Kids' Nutrition Classes Brought to You by...McDonald's?

A group of sixth graders from a Stratford, CT public school recently attended a nutrition workshop. This field trip was intended to teach children good eating habits and how to seek out healthy foods. Kids even got the chance to step into the kitchen and make their own sandwiches. So far so good, until you find out where this "nutrition workshop" took place — at a local McDonald's.

As Change.org recently reported, for the past five years, McDonald's has been dabbling in the nutrition education business. Local schools can bring in groups of students, and McDonald's employees teach the kids about how to make "healthy" choices. As the Connecticut Post recently reported, the Golden Arches sponsors workshops at its restaurants where students "learn about calorie counts, sodium levels, fat content and other information about the important of nutritious foods." This coming from a fast food joint selling Big Macs that boast more than 500 calories a pop.

Unless McDonald's is teaching these kids that its fast food is entirely too high in "calorie counts, sodium levels, and fat content," the restaurant has no business running any kind of nutrition workshop. It's no secret that the Golden Arches serves up some of the most unhealthy vittles around. An Angus Bacon and Cheese sandwich, for example, holds 790 calories and 39 grams of fat. Even a kids' meal cheeseburger has 300 calories in it — and that's before you add on the fries and sugar-y beverage.

Despite the Golden Arches' obvious agenda-pushing with its "nutrition workshops," it seems like it's got schools like Stratford's Eli Whitney School totally brainwashed. "McDonald's is providing nutritional information so when they [students] go to a restaurant, they can make healthy choices," Maureen DiDomenico, Stratford school system's coordinator of fine arts, health and physical education, told the Connecticut Post.

If even school administrators are buying McDonald's blatant leanwashing, you can bet that students are eating it up, too. "I learned that McDonald's can be very healthy for you if you make the right choices," 11-year-old Shannon Mullings told the Post. "I usually have lots of cheese, but I had less cheese and more lettuce, and I had chicken instead of hamburger because it had fewer calories." Another student said he was going to choose an Angus Deluxe sandwich for lunch, but instead selected a Big Mac because it had 210 fewer calories.

Substituting one greasy burger for a slightly less greasy burger does not a healthy meal make, but this is the nutritional information that McDonald's is pushing on impressionable kids. In order to really combat the country's childhood obesity epidemic, we've got to help kids learn how to select fresh veggies, fruits, lean proteins, and unprocessed foods. Leanwashing and predatory marketing practices shouldn't factor into this health plan. Sign our petition asking Stratford's Board of Education to stop holding nutrition classes in fast food restaurants.

Photo credit: Heungsub via Flickr