obesity almost stood between this company and the future. This problem is major in the United States and is the second most common cause of death there, with up to 28,000 Americans dying annually from its complications.
In 2004, the famous American director and producer Morgan Spurlock experimented by following a “fat diet,” in which he ate McDonald’s meals every day for a month.
Before the experiment, Morgan underwent a medical examination, which showed that he was completely healthy. After a month of eating fast food, his blood cholesterol jumped by 65%, which doubled the load on the heart and increased his risk of serious heart disease, according to doctors who monitored the experiment!
Under the influence of fast food, Morgan Spurlock constantly felt hungry, exhausted, and tired, and specialists also observed a decrease in sexual desire.
In the midst of numerous attempts to sue McDonald’s, based on the position that its high-calorie foods are addictive, an American lawyer named John Benjaf indicated in 2003 that he intended to file a lawsuit against this company because it was responsible for the obesity epidemic spreading in the country.
The American lawyer also said at the time in press statements: “Currently, tobacco companies must pay about $200 billion in the United States to cover health care costs. As for the obesity epidemic, which was caused by (garbage) provided by various food companies, someone must also take responsibility.”
The lawyer confirmed that he has information from recent scientific studies conducted at Princeton University, stating that the combination of saturated fats and sugar products used to cook meals at McDonald’s causes addiction in humans, similar to tobacco addiction.
In the United States, McDonald’s faced waves of accusations, including lawsuits filed by fast food customers, who accused McDonald’s and its sisters of being the cause of their excessive weight and incurable diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart attacks.
Eight teenagers who regularly frequented McDonald’s restaurants went to court in November 2002, demanding compensation for their excess weight, but the New York court refused to accept the boys’ lawsuit, citing “the absence of a provision in the law that protects them.”
As for the famous chef Jamie Oliver, he explained in one of the episodes of a food program in 2011 how to obtain “pink slime” from leftover meat and offal using liquid ammonia.
Oliver reported that most meat dishes in the United States are prepared from it, “not just McDonald’s.” Reports confirmed that McDonald’s had completely abandoned this method on that date, which means that it was indeed using such a harmful substance.
The McDonald’s empire, in the wake of a series of lawsuits, decided to list the fat and calorie content on all its products, and also increased the variety of salads!
Source: RT
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2024-04-18 18:19:34