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McDonald's to Cook Healthier Fries

Aired September 03, 2002 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Big news under the golden arches: McDonald's plans to cook its french fries in a new oil that will contain fewer transfatty acids. Transfatty acids can clog arteries, as you know. But will the fries be any more healthful, and will they taste just as good?
Let's begin with that last question, and Jeff Flock, checking in with the lunchtime crowd in downtown Chicago.

I want to know if you have tried them, Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What do you mean, these french fries? Is that what you are talking about, Kyra?

This would be super size, of course. And you know, I'm not a big fry person personally, but we have been talking to a lot of people out here today who are. And we want to give sense of that just a moment.

But first, to give you some detail, we are what once was the world's busiest McDonald's, here in Chicago. It's called the Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's. Perhaps you can get some flavor of it. They do a lot of business. You wonder how big something is. In some sense, anything McDonald's does is big because of the volume of it: 30,000 restaurants, worldwide, and they sell a lot of french fries. If they do something different, that has major impact.

Now, I want to bring in this gentleman here who claims to be a fellow who goes with some frequency to McDonald's.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is correct.

FLOCK: The headline on it for you, they're changing the oil, trying to make it a little healthier. Is that good news for you, or are you concerned about the taste?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is good news for me as long as they don't change taste of the fries as long as the price doesn't increase.

FLOCK: At this point, they haven't said anything about that.

But do you worry yourself about, you know...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My health?

FLOCK: ... the health of fast food?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I am going for McDonald's, I'm not really primarily concerned about healthy food.

FLOCK: You may go get tofu later somewhere else, but this is not -- you didn't go here for health purposes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct. Correct.

FLOCK: Got you on that one.

Well, Kyra, it is also important to note that if you talk about the super size, for example, it doesn't help for the calories. This is, they tell me, 610 calories, and it is going to stay 610 calories after. And in terms of the fat, the fat content remains about the same; it is some of the good fat, additional good fat, put in there, some bad fat taken out of there. So all in all, good news you are thinking for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

FLOCK: As long as they don't mess with that secret recipe. huh?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. As long as they taste the same.

(CROSSTALK)

FLOCK: As long as they taste the same.

There you go. And we are going to leave it to an expert, as opposed to any comment from me.

PHILLIPS: Jeff, I don't think it matters to him either way. I think he is still going to eat those fries, something tells me.

Now a question to you: Is this something that McDonald's is doing, out of the goodness of their hearts -- I guess no pun intended -- or could it have something to do with this lawsuit that was filed a couple weeks ago? Will you brief us on that.

FLOCK: Yes. It is a good question, and it's one I wish I could answer. The thing is McDonald's is not talking. They put this out as a press release today. And in fact, they even respectfully asked us to not come on their property to report on this story. So here we are -- perhaps you see the fence that separates us here. Indeed, they have a lawsuit; it may be that they are not eager to take questions about that lawsuit, where they are being sued by a man who says that he has become obese as a result of eating at McDonald's. He's looking for a judgment.

No word from them on whether or not this has been driven by that lawsuit. And in fact, bottom line, no word from them at all in terms of an interview. We will of course continue to pursue it.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Be sure to show those fries to your photographer, all right, Jeff? There we go.

FLOCK: They will be eating them. In fact, there are a few missing, I think. I am going to go count the fries when we are done.

PHILLIPS: He is shaking his head. There we go.

Jeff Flock -- thanks, guys.

Does the change mean it's safe to super size your fries? For the facts about fat and calories, we are going to check in with our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

I think I already know that answer. You said, No way. Whether you eat it or not, less fat or not, it is still tons of calories. Jeff made that point too, right, Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, exactly. Jeff had the 610 value calorie version. I think he super sized it. I have here the 540 calorie version of large fries. So you can see this still isn't health food, no matter what they do.

And I think, Kyra, I wanted to try to answer a little bit of question that you asked Jeff about why are they doing this. I mean, it's interesting: Health groups have been harping on McDonald's to make a change like this for years and years. So they -- I think it's probably safe to say they didn't come up with this on their own. People have been telling them that they really needed to change the fat. If you have a choice between frying in good fat or bad fat, why not make it more good than bad, which is exactly what they have gone to do?

Let's take a look at the numbers at exactly what McDonald's has done. McDonald's has -- the old fries, the ones that you can buy now -- 9 grams of artery clogging fat; that means 9 grams of saturated fat and transfat. The new fries -- the ones that you will be able to buy within the next couple of months, that is 6 grams of artery clogging fat -- that is, of course, a big difference, a 1/3 difference.

But nutritionists have told me today let's put this in context: You are only supposed to get 20 grams of artery clogging fat each day. One large fry -- that's one third of the amount you are supposed to get in the whole day -- for just one side item. So one side item is taking up 1/3 of your daily allotment of artery clogging fat. So you have to watch what you eat for the rest of the day.

Also, some of the nutritionists I talked to today said, You know what, as good as this is that they have made the change, we are a little concerned that people are going to hear the news and say, Wow, so instead of having fries twice a week, I'm going to have them four times week -- which of course would completely negate any kind of beneficial effect -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: What do you know about these enhanced cooking oils that they are going to use? What is -- is this something we can buy at the grocery store? Can we make the switch and cook at home with these special oils?

COHEN: Sure, if you get that big machine and put your fries in there and hire a kid... PHILLIPS: Exactly. Good tater tots.

COHEN: ... hire a kid to fry them for you.

What you can do when you go to the store is you have a choice of what you cook with. You can -- for example, there is -- some people cook with lard basically, with that heavy white stuff, and that is saturated fat. And you want to be careful about that.

And then the other thing is that you want to look for is a monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat. Look for an olive oil, look for a canola oil. They are fat, but they are good fat; they are not going to clog your heart. And in fact, there is some evidence that they will actually lower your cholesterol. So again, look for a polyunsaturated fat, look for a monounsaturated fat; try avoid the transfats, try to avoid the saturated fats.

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: Thank you.

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