Is McDonald’s oatmeal wellness fact or wellness fiction?

If a “bowl full of wholesome” sounds appealing to you as a can't-stop morning commuter, you might consider McDonald's new oatmeal menu item. It might be wholesome. Or it could possibly be a marketing ploy as Mark Bittman of the New York Times suggests. Source for this article - McDonalds oatmeal - Healthy breakfast or marketing sham by MoneyBlogNewz.

McDonald’s oatmeal is bad for you and costs far too much

McDonald's, which reportedly boasts sales of more than $16.5 billion per year -nearly the Gross Domestic Product of Afghanistan- knows how to market its merchandise, oatmeal involved. The oatmeal at McDonald’s isn’t as greasy as a Sausage McMuffin which makes it seem like it's healthy. Still, the wording used by the company for 40 years will continue, Bittman claims, to deceive customers.

Sweetening the competition

Think about Instant Oatmeal from Quaker. Try the Strawberries and Cream flavor. It contains no strawberries or cream but a boatload of sugar and artificial flavors. McDonald’s is the exact same where “cream” really has no dairy in it and “natural flavor” is not natural at all. Since McDonald’s has to compete with “Perfect Oatmeal” from Starbucks, there's a ton of sugar in the oatmeal

McDonald’s stands to make quite a bit of money for the 9.2 ounce oatmeal cups served. Around $2.30 is charged for it. That much oatmeal and a tiny sampling of dried fruit costs one-tenth as much when you make it yourself.

Mental trigger of ease

Several suggest the ease of oatmeal from McDonald’s makes it really worth it. That is far from the truth though. There's a process that is followed to get the meal at McDonald’s. You end up waiting in line a lot before and after ordering while also having to drive there and back. That time used at home could mean healthier oatmeal with some juice added. You might even have time to read the newspaper.

McDonald's assertion that its FMO (“fruit and maple oatmeal”) can be made healthier simply by giving consumers the choice to opt out of cream and brown sugar ignores the fact that the oatmeal contains a whopping 21 ingredients, many of them chemical and unnecessary. The ingredients do not change with that choice. Getting McDonald’s consumers to come back for more is the only thing being done, Bittman explains.

Citations

McDonald’s

nutrition.McDonald’s.com/nutrition1/itemDetailInfo.do?itemID=1500

New York Times

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/how-to-make-oatmeal-wrong/?hp

Starbucks

starbucks.com/menu/food/hot-breakfast/starbucks-perfect-oatmeal?foodZone=9999

Don't oatmeal and drive

youtube.com/watch?v=hMyMpXLX1VI