CSPI: No cake for McD's 50th birthday

Nutrition watchdog Center for Science in the Public Interest has offered a 50th anniversary message to McDonald's. And it's not exactly congratulations on a job well done. While lauding the burger giant for recently introducing more greens and fruits on its menu, CSPI concluded McDonald's legacy since 1955 hasn't been positive.

"Fifty years of McDonald's burgers and fries have coarsened our palates, expanded our waistlines, and clogged our arteries," CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson wrote.

He added: "McDonald's deserves a lot of the blame for having transformed the way America eats. We now eat quicker, and in what would have seemed like bizarre or impolite ways many years ago."

"All in all, this has been a recipe for obesity," Jacobson wrote.

McDonald's is holding a special webcast today at one of its restaurants in Chicago to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Ray Kroc's first store in Des Plaines, IL. Dick and Mac McDonald actually founded the brand in California in the 1940s, however.

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