If I were Michelle Kwan and needed energy-packed food to help land a triple axle, I would know exactly where to turn -- McDonald's.
McDonald's is the official sponsor of the Winter Olympics in Torino, and that doesn't sit well with me.
Does this mean that figure skating legend Michelle Kwan wolfs down a Big Mac and a super-sized, heavily salted box of fries before stepping on the ice?
Since the release of Morgan Spurlock's documentary, "Super Size Me," McDonald's marketing geniuses seem to have been collectively conspiring a rebuttal.
And I have to say that McDonald's really flunked at patching up the fast food restaurant's new association to America's high obesity problem.
In "Super Size Me," Morgan Spurlock, the producer and director, conducted an experiment in which he ate from the McDonald's menu three times a day for 30 consecutive days, with minimum physical exercise.
Prior to the experiment Spurlock had perfect health.
But after that 30 days, he had gained 18 pounds, suffered from severe headaches, mood swings, depression, sexual withdraw, and eventually liver failure.
As you can imagine, McDonalds' reputation and success were immediately threatened.
McDonald's couldn't let their fast food baby take such abuse, especially not from some rookie filmmaker.
Their solution was to integrate "nutritional" foods into the Big Mac dominated menu and sponsor the Winter Olympics...genius.
McDonald's introduced new packaging with nutritional information at the Winter Olympics.
And who better to endorse the nutritional information than speed skating gold medalist Dan Jansen and Italian cross-country skier Stefania Belmondo?
According to The Associated Press, as of Feb. 7 McDonald's food boxes and wrappers will use icons and numbers (not written words) to show calories, fat, protein, carbs and salt content.
Instead of looking at the nutrition information and finding the 730 milligrams of salt that are in a quarter pounder, you will find the symbol for salt, which is three diagonal dots (to look like the top of a salt shaker).
If you are concerned about fat, just look for the horizontal lines with vertical bars.
Three blocks symbolize protein.
Next to each of these icons is the percentage it constitutes for an average daily diet, which is considered to be 2,000 calories a day.
It looks like now you'll need to sign up for hieroglyphics 101 just to get the nutrition facts.
I don't see any other food label disguising their nutritional information with cute little symbols. I mean really, how far can McDonald's go to hide information from consumers and stretch the truth?
Their official Web site, www.mcdonalds.com, has overdone the fitness and balanced diet image that they are trying to radiate.
It features balanced eating tips from Bob Greene, a personal trainer, an entire section of "inspiring" words from Dr. Cathy Kapica, McDonald's nutritionist, a food promise section and a sports section with lots of active imagery and pictures of McDonald's sponsored athletes.
Mary Dillon, the company's executive vice president and global chief executive marketing officer, said, "McDonald's cares about the well-being of each of its guests throughout the world, and by making balanced, active lifestyles an integral part of the brand we aim to make a difference in this area of their lives."
I guess she wants to tell us that incorporating the fruit and walnut salad, bottled water and a few gold medalists under the glow of the almighty golden arch, McDonald's is making a difference in our active lifestyles.
Right.
Sara Sturges is a journalism major who plays hard for Big N' Tasty's. Reach her at ssturges@imap2.asu.edul.
