Tag Archives: McDonalds

Instagram Feeds Hamburglarized by McDonald’s and Nobody is Lovin’ It

McD Instagram

Hey McDonald’s! Get Your Garbage Food Out of My Instagram Feed!

We’ve known they were coming, but sponsored posts have finally landed right smack dab in the middle of what may be my favorite social media channel.

“It’s quiet over there” I wrote of Instagram recently, when a friend was questioning the medium’s purpose.

That’s been disrupted. Our site gets its bread and butter from ads, so we’re not hating on Instagram for making some dough. But, Instagram… McDonald’s… know your audience! We, along with thousands of others, are raging against the cheap hamburger machine because no amount of food styling is good enough to make that FrankenFood desirable.

Instagram, you’ve got highly capable technology holding up that back end. You know what I post. A lot of food? Yes. I post a lot of food. Has it once ever been of a fast food burger?

Not a hamburger-flippin’ chance. (more…)

No More Sicky D’s for Me! I’m a Recovering McDonald’s Addict Who is One Year Clean

There’s this strange food euphoria that exists when you bite in to a plain cheeseburger, a few french fries, and take a swig of an ice cold Coke from McDonald’s. I craved it. Lusted after it. I would make up any excuse in the book to get it. This was one of my biggest food vices – the number two combo at McDonald’s with cheese and mustard only.

As of Friday, I haven’t had it in a year. I’m really proud of that. It’s not that I learned something new, but I finally reconciled how that “food” made me feel was not how I should feel after eating a meal. I decided I never wanted to feel that way again.

mcdonalds fries

Invariably, every time I’d finish a burger and fries from Mickey D’s I’d have a headache, stomach cramps, nausea, shaking, or a combination of those. That was consistent. Sometimes I’d order it because it sounded good or it was the easiest option. Sometimes I’d order it out of boredom. Sometimes it was because I was traveling on the turnpike and well, you can’t not get McDonald’s on a road trip! Sometimes I ate it just to eat it.

TELL US ON FACEBOOK: When was the last time you ate fast food?

Whatever the reason, I always knew what I was putting in my body. I swore off my love affair for their chicken nuggets years ago after watching Jamie Oliver demonstrate how that food atrocity is created. The thought makes me ill. Considering that a McDonald’s burger isn’t inclined to rot or spoil, I knew that whatever was in it wasn’t beef alone. Did that stop me from eating it? No. Ignorance is bliss, and I’d chomp away. (more…)

Look Again! Misleading Fast Food Ads Cause Kids to Identify Apple Slices as French Fries

When I was younger, elementary school age, I saw my mom cutting up what I believed to be peeled apples in the kitchen. I took a piece and ate it, only to be unpleasantly surprised at the raw potato in my mouth. I quickly learned that while potatoes and apples look the same when peeled and chopped, they certainly don’t taste the same.

child watching tv

New research from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center in New Hampshire indicates that many kids have a similar problem distinguishing apples from potatoes. Only this time, the kids were asked to tell the difference between apple slices and french fries in fast food advertising on networks like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

Since 2024, fast food restaurants have been in agreement to include healthy foods in their advertising targeted at children. It was hoped kids could be encouraged to eat healthier foods with their meals. Of course, if kids don’t recognize the healthy food, the plan doesn’t work.

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What NOT to Eat on St. Patricks Day

A traditional St. Patrick’s Day breakfast of corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and soda bread is a fairly balanced meal, if a little high in carbs and soda bread.  It’s also a much healthier choice than a lot of the other St. Patrick’s Day foods and dishes currently on the menu at a number of chain restaurants. These foods may be green, but they are not exactly good for you! So, if you plan to splurge today, go ahead and enjoy the real Irish deal, not these unhealthy options!

