Fitness Files: Super size me? Not so fast
On vacations, I love reading the morning news over breakfast coffee.
At a restaurant outside Zion National Park on Oct. 22, we found a copy of USA Today. Paul got the first page, so I took the Business section. Two headlines caught my attention: “Earnings Plunge 30% at McDonald’s,” and “Coke Falls Short…”
Well, now, here are two big companies who’ve rewarded shareholders for decades while depositing customer dividends in arteries and waistlines.
Could it be that consumer tastebuds are changing? McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson thinks so. After admitting that third quarter results “reflect a significant decline,” he told US News that “the company lost relevance with key customers [and] if organic food continues to increase in popularity, we’ll have look at it more aggressively.’’
Coke’s third-quarter net income fell 14%, sending it into cost-cutting measures. CEO Muhtar Kent blames the world economy. “The consumer is challenged everywhere around the world,” he says. However, since consumers have been drinking fewer carbonated drinks, Coke bought a stake in Monster Beverage, which makes energy drinks and Hanson’s natural drinks.
In contrast to the gloomy Coke and McD’s, there’s a small article under “Business Briefing” in the Nov. 6 Los Angeles Times, which lists Whole Foods “topping analysts’ expectations,” exceeding a 5.8% profit rise. Wall Street Journal says Chipotle, “widely viewed as better for you,” posts profits up 19%.
So, I looked for an article reflecting changing eating habits and found one in the Wall Street Journal from January headlined “Americans’ Eating Habits Take a Healthier Turn…” A USDA study found that working-age adults were consuming fewer calories and eating home-cooked meals more often. Even with the positive shift in caloric intake, the article quotes an obesity expert, Kelly Brownell of Duke University, saying, “We still have huge problems with obesity — it’s just a smaller degree of terrible.”
Brownell is described by Marlene Schwartz of Yale’s Rudd Center as one of the first to change obesity studies from focusing on helping individuals lose weight to understanding the “toxic food environment — the combination of aggressively marketed unhealthy foods and sedentary culture.”
Our continuing obesity problems may stem from the marketing of healthy food that isn’t. Reader’s Digest’s Lauren Gelman warns in “Healthy Fast Food? Don’t be fooled” that Burger King’s Turkey Burger contains a whopping whole day’s allotment of sodium and McDonald’s Egg White Delight contains a third. Quizno’s Mediterranean Chicken Wrap with dressing dishes out 48 grams of fat, about 75% of daily allotment. Dunkin’ Donuts oatmeal comes with 22 grams of sugar, and Panda Express’ brown fried rice serves 30 grams of fat.
So, Americans are voting with their pocket books, turning their backs on foods with greasy reputations. We’re cutting into the bottom line of some fast food and soda corporations, but it’s still buyer beware if we want to cut down our own burgeoning bottoms.
Newport Beach resident CARRIE LUGER SLAYBACK is a retired teacher who ran the Los Angeles Marathon at age 70, winning first place in her age group. Her blog is lazyracer@blogspot.com.