OAK BROOK, Illinois (Reuters) - Corp. McDonalds spurned calls to assess the impact of food on obesity and said that its trademark clown Ronald McDonald would be peddling Happy Meals for children for the years to come.
"It's choice and we believe in the democratic process," Chief Executive Jim Skinner told a packed auditorium meeting of its shareholders, to an enthusiastic wave of applause. "It is on the personal and individual right to choose."
The largest chain of fast food of the resounding world shareholders rejected a proposal that would have required to publish a report describing its role in the epidemic of childhood obesity, saying customers were free to make their own food choices.
Ronald McDonald is an Ambassador McDonald and is an Ambassador for good. Ronald McDonald is going nowhere, "Skinner said firmly, which prompted most cheers with shareholders."
Among the dissidents at the meeting was Dr. Donald Zeigler, Director of prevention and the health of living to the American Medical Association, who asked when the burger chain will stop marketing to children with Ronald McDonald.
Zeigler, who is also visiting professor at the University of Rush Medical Center, was one of the 550 health care professionals who signed an open letter to the McDonalds plead that he "stop take sick next generation."
Tuesday, a monitoring group placed ads in newspapers across the country claim McDonald is to stop marketing to children across the clown, gift toy and other tactics.
Some 17 per cent of children and adolescents are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Excess weight in childhood raises the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and a host of other diseases.
McDonald has been a lightning rod for criticism over the years on its marketing tactics and sales of Happy Meals for children that include toys as incentives.
McDonalds allows parents to share of milk or juice of soda in its Happy Meals. It also offers slices of apples with sauce caramel and chicken nuggets and alternatives to the French fries and burgers.
The restaurant chain said healthier options on its menu, including salads and oatmeal, but critics argue, that it is still too fat, salt and sugar in his meal. Even the oatmeal, one critic noted, contains about as much sugar as a Snickers candy bar.
Skinner has defended the strategy of McDonald, which resulted in hefty sales and earnings for shareholders. Shares of McDonald won almost 12% in the last four months and agrees with a record of $82.63 Thursday.
But, as noted by the experts, obese children often grow obese adults, overloading the system of health care.
Ironically, Miles White, Chairman and CEO of diversified health Abbott Laboratories company, is a Director of the Board of Directors since 2009 McDonald.
Abbott made a wide range of drugs, including cholesterol-lowering statins, and medical devices, such as heart stents used on patients with clogged arteries.
(Reported by Debra Sherman, Lisa Baertlein and Jessica Wohl;) (Editing by Richard Chang)
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