Category: McDonald’s

Former McDonald’s CEO opens Lyfe Kitchen for healthy fast food

On By A.P.In Chicago, fast food, Lyfe Kitchen, McDonald's, Mike Donahue, Tal Ronnen, The Conscious CookLeave a comment

LYFE-Kitchen-Interior

The founders of the fast-casual chain Lyfe Kitchen (413 N. Clark St., no phone yet), coming to lyfe on November 15 in River North, worked together at McDonald’s—a corporation that does not exactly share Lyfe’s healthful, organic, no-trans-fats, no-preservatives philosophy.

“We are trying to run away from that, and yet we don’t want to run away from it,” says Mike Donahue, a Lyfe partner. Even though the food couldn’t be more different, principles about branding and franchising clearly grew from the Golden Arches experience. “We learned that the biggest unmet need in America is healthy food that happens to taste good,” he says.

The name of Lyfe Kitchen is an acronym standing for “love your food everyday”—a slogan the copy editors didn’t get hold of, but “love your food every day” becomes Lyfed, which doesn’t work anyway. Every item on the menu measures less than 600 calories. In addition to free-range chicken, fish options such as salmon and barramundi, and Tallgrass Beef, vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free diets are covered.

“Our first meeting was in Art Smith’s kitchen,” Donahue says. Smith, the celebrity chef of Table Fifty-Two, is an investor in Lyfe Kitchen, and he collaborated with Tal Ronnen, the author of The Conscious Cook, to conceive the menu. “We have this great Southern gourmet chef known for comfort food—fried chicken, turkey meat loaf, mac and cheese. Tal knew about ancient grains and quinoa and farro. We got them involved and we smashed food atoms,” Donahue says.

With two California locations open and one more on the cusp, the Chicago restaurant makes four. They’re also eying spaces in Evanston and by Northwestern Memorial Hospital. On the horizon, the Lyfe team set a goal of 250 stores across the United States by 2017—sounds like the partners also learned something from McDonald’s about how to grow a chain.

http://www.chicagomag.com/dining-drinking/October-2013/Lyfe-Kitchen/

Woman Drinks Coke Instead Of Water For 16 Years

On By A.P.In coca cola, McDonald's, Monaco, Morgan Spurlock, Super Size Me1 Comment

coke

A 31-year-old Monaco woman was recently admitted to the hospital after suffering arrhythmia and fainting spells. Her potassium levels were found to be absurdly, dangerously low. These are bad warning signs, but the woman had no family history of heart problems. Further investigation revealed that the patient had not had a sip of water in 16 years; instead she drank only cola.

The doctors told her to stop drinking cola, and then promptly wrote a paper describing the case.

This is one of those instances, like in the movie Super Size Me, that isn’t really indicative of anything besides the specific case it describes. In Super Size Me, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock consumed nothing by McDonald’s for a full month, and found that his health rapidly deteriorated. And, well, yes, of course it did; probably not even McDonald’s executives would suggest that anybody actually do this.

That, though, was a movie about an experiment, not someone’s actual life. And so it’s fascinating to see just what kind of damage such an extreme diet choice can do to a person’s body. The patient apparently drank about two liters of cola every day! Here were the effects:

The patient’s blood-potassium level was 2.4 mmol/L. Norma blood-potassium levels for a woman of her age should have been about twice that.

A QT interval is the time in between the start of the Q wave and the end of the T wave in a patient’s heart. It’s dependent on heart rate but indicative of other things; a lengthened QT interval suggests severe arrhythmia and could indicate death. This patient’s QT interval was 610 ms. A normal QT interval for a woman her age should have been no more than 450 ms.

The patient suffered severe fainting fits.

Amazingly, as soon as the doctors took the patient off of her bonkers cola habit, her potassium levels and QT intervals returned to near-normal. Within one week, her QT interval was 430 ms, and her blood-potassium levels returned to 4.1 mmol/L. Amazing how much torture the human body can bounce back from!

The case was reported at a European health conference this week.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-06/woman-drinks-coke-instead-water-16-years

Update: Mirlande Wilson States She Lost Winning Lottery Ticket

On By A.P.In Gambling, Lottery, Marlinda Wilson, McDonald's, Mirlande WilsonLeave a comment

Mirlande Wilson, who this week said she may have hit the record Mega Millions jackpot, told a Washington news station Thursday that she has lost the ticket.
WRC-TV is reporting that Wilson said, “I misplaced it. I cannot tell you where the ticket is for my safety and my kids’ safety, but I wish I could find it and get this thing over [with].”

