Giant McDonalds at Olympics will hit child health, says Hackney MP
An artist impression of McDonald's Central restaurant in the Olympic Park, which will be both the biggest and busiest McDonald’s restaurant, during the Games, anywhere in the world.
Hackney MP Diane Abbott, who is also Shadow Minister for Public Health, has hit out at plans for the world’s biggest ever McDonalds in the 2012 Olympic Park. The 1500 seat restaurant and the high profile involvement of other fast food companies in the games will discourage healthy eating and add to a child obesity epidemic, she claims.
“‘Plonking the world’s biggest McDonalds in the middle of the Olympics site, with the eyes of the entire world on Britain, gives out completely the wrong message,” she says. “I am calling on the government to review its relationship with the manufacturers and retailers that are damaging our children’s health.”
According to Abbott, almost a quarter of children in the UK are already overweight or obese by the time they start primary school, and more than a third are overweight or obese by the time they leave to start secondary school.
And researchers from Stanford University found that children as young as three years old responded to the familiar McDonalds logo and packaging, saying they preferred the taste of food coming out of McDonald’s bags to the taste of the same food items emerging from plain bags.
‘It is absurd that the government is positioning McDonalds, Coca Cola and Cadbury’s at the forefront of the London Olympics,” Abbott adds. “The government is creating a ticking time bomb with their inaction on public health.”
McDonald’s is to build four restaurants on the Olympic site – two in the Park, one in the Athletes Village, and one in the Media and Press Centre – which will serve over 1.75 million meals during the games.
The Hackney Citizen has worked out that a fit eleven stone adult visitor to the Olympics would need to run ten miles to burn off the 1096 calories contained in a modest McDonalds meal comprising a Big Mac, medium fries and a McFlurry.
A London 2012 spokesperson said there would be a diverse and full-range of other food offerings available to athletes and spectators.
Diane Abbot lecturing people on obesity?
I agree with Ms Abbott that “positioning McDonalds, Coca Cola and Cadbury’s at the forefront of the London Olympics” will be detrimental to public health and in particular to child health. I hope that by her efforts she will be able to mitigate the potential harm.Children should be protected from salty snacks and sickly sweet junk food.
This smacks of locking the stable door after the horse has bolted!
As a matter of interest – what would they intend to do with the giant McDonalds when the Olympics has finished?
I can’t imagine it will be very busy!
SHOCKING THAT MACDONALDS GETS SUCH A HIGH PROFILE BUT WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?
CAN’T IMAGINE HEALTHY OPTIONS AT AN OLYMPICS EVENT, THERE’S TOO MUCH MONEY AT STAKE.
No doubt the media centre one will be well used!
?an anyone offer an alternative chain to mcdonalds that can provide the same level of speed, quality, service and choice? Just because they sell burgers doesn’t mean that is what you have to eat.
Protecting children from sticky food? That is a job for the parents, is it not? fruit bags and innocent smoothies are offerd as part of the happy meal, that will be two of their 5 a day.
Clearly none of you have been to a mcdonals in the past few years and all you think they sell is burgers, milkshakes and fries!
All menu boards display the fat and calorie content for every item they sell, you dont get that in the local deli
As a parent of 2 children who have been through goverment weight management scheme i would just like to say that it was me who did my children wrong with the choices i made not the companies that me and my children ate at. It is a sorry state of affairs when people will not accept responsibility for there own actions and mistakes and blame the companies Who btw have been the first to take on the labeling campaign to help you make a more informed descion before you eat. Also what about all the jobs it will create in a not particular wealthy part of london
I’m an adult, not a child. I don’t eat Mac crap but I refuse to let the government I elected tell these companies what they can or cant do to sell their product, If the food passes all stringent health checks for consumption on a micro level, then let the public decide what they will eat or not eat. Stay the hell out of my choice decisions.
WHAT! MacDonalds THE restaurant at the Olympics?
Doctors warn us not to eat red meat. There is now a swathe of understanding that people should eat a vegetarian diet two or three times a week if they cannot manage a complete veggie lifestyle.
We will be watching the cream of sport and presumably health and fitness in 2012. Ask those actually in the events – the gymnasts, the swimmers, the racers – do they fill their faces with dead cooked animals, birds or fish everyday? Scientists know that this type of diet can increase the risk of certain cancers. I guess Macs just have an awful lot of money somehow (or ‘sponsorship’) as it’s called. How has this been allowed?
Old old news but what is Fatso Dianne Abbott doing lecturing us about about McDonalds??!
POT KETTLE BLACK
No doubt the Abbott will says that’s racist?