Eng 101 - the Board of McDonald

Aric Rike

Ms. Willinger

ENGL 101-008

18 April 2018

Proposal outline

Thesis: The board of McDonald’s should remove the preservatives they put within their food, improve the ingredients they put in their food, and show the labels for the ingredients used.  

1. McDonalds has already taken steps to make their food healthier.

1. McDonald’s started using better ingredients in their food to make the food less toxic.
2. There are still lots of chemicals used within McDonald’s food that add calories and make the food unhealthy.

1. McDonald’s buys their burgers which contains different food chemicals to help preserve it and keep it fresh for the consumer.

1. If a customer of McDonald’s eats to many products with additives in it could be unhealthy for whoever is consuming the product. The McDonald’s board should change the oils the hamburgers are cooked in because the obesity rate throughout the United States has been on a steady increase.

1. The United States has had an increasingly smaller obesity rate since 2005

1. Consuming McDonald’s can cause health problems for an average person.

1. There was a 30-day trial of what it would be like to live of McDonalds’s.

1. The over consumption of food mixed with the high calories made the test subject sick and throw up.

1. There were noticeable weight gains from the trial. Atherosclerosis is also associated with eating fatty foods.

1. Fatty foods are associated with fatty foods which causes vessel problems.
2. Over time people’s vessels will become clogged and causes blood clots.

1. The quality of food has little to no nutritional value.

1. The size of McDonald’s drinks is larger than other countries which increase the amount of sugar one takes in.
2. There are lots of high calorie items on their menu with cause people to eat their whole days’ worth of calories in some of their products.

Aric Rike

Ms. Willinger

ENGL 101-008

18 April 2018

Americas Obesity

Health issues are continually rising due to the increasing obesity factors. People’s health began to decline with the increasing obesity rates and the amount of fatty foods. McDonald’s claims it is taking steps towards a healthier menu by adding more nutritious foods. The McDonald’s website says, “we use 100% real beef patties seasoned with just a pinch of salt and pepper. It means our Egg McMuffin® is made with a freshly-cracked egg; and, in the US, our fish filets are made from sustainably-sourced Alaskan Pollock. It means we use real buttermilk in our Buttermilk Crispy Chicken and our Chicken McNuggets® are made with white meat chicken” (McDonalds Corp 1). Although this information may be true, someone has to take into the account the amount of preservatives and additives are being added to the food. As the United States takes a step forward in trying to become a healthier nation McDonald’s is trying to make a step in the right direction as well. In the article "Buzzworthy McDonalds Corp," Ron Ruggles states that ^[a]“McDonalds is reducing Happy Meal calories and other nutritional benchmarks by offering cheeseburgers only by request, downsizing French fries, cutting sodium in chicken McNuggets and reformulating the sugar content of chocolate milk” (Gogoi 1). As ^[b][c]well as that McDonald’s plans to offer bottled water on their children’s menu (Ruggles 1). When you look up the number of calories in a McDonald’s hamburger it can add up to over five hundred and forty calories. The number of calories within a hamburger is over one fourth the number of calories a person should consume in one day. McDonald’s is known for fattening foods which can lead to serious health problems likes atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis causes blood problems within a person’s vessels. The fatty foods clog the vessels and creates blood clots. Health issues like these can be eliminated with the reduction of fat content in food.

In 2009, Morgan Spurlock participated in a thirty-day trial that wanted to see what would happen if someone lived off McDonald’s for an entire month. The study sought to show the effects fast food like McDonald’s could have on someone who could afford nothing else. As the time went on, he started noticing a weight gain within a four to five-day period. In the article, “Juxtaposition as visual argument: Health rhetoric in Super Size Me and Fat Head,” Emma Bloomfield and Angeline Sangalang explain that “[Spurlock’s] environment was constructed to bear the solo responsibility for his weight gain and unhealthy transformation” (4). ^[d]This experiment showed that there are serious health problems with Fast Food especially McDonald’s. McDonald’s still has a fair amount of work to do to make their food healthier and better for the community.

In order to serve the public healthier food, the Board of McDonald’s should make an effort to decrease the amount of preservatives used in their food.  According to David Wolf in “Let’s have a look at 10 freaky McDonald’s ingredients that should flip your appetite off the stuff for good”, McDonald’s ^[e]food contains harmful chemicals that cause an increase in the sensitivity with people that have pre-existing conditions such as skin conditions, eye conditions, and allergic conditions (Wolf 6). Sodium Phosphate is a common preservative used in McDonald’s products. In her article, “This Is for Everyone That Still Eats at McDonald's (Even If They Won't Admit It!),” Vani Hari explains that sodium phosphate “can lead to excessive levels of phosphate in the blood and puts you at risk of chronic kidney disease, increased mortality, heart disease, and accelerated weight gain” (1). As Hari notes, there are serious health conditions that stem from this additive that will harm a person’s life.  Hari also explains that Partially Hydrogenated Oils are used with McDonald’s products, oils like these can lead to heart disease and sometimes death (“This Is For Everyone”). McDonald’s should take a step to use fresh, farm-raised meat raised on little to no hormones and remove the preservatives in order to decrease the risk of diseases and serious health issues. It will be beneficial to McDonald’s consumers if the board and CEO took the high levels of preservatives out.

McDonald’s also needs to put labels on their food to let the consumers know what everything is made with. As time has passed the food at McDonald’s has changed. The ingredients used in McDonald’s food can be very unhealthy for a consumer. There are still lots of chemicals that are in a product to help preserve it. In his article, “Processed Foods, Are they Safe?” Shibabrata Pattanayak explains that “Processed foods contain food particles at different forms added with different additives” (1). If McDonald’s products are consumed in large quantities, a person might feel the side effect from all the chemicals that are put within the food. “There are growing concerns about the safety of many common food additives, if consumed in large quantities” (Public Health analysis 1) ^[f]Most children consume a fair amount of food as they are growing up. When they eat at McDonald’s they order a sizeable amount of food. The chemicals in McDonald’s food will have an impact on children all throughout the United States. McDonald’s CEO needs to be honest with the consumers and let everyone know what their food is really made of. They need to put labels on their food letting people know what kind of oil they are using.