She could not immediately be reached for comment.

That’s one valuable slip of paper. The record-breaking jackpot in the drawing March 30 reached $656 million, worth $105 million in a cash payout to whomever purchased the winning ticket at a Baltimore County 7-Eleven.

Wilson also told the TV station that a report that she hid the ticket at the McDonald’s in Milford Mills was bogus.

“I don’t know where they get the story from. How am I going to have the ticket and hide it behind the McFlurry machine?” Wilson said.

Thanks to ‘Da Brayn’ for updating this story for the It’s Interesting community.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-mega-millions-lottery-20120406,0,7808126.story

Marlinda Wilson Claims Her Winning Mega-Millions Lottery Ticket is Hidden Inside McDonald’s

On By A.P.In Gambling, Lottery, Marlinda Wilson, McDonald's, Mega MillionsLeave a comment

One of the three Mega Millions jackpot winners says her winning ticket remains stashed away inside the Baltimore McDonald’s where she works. But some of Marlinde Wilson’s co-workers think she is telling a Big Lie.

“I left my ticket there, and it’s somewhere safe that only I know about,” Wilson told the New York Post. “I’m waiting for things to calm down so I can go back to McDonald’s and get it. The people [at McDonald’s] are too excited. I want their heads to cool down before I go back.”

Wilson claims to have purchased one of the three winning Mega Millions lottery tickets. The three winners will each receive a share of the record-breaking $640 million jackpot. If Wilson’s story is true, that would mean a $105 million ticket (after taxes) is stashed away somewhere inside the fast food restaurant.

Wilson’s co-workers appear to be split in their opinion of her but all who have spoken to the media seem to share some animosity toward the Haiti native. Some of Wilson’s colleagues say she is attempting to cheat them out of what should be shared winnings from a pool of lotto tickets 14 of the McDonald’s employees purchased together.

And Wilson’s manager, identified only as “Layla” by the Post, says she thinks Wilson isn’t telling the truth about hiding the ticket inside the McDonald’s. “That’s impossible. She didn’t come back here” after she purchased the ticket, Layla said.

 

CBS News has also raised questions about whether or not Wilson actually purchased one of the three winning tickets. Mega Millions officials say they do not know who actually purchased the ticket. They have only been able to confirm that the winning ticket was in fact purchased at a Baltimore 7-Eleven just four hours before the winning numbers were announced.

The Post also raises some question’s about Wilson’s character, noting she has a Facebook page under the alias Sheila Paraison, on which she says she will donate her winnings to relief efforts in Haiti.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/mega-millions-winners-says-ticket-still-hidden-inside-160453864.html;_ylt=Av0bxgEA2k7kk7bfHcbI8_ASH9EA;_ylu=X3oDMTFobWc1czNjBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzcEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlUZW1wQXNzZW1ibHk-;_ylg=X3oDMTNlbzM5NnQwBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDMTBjYTU3ZDktZmU0OS0zZDNiLTlkNTctMjI2ZTU5YTNkNTc2BHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhlc2lkZXNob3cEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdlBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3

 

Woman Dies After Exposure to Odor in Georgia McDonald’s Bathroom

On By A.P.In McDonald'sLeave a comment

 

One woman died and at least eight other people were hospitalized after being exposed to an odor at a McDonald’s restaurant in eastern Georgia, a police chief said Thursday.

Police and fire personnel were called to one of the chain’s restaurants in Pooler, just west of Savannah, about 11:50 a.m. Wednesday, Pooler Police Chief Mark Revenew said.

Upon arrival, first responders found two people unconscious in the women’s restroom and also “became stricken (by) an odor,” according to Revenew.

Pooler Fire Chief Wade Simmons said crews “immediately backed out and put on their breathing apparatus,” at which point they re-entered the bathroom.

The stench notwithstanding, Revenew said, authorities were able to bring the women outside and begin providing medical attention, including CPR.

Nine people, including three firefighters, were transported to a local hospital. The nine included Anne Felton, 80, of Ponte Vedra, Florida, who died.

The police chief said that although an investigation is under way, authorities do not anticipate filing criminal charges.

“It appears to be an accident,” Revenew said.

The chief did not offer any other details, including the cause or nature of the toxic fumes. And in a statement released through McDonald’s corporate offices, franchise owners John and Monique Palmaccio said “authorities have been unable to determine the cause of the incident.”

The owners noted that the restaurant reopened Wednesday afternoon after authorities, following a “thorough investigation,” “deemed (the location) to be safe.”

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/08/georgia.mcdonalds.death/index.html?iref=obinsite