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McDonald's Rolls Out Nutritional Packaging


Feb 7, 7:53 PM (ET)

By DEBORAH HASTINGS


TURIN, Italy (AP) - In a public relations move with Supersize irony, McDonald's rolled out its much-hyped "packaging with nutritional information" on Tuesday at - of all places - the Winter Games.

And with endorsement appearances by - of all people - speedskating gold medalist Dan Jansen and Italian Stefania Belmondo, a cross-country skier who possesses one silver medal and one bronze.

At a packed press conference in the company's fast-food franchise inside the behemoth media center, McDonald's officials introduced IOC president Jacques Rogge to extoll the virtues of "sound nutrition" and corporate sponsorship.

The "packaging with nutritional information program" is the burger chain's latest effort to add healthy-sounding sound bytes to its traditional menu fare. Beginning Tuesday in Turin, and later this month in the United States, food boxes and wrappers will carry icons and numbers (but no written words) showing calories, protein, fat, carbs and salt content.

The symbol for salt is three diagonal dots (to look like the top of a salt shaker), the symbol for protein is three blocks (the "building blocks" of energy), and the symbol for fat is two horizontal lines with vertical bars (Think of a tape measure).

Next to each icon is the percentage it constitutes of an average daily diet. McDonald's calculates that an average daily diet is 2,000 calories.

But isn't that a very high number of calories to be applied universally to men and women, large and small? (So asked an Italian magazine writer.)

A company official said the figure actually applies to a young woman who is physically active.

So, for example, a plain cheeseburger is 250 calories and constitutes 13 percent of the McDonald daily total. It contains 12 percent of fat at 8 grams; 11 percent of carbohydrates at 31 grams and 26 percent of salt at 1.3 grams.

Perhaps the worst of all news: A grilled chicken Caesar salad with dressing and croutons has more salt (66 percent at 3.3 grams) than a Big Mac. And the same amount of fat as an Egg McMuffin.

"We believe in the quality of our food," said McDonald's president Mike Roberts.

There also was more than one instance of salty irony in the media blitz.

Turin's outskirts are home to the Slow Food movement, which formed 20 years ago when incensed Italians protested plans for opening the first franchise - at the base of Rome's legendary Spanish steps.

But in a country where two-hour lunches are standard, as are long, late dinners with sumptuous courses and flowing wine, the Italians lost their battle.

There are now 330 McDonald's franchises in Italy, 24 of them in the Piedmont area surrounding Turin, serving 600,000 meals per day.

Environmental Topics

North Pole Meets South Pole: Earth Is Melting at Both Ends
Melting Ice Caps Could Spell Disaster for Coastal Cities

By BILL BLAKEMORE

Aurora / Getty ImagesAntarctica's ice sheets are losing far more than the snow is adding. The melting is happening faster than scientists expected.

(March 2) - For the first time, scientists have confirmed Earth is melting at both ends, which could have disastrous effects for coastal cities and villages.


Antarctica has been called "a slumbering giant" by a climate scientist who predicts that if all the ice melted, sea levels would rise by 200 feet. Other scientists believe that such a thing won't happen, but new studies show that the slumbering giant has started to stir.


Melting at Both Ends


Recent studies have confirmed that the North Pole and the South Pole have started melting.


Experts have long predicted that global warming would start to melt Greenland's two-mile-thick ice sheet, but they also thought the more massive ice sheet covering Antarctica would increase in the 21st century.


It seems they were wrong.


Two new studies find that despite the increasing snowfall that comes with global warming as a result of the increased moisture in the air, Antarctica's ice sheets are losing far more than the snow is adding.


According to the National Academy of Sciences, Earth's surface temperature has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the last century, with accelerated warming during the last two decades. Most of the warming over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities through the buildup of greenhouse gases — primarily carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Although the heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed, uncertainties exist about exactly how Earth's climate responds to them.


The melting rate of Greenland glaciers has doubled since 1996. See images of global warming effects.

"The warming ocean comes underneath the ice shelves and melts them from the bottom, and warmer air from the top melts them from the top," said NASA glaciologist Jay Zwally. "So they're thinning and eventually they get to a point where they go poof!"


Zwally explains that the ice shelves, which the Antarctic ice cap pushes out into the ocean, are responding more than they expected to Earth's warming air and water. If the melting speeds up to a rapid runaway process called a "collapse," coastal cities and villages could be in danger.


James Hansen, director of NASA's Earth Science Research, said that disaster could probably be avoided, but that it would require dramatically cutting emission outputs. If the proper actions aren't taken, Hansen said, the sea level could rise as much as 80 feet by the time today's children reach middle age.


"We now must choose between a serious problem that we can probably handle and, if we don't act soon, unmitigated disaster down the road," Hansen said.

Scientists looking at ice cores can now read Earth's temperatures from past millennia and match them to sea levels from those eras.


"Based on the history of the Earth, if we can keep the warming less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit, I think we can avoid disastrous ice sheet collapse," Hansen said.


Hansen and other scientists point out that a rise of at least 1 degree Fahrenheit — and another few feet of sea level — seem virtually certain to happen because of the carbon that mankind has already put in the atmosphere.


Copyright 2006 ABCNEWS.com


2006-03-06 12:03:54

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