Safe Care Parenting

More salient arguments this week that while fast food makes beaucoup bucks for the big three—McDonald’s, Subway and Burger King, which collectively rake in over $63 million a day—it continues to make very little ¢ for you, me and our families.

Getting down to the greasiest bits first, according to researchers in the UK, “kids who gorge on chips, fries, cookies, and cake before the age of three have slightly lower IQs five years later compared to those who consume healthy and wholesome food.”

We kind of know that already, though, don’t we? They know that we know. And now—thanks to a cool, fruity and entirely well-intentioned marketing campaign geared at consumers like us—we know that they know that we know. But are we buying it?

The “bowl full of wholesome” debuted the menus of participating McDonald’s late last year, but according to Mark Bittman, the New York Times Opinionator, magazine columnist and author of Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, we should be taking a much closer look at what fast food is deeming “wholesome” these days.

“Real oatmeal,” he reminded us this week, “contains no ingredients.”

It is the ingredient.

But, he adds, “like so many other venerable foods, oatmeal has been roundly abused by food marketers for more than 40 years.”

To wit, Quaker Strawberries and Cream Instant Oatmeal contains neither strawberries nor cream, and has twelve times as much sugar as the regular stuff and half of the fiber. Micky D’s oats contain “100 percent natural whole-grain oats,” “plump raisins,” “sweet cranberries” and “crisp fresh apples,” i.e. oats, sugar, sweetened dried fruit, cream and, as Mark puts it:

11 weird ingredients you would never keep in your kitchen.

The addition of brown sugar is optional, though why would you need it, considering the oats alone contain 32 grams of sugar along with seven additional ingredients, including a dash of “natural flavor”.

There’s that “natural” word again! Yikes, can’t get away from it. Thankfully, we’re all pretty savvy consumers by now. I’m more interested in what this all means for us as parents.

We’re all pretty savvy in that arena, too. Yet we are also really busy people and the convenience factor of drive-thru oatmeal—particularly on lengthy road trips with those amazing Playlands on offer—could sway even our best efforts. The oatmeal is available round the clock and it’s better than a hamburger, right?

Well, kind of.

Consider, though, that a bowl of McDonald’s oatmeal contains more sugar than a Snickers bar and just 10 fewer calories than a McDonald’s cheeseburger. Plus, it’s expensive, ranging from $1.99 to $2.38 per bowl (er, cup) depending on location.

Not trying to be a food nanny in the slightest, just reporting what people are saying, and not all of it is bad.

In response to Bittman’s post, commenter Esther B from Medford, MA wrote:

Is homemade oatmeal healthier, cheaper, and (if you’re at home) faster? Yes, of course. But…this oatmeal represents a major step forward for McDonald’s. I’d rather thank them for moving in the right direction than chastise them for not being a homecooked meal.

H from DC wrote:

I like their oatmeal. Many times you find yourself at McD’s with a group, and trying to choose something half-way decent is hard…[d]on’t make the perfect the enemy of the good.

Fair enough. But can you hold the Maltodextrin and Calcium Stearoyl Lactylate please?

Is McDonald’s oatmeal a raw deal for your family or good enough in a crunch?