Hold The Fries!

[Tom_K]

17 January 2006
DEAD AT 20 .. THE BOY WHO ONLY ATE CHIPS AND TOAST
SCOTT KILLED BY JUNK DIET
By Jeremy Armstrong
SCOTT Martin's distraught mum Margaret told how she desperately tried to wean her son off his fatal diet of chips, toast and baked beans.

The 56-year-old said he even defied medical experts to keep up his love of junk food. The bizarre diet led to his death at 20 from liver disease and bleeding caused by malnutrition.

Margaret added: "He was fine when he was younger. I could get him to eat properly. But as he grew older he ended up with just toast, beans, chips and the odd tin of spaghetti. He hardly ate any fruit."

Scott's diet was so bad it caused liver cirrhosis - a condition normally associated with heavy drinkers.

He was told a transplant could save him but he was too frightened to have the operation and carried on eating his favourite McDonald's French fries, sliced white bread and tinned beans, all high in salt.

Scott developed auto-immune hepatitis - where the body's own defence system attacks the liver - which caused thinning of the blood.


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The condition got so bad that when he needed three infected teeth removed he was warned he could bleed to death or die from the infection. He had the extraction but surgeons could not stop the bleeding and his heartbroken family could only watch helplessly as his life ebbed away.


Scott's sister Gail Fairweather helped care for him in his final months when he was so weak he was confined to a wheelchair.


The mum-of-six said: "In a short time he had gone from being a normal fit, healthy lad to someone who could barely get across the room. Scott began to feel ill last year. In May he was seen by doctors, suffering what we thought was the flu.


"He was tired all the time and could not walk far. He would get out of breath quickly. The doctors sent him to see a specialist.


"The specialist found he had cirrhosis of the liver. We were baffled because Scott was not a drinker. He did not go to pubs, he was a real home boy. But we found out cirrhosis could be caused by bad diet and malnutrition.


"There were only a few things he would eat, McDonald's chips were his favourite.


"He would eat toast but only from sliced white Danish bread with a thin spreading of Lurpak butter. He would eat baked beans but only now and then.


"He was always like that, from when he was little. Finding stuff he'd eat was a struggle."


Childminder Gail, 32, said Scott was terrified of having a transplant and decided to go on medication, against the advice of doctors. She added: "He would not consent to one.


"The medication was not making him any better. He get very weak. For the last six months of his life he was in a wheelchair.


"He saw a dietician and she gave him loads of nutritional drinks but he did not like them."


Scott, who lived with his mum and two sisters in Whitburn, Sunderland, was buried last week. Margaret said: "The hardest thing is that he was so young. I feel I have been robbed of my little boy. He just did not deserve to die like that. It was terrible."


Patrick Holford, founder of The Institute for Optimum Nutrition, said Scott's diet was "a recipe for death".


He added: "A processed and refined foods diet can lead to an early grave. Young people are at a vital stage where a good diet is a must."

[Mimi63]

Thanks, Tom!  I printed it out, it's going to be waiting on the kitchen table for my boys.

Did you happen to read the series on diabetes in the New York Times last week?  Industrialized food is poison.  

Mimi

[Snowflake]

 

[willy]

If you ever have the opportunity to check out "Supersize Me", on the DVD they have many extras  in addition to the film itself.  One is entitled....... "The Smoking Fry".

This extra is about but not limited to french fries.  They did a study......a very non-scientific sort of test....... they just took a variety of foods from McDonalds and put them in individual clear sealed glass containers.  They they took their non fast food equivalents in the same individual containers.  What followed was very interesting.

After a few days the non fast food started to spoil..... mold developed in a matter of days.  The Mcdonalds food refused to break down.  It just sat there looking like the day that it was purchased.  Most of the non fast food spoiled within a few days, the first McDonalds entre to spoil was the fish sandwich...... but welll after it's non-fast food complement.  If memory serves me...... it took 2-4 weeks for the Big Mac to break down.  The McDonalds french fries were 2 months old and still looking like new when one of the disgusted aides through the whole experiment out.

One might conclude that either the food itself was not condusive to being broken down or that the methods of preparation rendered the food less palatable to mold.

You are what you eat.......

Uh oh......
Willy

[Tom_K]

Fast Food Facts from Fast Food Nation

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• This year Americans will spend over $110 billion on fast food—more than they'll spend on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music combined.

• Every day about one quarter of the U.S. population eats fast food.

• Roughly 12 percent of all American workers have worked at McDonald's.

• The golden arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross.

• Children often recognize the McDonald's logo before they recognize their own name.

• American children now get about one quarter of their total vegetable servings in the form of potato chips and french fries.

• The typical teenage boy in the United States now gets about 10 percent of his daily calories from soda.

• The rate of obesity among American children has doubled since the late 1970s.

• A fast food soda that sells for $1.29 costs the restaurant about ten cents, a markup of more than 1200 percent.