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Mint Oreo Creme Donut from Dunkin’ Donuts: This dessert disguised as breakfast is sort of like Ben and Jerry’s Mint Cookie Ice Cream, only in donut form. The bakers at this largely Eastern and Central chain start with a yeast donut, cover it with mint frosting and bit of Oreo cookies, and top it off  with a heaping helping of frosting in the center. The thing weighs in at 400 calories, 22 grams of fat, and 9 grams of saturated fat–or about 45% of your recommended daily allowance.

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Stephanie Magrisso Lost Over 110 Pounds. Next Goal – “Onederland”

Stephanie Magrisso This week I’m privileged to introduce you to a woman whose story just makes me smile. Stephanie Magrisso has lost over 110 pounds, and she’s still working toward her goal weight.

She may be struggling with a weight plateau, but she’s smiling every step of the way thanks to her motivational techniques, including the life lesson she learned by watching Ellen Degeneres. This is Stephanie’s true weight loss story.

Fat has just always been my life.

Stephanie’s struggle with weight started when she was too young to realize there was a problem, but the bullying and name-calling by her peers quickly caught her attention. As a child, she admits eating too many TV dinners and McDonalds meals. When she was old enough to make her own decisions, she became an emotional eater and presumed the destiny of her weight would be determined by genetics, since she had family members who were also overweight.

Having someone I could relate to made a huge difference

A new friend entered Stephanie’s life and made an immediate impact on her. “I met one of my now best friends.  While she was nowhere near as overweight as I was, she had some weight to lose, and she did.  Suddenly I had a friend I could talk to about it, who really understood the struggle.”

Instead of relying on one diet to achieve her goals, Stephanie found several techniques that not only helped her lose weight, but also kept her in the right frame of mind.

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The 11 Most Criminal Examples of Food Gone Too Far

Have you ever seen a picture or video of food that made you sick just from looking at it? That’s what happened when we saw a video from the Travel Channel’s popular show Man v. Food. The dish was so piled with meats, cheeses, sauces, and who knows what else, it could no longer be identified as food.

We know that food challenges aren’t the only culprit when it comes to shameful servings, so we decided to come up with a rap sheet for the worst food felons. Here’s our Most Wanted list of top culinary criminals starting with the simply overindulgent and ending with the disgustingly gluttonous.

green tea latte

Wanted for: Imitating a Healthy Beverage – Green Tea Latte
Starting off our list is the deceptive Green Tea Latte from Starbucks. Getting a venti (20 oz.) of this beverage with whole milk will cost you 500 calories and 71 grams of sugar. So much for the idea of green tea always being a healthy choice.

disney ice cream sandwiches

Wanted for: Ridiculous Use of Sugar – Ice Cream Sandwiches
Disney, it’s a happy, magical place. It’s also a place where you can get ice cream sandwiches as big as your face. The two homemade chocolate chip cookies and three heaping scoops of ice cream are delicious, but I speak from experience when I say you’ll have sugar shakes and nausea for hours after eating.

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Science Teacher Loses Almost 40 Pounds on “McDonald’s Diet”

Inspired by Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Super Size Me, science teacher John Cisna from Iowa decided to help take his students’ education out of the classroom. He engaged in  a three month experiment much like Spurlock’s, eating McDonald’s every day, but instead of indulging and not exercising, he followed a more structured program which he discussed on TODAY.

  • Cisna’s students put the menus together which included nearly everything on the McDonald’s menu from salads to Big Macs to sundaes.
  • His students tracked his caloric intake and 15 different nutrients
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“Don’t Eat Fast Food!” McDonald’s Tells Its Employees

Update 12/26: McDonald’s has announced it is taking down it’s employee resource site for good. Lisa McComb, spokeswoman for McDonald’s released this statement, “We have offered the McResource program to help our valued McDonald’s employees with work and life guidance created by independent third party experts. A combination of factors has led us to re-evaluate, and we’ve directed the vendor to take down the website. Between links to irrelevant or outdated information, along with outside groups taking elements out of context, this created unwanted scrutiny and inappropriate commentary. None of this helps our McDonald’s team members. We’ll continue to provide service to them through an internal telephone help line, which is how the majority of employees access the McResource services.”

