McDonald’s To Employees: Don’t Eat Fast Food

McDonald’s has more tips for its employees: stay away from fast food.

The McDonald’s employee resources website, McResource Line, previously recommended among other things that workers eat less, complain less, and sing more. Other pointers including selling stuff online rather than pestering the boss for a raise and returning unopened holiday gifts for a refund. At least that’s been among the allegations from an activist group called Low Pay Is Not OK.

Now the employee resource portal is reportedly warning people that a fast-food diet, such as that served up by McDonald’s restaurants, could make you fat, and labels an image of a burger, fries, and a soda as an example of an unhealthy choice. A sandwich “loaded with vegetables” (such as might be purchased at a competitor like Subway) and a salad are labeled as a healthier choice.

“Fast foods are quick, reasonably priced, and readily available alternatives to home cooking. While convenient and economical for a busy lifestyle, fast foods are typically high in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt and may put people at risk for becoming overweight,” a post on the website explains.

A separate post apparently suggests that “it is hard to eat a healthy diet when you eat at fast-food restaurants often.” Another tip is that “In general, people with high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease must be very careful about choosing fast food because of its high fat, salt, and sugar levels.”

McDonald’s indicated that a third-party contractor puts together a wide range of content — which includes health and wellness information — on the resource site, and that some of the material which has made its way into the media has been taken out of context. “It also includes information from experts about healthy eating and making balanced choices. McDonald’s agrees with this advice,” the company added. McDonald’s also noted that it has increasingly added healthier menu options to its restaurants.

McDonald’s may or may not be biting the hand that feeds them, as it were, with this advice. The third-party vendor might, however, consider suggesting that consumers as an initial step try to give up or cut down on their bread intake and see if that helps with weight issues.

[image credit: NNECAPA]