Food Product Modifications and Healthy Eating

Two stories today at opposite ends of the spectrum on how food marketers are addressing obesity and health issues.

USA Today notes: Of cookies. And crackers. And chips. And popcorn. And, most recently, yogurt. Even Coca-Cola has recently plopped 100-calorie labels on 8-oz. mini-cans of several soft drinks.

A nation of overweight and portion-challenged consumers is rewarding the big food makers at the cash register for pushing portion-controlled products.

Then, under the headline Fast-Food Fries, Chicken Fatter in US the AP reports on correspondence in today's New England Journal of Medicine [subscription required] that finds -

At a New York City McDonald's, a large fries-and-chicken-nuggets combo was found to contain 10.2 grams of the trans fat, compared with 0.33 grams in Denmark and about 3 grams in Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic.

At KFCs in Poland and Hungary, a large hot wings-and-fries order had 19 grams of trans fats or more, versus 5.5 grams for wings and fried potato wedges in New York. But in Germany, Russia, Denmark and Aberdeen, Scotland, the same meal had less than a gram.

A large order of french fries at a New York City McDonald's contained 30 percent more trans fat than the same order from an Atlanta McDonald's.

So much for standardization. Now what do those trans fat values in the nutrition information charts at McDonalds and KFC really mean?

 

Technorati Tags: Fast Food, Food Marketing, KFC, McDonalds, Obesity, Trans Fat