A surprising new source is offering healthy eating advice: McDonald’s. The company recently launched a website with easy-to-follow, sensible dietary advice for its busy employee. But the suggestions made on the site may surprise you: In an effort to promote healthy eating McDonald’s actually casts many of its own foods in a less than positive light. As you can see here, in this image pulled directly from the employee site, the fast food retailer  has chosen some of its own food to represent an unhealthy meal:

mcdonalds eating advice

That’s right: McDonald’s, home of a 750 calorie cheeseburger, is offering its employees sage eating advice, recommending their employees, “eat at places that offer a variety of salads, soups and vegetables to help maintain your best health.” (In other words, not at McDonald’s.)While the fast food giant does offer salads many are loaded with fat and calories, including one that maxes out at 450 calories. These meals are healthier than a Big Mac, but not by much.

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Raw McRib Meat Doesn’t Look Anything Like Ribs or Meat

The poor McRib. For such a fanatic following (that is completely lost on me), it sure gets beat up a lot.

One of the biggest abominations of the fast food industry, this sandwich horrifies us. Seeing this thing in the flesh, if that’s what you can call it, doesn’t make it any more appetizing.

raw mcrib meat

A McDonald’s employee sent this stealth shot to a friend who shared it on imgur, and now we all get to feast our eyes on the pre-sauced McRib.

Under that frozen, pre-formed, meat-like brick is a laundry list of unappetizing ingredients. The McRib sandwich has more in common with a yoga mat than it probably does the pig from which it is supposedly derived. Azodicarbonamide, one of the sandwich’s SEVENTY ingredients, is a chemical also used to produce yoga mats, shoes, foam plastic, and gym flooring. You know – food-like stuff.  (more…)

McDonald’s and Burger King Violate Children’s Advertising Agreement Making Up 99 Percent of All Fast Food Ads Aimed at Kids

McDonald’s and Burger King agreed to advertise only healthy food offerings as part of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. Let’s see if they’ve kept their word.

INFOGRAPHIC

When it comes to child marketing, McDonald’s and Burger King are selling the experience, not the food.

The above study, funded and published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has found the two largest fast food corporations aren’t as dumb as they look. They’ve figured out that showcasing their food is actually a bad idea. Obviously McDonald’s and Burger King cannot self-regulate their ads aimed at children. The facts are anything but elementary, as the tactics of these fast food behemoths are prolonging the childhood obesity epidemic. One-third of our children remain obese.

99 percent of all fast food ads aimed at children came courtesy of two companies.

Any guesses? Not a tough one here, folks. McDonald’s and Burger King placed 44,602 and 37,210 ads aimed at kids, respectively. This is disconcerting. Despite big fast food’s efforts to increase healthy offerings, the burgers, fries, and nuggets peddled in kid’s meals are highly caloric, highly fatty, and highly processed. To this day, no one really knows what McDonald’s chicken nuggets are made of.

Side note: A 3.3oz serving of McDonald’s eggs, which should be one of their healthiest menu items, contains 20 ingredients and 173 percent of your daily cholesterol intake. Just sayin’. (more…)

McDonald’s Revamping ‘Dollar Menu’ To Include $5 Items

McDonaldsMcDonald’s recently announced it’s toying with the idea of revamping their Dollar Menu to include other price points up to and including five dollars. If the new menu is adopted, the Extra Value Menu would then be eliminated. Now, even their cheap food just got more expensive. This menu switcheroo begs the question, “Why are people still eating fat food – err, fast food, when they could eat healthy for the same price?”

The new offering retitled, “Dollar Menu & More” is currently being tested in five U.S. markets. New prices on the list would include $1, $2 and $5 items. The specific foods slated to be featured on the experimental value menu have not been released but Neil Golden, chief marketing officer for McDonald’s, hinted that more chicken would be included, as well as burgers with extra patties, and the addition of other toppings including bacon. You mean if I want more food, I have to pay more money? Ronald McDonald, you sly devil, you.

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