Vegetarian Star

In case you didn’t hear the good news, McDonald’s has been trumped as the #1 fast-food chain by Subway restaurants. Worldwide, Subway now has 33,749 restaurants while McDonald’s trails at 32,737. This means more places for a healthier sandwich loaded with fresh veggies and even a veggie patty at some locations. It also means that as a business, McDonald’s needs to kick up its game to stay nose to nose with its major competitor.

In a letter to James Skinner, CEO of McDonald’s Corporation, Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, says McDonald’s can cut healthcare expenses for its employees (it’s been thinking of dropping healthcare altogether) if it puts them on the PCRM’s 21-Day Kickstart program.

“News this week that McDonald’s is no longer the world’s leading fast-food chain may have left your company looking for ways to streamline operations. McDonald’s has also recently complained about high healthcare costs and has considered dropping healthcare for thousands of employees. As a physician and nutrition researcher, I want to propose a simple and sustainable way to bring down your company’s healthcare expenses: offer your employees the opportunity to make over their diets, as GEICO and Whole Foods Market have recently done, with the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart program.”

“This program could start at your Chicago-area headquarters. In Illinois, more than 63 percent of adults were classified as overweight or obese in 2009: more than the national average of 61 percent. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the state, and each year it kills more than 42,000 Illinois citizens. Largely as a result of obesity, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in the state rose from 5.4 percent in 1994 to 8 percent in 2009, and many more people have the disease but are not yet aware of it. Diabetes is a leading cause of blindness, amputations, and loss of kidney function, not to mention an enormous financial drain, estimated at $128 billion for the U.S. in 2010. This cost is a drag on companies, on state budgets, and on individual workers and taxpayers.”

Dr. Barnard discusses a study involving employees at GEICO who implemented the 21-day Kickstart Program in their offices. Plant-based food options in the cafeteria paired with education on diet and nutrition allowed employees to shed pounds.

If McDonald’s is open to such an idea in the boardroom, perhaps more plant-based options could spill over into its restaurants as well. Two of the company’s former executives have already made the switch by creating LYFE, a restaurant where every item is under 600 calories and plant-based options are on the menu, but butter and cream aren’t.

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