*Ø* Health fears eat into McDonald's profits

"The fast-food giant McDonald's is used to serving up super- size profits for its shareholders as well as bulging cartons of burgers and fries to a hungry public. But yesterday it was explaining away a significant decline in reported profits as it revealed its restaurants had been hit by a big drop in turnover last year.

"The UK arm of the global chain, which owns two thirds of the 1,235 McDonald's restaurants across Britain, reported operating profits were down £61m on the previous year ...

"Chief among its tormentors is Morgan Spurlock, a film director, whose attempt to exist on a pure diet of McDonald's for a month in the hit documentary Super Size Me saw him pile on 30lbs and suffer a falling sex drive. Meanwhile, the so-called McLibel Two have reopened the scars left by the longest trial in English legal history by taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights. The company is also braced for compensation claims from obese former customers who claim their health suffered by eating too many burgers ...

"Ian Tokelove of the Food Commission said consumers had woken up to the choices available. 'McDonald's have tried to convince us that they are making their food more healthy but their salads have been shown to have more fat than a burger when you take into account the dressing,' he said." [emphasis mine!]

Full text at The Independent