McDonald’s left Russia over the Ukraine war. Here’s how it could really punish Putin
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, a who’s who of American brands have responded to domestic consumers angered by Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked aggression by ceasing operations in the country.
No company’s exit captured more headlines than McDonald’s, whose entry there three decades ago was also accompanied by hype.
I understand the rationale of consumers and brands seeking to punish Russia. McDonald’s and its most symbiotic partner, Coca-Cola, sell “happiness” by the meal and can, respectively, so depriving Russians of McFlurrys and 32-ounce Cokes threatens to make their lives less sweet.
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The problem is that the logic is wrong. Denying Russians America’s most popular exports, particularly McDonald’s and Coke, isn’t a punishment. It’s a reward.
Why? Because the deadliest weapon in our arsenal is the standard American diet, also known as SAD — the term epidemiologists use to describe the ultra-processed, nutrient-poor, energy-dense concoction of excess sodium, added sugars and saturated fats that fuels the average American.
The SAD has a penchant for bloating bodies and then bankrupting governments from the inside out. For proof of this weapon’s effectiveness, look no further than our own backyard, where we have tested it on ourselves for several decades.
Six of the 10 states where Americans’ lives are shortest are also in the top 10 for fast food restaurants per capita, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and analytics firm Datafiniti; conversely, six of the 10 states where Americans live longest are also among the 10 with the fewest fast food restaurants per person.
It’s no accident that where fast-food consumption is highest, lives are shortest. Study after study has found that ultra-processed diets — think ready-to-eat, microwaveable foods such as chicken nuggets, snacks such as chocolate bars and potato chips, and soft drinks — cause cascading corporal calamities.
A study of 45,000 adults published by the JAMA Internal Medicine in 2019 and cited by Harvard Medical School “found a direct statistical connection between higher intake of ultra-processed food and a higher risk of early death from all causes, especially cancers and cardiovascular disease.” In fact, “eating processed foods and fast foods may kill more people prematurely than cigarette smoking,” Dr. Joel Fuhrman wrote in a widely cited 2018 report in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.
For further proof that America’s diet is a powerful weapon worth training on our enemies, consider the financial costs of the way we eat. A 2019 study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute found that Americans’ ultra-processed diets created “$50 billion a year in health care costs, attributable to cardiometabolic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.”
But that’s just in the U.S. Public health systems across Asia and Africa are now also buckling under the weight of American fast food. Egypt, Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria — all countries where McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC et al expanded in the 2010s — have experienced epidemics of obesity.
At least until they pulled out of their country, our fast food giants weren’t helping the Russians either. Just ask Putin’s own researchers.
A 2020 report by the Russian Presidential Academy, commissioned to study the effect of fast-food marketing on Russia’s near-American obesity levels, wrote that McDonald’s “predatory marketing” was hooking children early, setting them up for adulthood “obesity and its associated costs.” Its recommendation: Russia’s government should regulate American fast-food companies to save itself.
McDonald’s exit from Russia isn’t making life worse for Russians. It’s doing them a favor.
To truly cripple Putin’s Russia, let’s send Ronald McDonald back to Moscow. And while we’re at it, let’s tell that clown to get out of here.
Max Taves is a lifelong Californian and a journalist who has written for the Wall Street Journal, CBSi-CNET and LA Weekly.
