The Green Arches.

::: McDons.com is currently under construction.
++ Website Design & Development: San Diego, CA, USA / Don's Digital Café

McDon's will be a website, not a restaurant (although this might change). There you will find healthy recipes offered up as alternatives to the high fat, high sugar, high salt items featured on the core menus of most fast food restaurants. There will also be videos of professional and celebrity chefs (including Don Cook: "El Cosinero") showing you, step by step, how to prepare these recipes.

Americans eat over 16 Big Macs every second.

Let's do the math. It is estimated that 550 million Big Macs are sold each year in the USA alone. That's about 1,000 every minute. 1,000 divided by 60 is over 16.

The above animation shows a burger being eaten abount once every second. In order for this to be an accurate representation, we would have to speed it up by a factor of 16. If we did, it would just be a blur.

How to avoid the "hurt locker".

First of all, we believe in freedom of choice. If your goal is to eat the biggest hamburger in the world, go for it (although, if you watch Man V. Food, you'll definately find out this may not be as much fun as you might think). If you eat hamburgers on a regular basis, you may even end up in the "hurt locker"

The McDon's website is being created to provide information in a fun and interesting way. This information can be used by people who, for whatever reason, want to make a change in their diet. Or, by people who just want to be informed so they can make intelligent decisions, and maybe avoid the "hurt locker".

Just like a Robot Terminator, a hamburger diet can also put you into a "hurt locker" (it just may take longer). It is estimated that 550 million Big Macs are sold each year in the USA alone. That's about 1,000 every minute. Every 18 minutes, 4 Americans die from what they eat.

Once you're in the "hurt locker" (which may include obesity, diabetes, cancer, uncontrolled high blood pressure, and other diseases of lifestyle), it can take a long "ladder" to climb out. That "ladder" may include drastic changes in your diet combined with getting more exercise. It may also include botanicals, biologicals, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and even surgery.

You might even shorten your life. If your goal is to enjoy your life, your children, and (hopefully) your grandchildren, you may want to avoid the "hurt locker". Especially the "ultimate hurt locker".

There have been many natural disasters, including earthquakes, tornados and hurricanes. While devastating, none can compare to the devastation done by the SAD (Standard American Diet). Sadly, every eighteen minutes, four Americans die from the food they eat.

The ambition of McDon's is to provide you with exceptionally good information that can help you to easily avoid the "hurt locker", and if you're already in there, to help you climb out. That's it. No preaching (although pointing out simple facts may sound like that), no attempts to control your life, just good information, alternatives and suggestions.

Don't pass the salt.

Reducing salt intake by just 6 percent, in the USA, would prevent an estimated 327,892 strokes and 306,137 heart attacks, save about $22.4 billion and would increase quality-adjusted life years by 1.3 million.

Confessions of a saltaholic.

The best way to reduce salt in your diet is to do it gradually. I quit "cold turkey" by switching over to a no-sodium diet (no added salt). The first few days were brutal, I thought my tongue had been removed. Now, I can't handle food with any salt on it.

One nugget short of a happy meal.

Weight Watchers has now endorsed Chicken McNuggets as a "healthy meal" in New Zealand, where McDonald's restaurants will begin carrying the Weight Watchers logo on several menu items. This decision may seem bizarre and inexplicable, but I'm sure it involved some McCash. Weight Watchers has now become the laughing stock of the health world, where nutrition and weight loss experts normally don't use "McDonald's fast food" and "weight loss" in the same sentence. "Weight watching" as in, watch your weight grow larger by the day.

A "weight watch" is sort of like a "tornado watch" or a "tsunami watch." You keep your eyes peeled and wait for something disastrous to happen: Such as ballooning to 300 pounds while engaging in unhealthy eating McHabits based on snarfing down meat parts from factory-farmed cows raised in bovine concentration camps that might accurately be called "Cowschwitz" (instead of Cow Farms).

In the glaring light of the corporate-sponsored sick-care insanity that passes for medical advice these days, the idea that eating at McDonald's will make you lose weight doesn't seem as insane as it really should.