• McDonald's is now the nation's largest purchaser of beef, pork, and potatoes. It is the second largest purchaser of chicken in the United States.

• Hundreds of local slaughterhouses used to supply the United States with beef; today thirteen large slaughterhouses supply most of the nation's beef.

• A typical fast food hamburger contains meat from dozens or even hundreds of cattle.

• Because fast food is so highly processed, much of its flavor is destroyed, so the tastes of most fast food are manufactured at a series of special chemical plants in New Jersey.

• Chicken McNuggets contain beef additives, while McDonald's french fries derive some of their flavor from "animal products."

[Tom_K]

Follow Up Story:

Chips, beans and toast – the diet that killed Scott
A BOY who existed on a diet of chips, toast and beans died of malnutrition, aged just 20.
Scott Martin's poor diet damaged his liver so badly he ended up with severe liver disease.
The 20-year-old, from Farrow Drive, Whitburn, bled to death on Christmas Eve after suffering medical complications after an operation to remove three infected teeth.
Doctors said a liver transplant might save his life but he was scared to have one.
Scott would eat only white sliced bread, fast food french fries, and the occasional plate of baked beans.
He hated foreign food, and refused to eat fresh fruit or vegetables.
His dreadful diet damaged him so badly he developed cirrhosis – a condition more commonly seen in hardened drinkers.
The disease meant he developed a secondary condition, auto-immune hepatitis, which thinned his blood and prevented his body from healing properly.
After Scott, who lived with mum Margaret, 48, and his two sisters, refused to put his name down for a transplant, doctors prescribed medication to control his condition.
He deteriorated so rapidly that by November, when he needed to have the teeth removed, doctors said there was a chance he could bleed to death – but if they did not operate, he could die from the infection.
Scott's teeth were removed but he never recovered and his family watched as he bled to death on Christmas Eve.
His sister Gail Fairweather, a childminder and married mum-of-six, helped care for Scott in his final months.
She said: "In May, he was seen by doctors at South Tyneside District Hospital.
"The doctors sent him to see a specialist at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. The specialist found out he had cirrhosis of the liver. We were baffled because Scott was not a drinker.
"But we found out cirrhosis could be caused by bad diet and malnutrition.
"Scott would never eat fruit or vegetables. There was only a few things he would eat – McDonalds' chips were his favourite.
"He would eat toast – but only toast made from sliced white Danish, with a thin spreading of Lurpak butter.
"He would eat baked beans, but only Morrisons' and only now and then.
"Scott did not seem to take his condition seriously, he was laid back about it. But when the doctors said they wanted him to have a liver transplant, he was terrified.
"He had to see a dietician and she gave him loads of special nutritional supplement drinks, but he did not like them. He tried them but did not like the taste and the more ill he got, the less willing he was to try to get them down.
"He began to get weak. For the last six months of his life he was in a wheelchair."
"When they took out his teeth, he bled for four and a half hours before it stopped. He was in the Freeman for three days then came home and began to feel better.
"He agreed to consent to the liver transplant and he was a priority case.
"On the Tuesday before Christmas – December 20– his teeth started to bleed at 10am. It did not stop until 8.50pm.
"On the Friday, his heartbeat stopped twice and doctors had to bring him back.
"I watched the heart monitor get slower, and slower, and slower, then stop. It was 5.45 on Christmas Eve morning."
Scores of friends and well-wishers said their goodbyes to the former Whitburn School pupil at his funeral last week.
17 January 2006

[willy]

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060207075109990016&cid=1976

You Really Don't Want Fries With That

By NANCI HELLMICH, USA TODAY
(Feb. 7) - Americans are being served artery-clogging trans fats by food providers who should know better, a national consumer group says.

The cafeterias at some of the nation's top hospitals have been serving french fries that contain trans fats, according to an analysis by the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C.

Even the cafeteria at the U.S. Department of Agriculture dishes out fries cooked in partially hydrogenated oil that contains trans fats, despite the fact that the agency's dietary guidelines recommend limiting consumption of such fats as much as possible, says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the group.

The report appears to be having some immediate impact. The public-interest center "raised a good point, so we are working with our food vendor to remove trans fats from all our menu items as soon as possible," says Krista Hopson, a spokeswoman for the University of Michigan Health System.

And the USDA will begin serving fries cooked in trans-fat-free canola oil today, says Cheryl Queen, a spokeswoman for Restaurant Associates Managed Services, the agency's food provider. She says the plan has been in the works for months but the start date was moved up because of the center's analysis.

Trans fatty acids - fats that form when liquid vegetable oils are processed or hydrogenated - increase bad (LDL) cholesterol and decrease good (HDL) cholesterol. They are found in many processed and fried foods.

The public-interest center had medical students and others buy two orders of french fries at leading medical centers, children's hospitals and three government agencies in October, November and December of last year. Fries from each facility were sent to a laboratory for analysis.