For a way out of the insanity, look to the "Green Arches" (McDon's). There, we will help you sort out the bad advice from the good advice.

An industry filled with scams and shams.

The food industry has performed brilliantly in instilling its images in the public consciousness. More people in the world recognize Ronald McDonald than any celebrity, political figure, or spiritual leader.  More people know the word Coca-Cola than any word except OK.

This has resulted in food addictions, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension (high blood pressure) on a scale never seen before in history. In other words, too many people eat too many harmful fats, sugars and salt.

We live in a world where corporate promotional lies are disgusting at best, and criminal at worst. We're told that psychiatric drugs will make you happy, that chemotherapy will make you healthy and that eating at McDonald's will make you lose weight. We're told that sugary junk drinks will give you "energy", that toxic vaccines are necessary for your immune system to work correctly and that buying silly pink-ribbon products will somehow cure cancer.

Look to the "Green Arches" for the right information". The right information will set you free. Free from the scams and shams of the food industry. Armed with the right information, you will be able to make better health and nutrition decisions for yourself, your family, your community and your planet.

McCancer.

While you're waiting for McDon's to launch, go ahead and visit the individually tailored Web site, "Cancer Center Recipes Just for You". It features delicious recipes developed by Graham Kerr, TV's "Galloping Gourmet" and leading advocate for healthy eating. The Web site also contains several hundred video and audio clips of Graham preparing the dishes. It's available at McCancer.

Super Size Me.

Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American Independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day time period (in 2003) during which he eats only McDonald's food.

When the film begins, Spurlock is in physically above average shape according to his personal trainer.

At the end of the film, (30 days later) the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ pounds, had a 13% BMI (Body Mass Increase), a cholesterol level of 230, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation to his liver.

It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment. His girlfriend Alexandra, a vegan chef, began supervising his recovery with her "detox diet," which became the basis for her book, The Great American Detox Diet.

A food revolution.

First lady, Michelle Obama launched her “Let’s Move” campaign the second week of February, 2010 to highlight, and hopefully help remedy the current childhood obesity epidemic.

A billion hours ago, human life appeared on earth. A billion minutes ago, Christianity emerged. A billion Coca-Colas ago was yesterday morning. There are 10 teaspoons of sugar in every 12 ounce can of Coke (this is equivalent to 20 sugar cubes). Drinking one Coke a day, instead of an equivalent amount of water, for a full year would cause you to gain 18 pounds.

If you think epidemic sounds a little too dramatic, then consider this: It is estimated that one out of every three children in the United States is obese. As they age, other diseases of lifestyle may kick in: Diabetes, Heart Disease and Hypertension (High Blood Pressure), all of which can either shorten their lifespan and/or decrease the quality of it.

In the video below, British Chef, Jamie Oliver, (one of Don Cook's favorite celebrity Chefs) delivers an impassioned plea for America (and the world) to embrace a healthy food movement. He was recently given the $100,000 TED prize.

Our wish for everone is pretty much the same as Jamie's: "To help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child (and their parents) about food, inspire families to cook again (or serve raw foods), and empower people everwhere to fight obesity.

Following are our suggestions for helping to prevent childhood obesity:

• Be persistent in offering your children new, fresh and nutritious foods.
• Don't berate your children about their weight.
• Whenever possible, involve your children in food preparation (just like Alton Brown does).
• Require your children to do at least one hour of physical activity a day (90 minutes a day is better for lowering weight).
• Restrict the amount of time your children spend in front of a TV or Game Console (or better yet, require one minute of activity for each minute of entertainment).
• Avoid all sugar sweetened beverages. Use 100% lime, lemon, cranberry or grapefruit juice sweetened with Stevia and add some filtered water (or no-sodium seltzer water, if they like the bubbles).
• Limit Fructose (less fruit and fruit juices and more vegetables and vegetable juices). If you use fruit juices, add healthy greens and pure water (or ice), and blend to make a Green Smoothie.