Several hospitals' cafeterias served fries with an average of 4 to 6 grams of trans fats in 6 ounces, close to the 8 grams found in an 6-ounce (large) serving of McDonald's fries, the analysis found.

Other hospital cafeterias offered fries with 2 grams or less of trans fats, which indicates that the fries were pre-fried in partially hydrogenated oil by the manufacturer, then deep-fried in non-hydrogenated oil by the cafeteria staff, Jacobson says.

"Trans fat has as much place in hospitals' cafeterias as ashtrays have in their operating rooms," he says. 

The fries from the cafeteria at U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., had 5.8 grams of trans fat in a 6-ounce serving. The fries at the cafeterias at the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health had only a trace of trans fat.

"Five to 6 grams of trans fat is a huge amount just from one serving," says Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health. "Food services usually use the same oils for cooking fish, chicken and other foods as they do fries, so if they've got the high level in fries, they've got it in lots of foods.

"People should be able to assume that hospitals are serving them the healthiest food possible," Willett says. "In this case, their trust has clearly been betrayed."

Some hospitals have switched oils since the study was done. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania plans to switch to a trans-fat-free production process, spokeswoman Rebecca Harmon says.

Jacobson recommends that cafeterias switch to cooking in heart-healthier oils such as liquid canola, soy or peanut and buy fries that have been precooked in healthier oils.

 02/07/2006 07:37

[willy]

http://articles.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=20060213151309990011&cid=403

McDonald's Fries Have Potential Allergens
Quiet Disclosure on Company's Web Site Raises Concerns
By DAVE CARPENTER, AP

CHICAGO (Feb. 13) - And another thing about McDonald's fries: They're not gluten-free.
Not long after disclosing that its french fries contain more trans fat than thought, McDonald's Corp. said Monday that wheat and dairy ingredients are used to flavor the popular menu item - an acknowledgment it had not previously made.The presence of those substances can cause allergic or other medical reactions in food-sensitive consumers.

McDonald's had said until recently that its fries were free of gluten and milk or wheat allergens and safe to eat for those with dietary issues related to the consumption of dairy items. But the fast-food company quietly added "Contains wheat and milk ingredients" this month to the french fries listing on its Web site.

The company said the move came in response to new rules by the U.S. Food and Drug Ad}inistration for the packaged foods industry, including one requiring that the presence of common allergens such as milk, eggs, wheat, fish or peanuts be reported. As a restaurant operator, Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's does not have to comply but is doing so voluntarily.

McDonald's director of global nutrition, Cathy Kapica, said its potato suppliers remove all wheat and dairy proteins, such as gluten, which can cause allergic reactions. But the flavoring agent in the cooking oil is a derivative of wheat and dairy ingredients, and the company decided to note their presence because of the FDA's stipulation that potential allergens be disclosed.
"We knew there were always wheat and dairy derivatives in there, but they were not the protein component," she said. "Teshnically there are no allergens in there. What this is an example of is science evolving" and McDonald's responding as more is learned, she said.

While the company wanted to make consumers aware that fries were derived in part from wheat and dairy sources, she said, those who have eaten the product without problem should be able to continue to do so without incident.

The acknowledgment has stirred anger and some concern among consumers who are on gluten-free diets since it was posted on McDonald's Web site."If they're saying there's wheat and dairy derivatives in the oil, as far as anyone with this disease is concerned there's actually wheat in it," said New York resident Jillian Williams, one of more than 2 million Americans with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten.

"They should have disclosed that all along," she said. "They should never have been canling them gluten-free."

It's not the first time McDonald's forthrightness has been called into question concerning what's in its famous fries.

The company paid $10 million in 2002 to settle a lawsuit by vegetarian groups after it was disclosed that its fries were cooked in beef-flavored oil despite the company's insistence in 1990 that it was abandoning beef tallow for pure vegetable oil.

Last February, it paid $8.5 million to settle a sui| by a nonprofit advocacy group accusing the company of misleading consumers by announcing plans in September 2002 to change its cooking oil but then delaying the switch indefinitely within months. Reluctant to change the taste of a top-selling item, McDonald's has continued to maintain for the past three years that testing continues.

Asked about the status of those efforts Monday, Kapica said: "It's a very high priority and we are very committed to continuing with testing and lowering the level of trans fat without raising the level of savurated fat. ... It's a lot harder than we originally thought but that is not stopping us."

McDonald's shares rose 3 cents to close at $36.36 on the New York Stock Exchange - up 8 percent in 2006.


APTV 02-13-06 1833EST

[robin]

Heard tonight that some weird group is trying to sue KFC because fried chicken causes obesity and heart conditions. Like DUH!!!! We as consumers need to wake up...our fats, salts and just over-eating is the cause of so many diseases...food is probably more harmful (when we eat wrong and don't use moderation) than cigarettes. Keep your spirits high....robin

I propose a four day waiting period before you can purchase fast food...place your order today and pick it up in four days...like the waiting period for gun control. Bet food kills as many people as guns do each year...robin