“I couldn’t go to sleep without posting this video. I’m just absolutely furious. ... It’s very seldom that I get furious about something like this. Over the years as I’ve studied this, I’ve become really desensitized to the corporate marketing machine and all the lies, and all the deception. Today just really took the cake.”
These are the passionate words from a video titled “Oprah: Rethink KFC,” posted by Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness (UW), a fast growing natural-minded nutritional counseling forum including a radio show and an expanding YouTube archive.
According to UW, this video had over 30,000 views in just 5 days, ranking 4th in “news and politics” for the week, alongside President Obama. What Croxton speaks so passionately about is the advice that Oprah Winfrey gave viewers on May 5, 2009.
According to UW, Oprah told her audience to eat “healthy” grilled, rather than fried chicken from KFC, and even offered it free to anyone who downloaded a coupon within 24 hours. That’s when the “Oprah Effect” occurred, referring to the mayhem caused by sheer onslaught in demand from an Oprah-promoted item. According to a CNN report on May 8, more than ten million people downloaded that coupon and made their way to KFC. Demand was so overwhelming that KFCs across America ran out of the grilled chicken and had to turn customers away, prompting an official apology and a promised “rain check” by corporate KFC.
Using the “Oprah Effect” to promote a questionably healthy food is exactly what made Croxton so upset. So the “health detective,” as he is called at UndergroundWellness.com, went to KFC’s website and looked up the ingredients for the grilled chicken Oprah was promoting and several ingredients with known health risks, including partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils.
“Obviously,” Croxton harangues, “Oprah did not consult with Dr. Oz before she made this deal, because Dr. Oz would have told her, and actually Oprah should already even know this, that a partially hydrogenated oil is a trans fat and trans fats clearly cause heart disease.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz, director of the Cardiovascular Institute of Columbia University Medical Center, was one of Oprah’s regular guests and consultants.
UnthinkKFC.com claims that “all of your KFC chicken products contain zero grams [of] trans fat per serving,” but their ingredients indicate otherwise. The Food and Drug Administration’s Web site explains that trans fats are created in a process called hydrogenation and can be found in foods made with partially hydrogenated oils. Trans fats increase the shelf life of food products, keeping them from spoiling past their natural limit. When asked to explain why they claim zero trans fats in their product yet list partially hydragenated oil in their ingredient list, they did not respond.
Croxton said he has received many offers since the video. One particular company offered a few hundred thousand dollars for him to be their corporate spokesman.
“Wow!” Croxton said. “This [would] take care of my bills … take away a lot of the problems I have in my life.”
The catch: He would have to make a video publicly apologizing to Oprah and the content of his work would have to be altered to fit the company’s agenda. The company would have control over what he can and can’t say.
“I would have to compromise my integrity,” Croxton said. He attempted writing a public apology for his retraction video, “My Oprah Apology.” But, “I couldn’t bring myself to say ‘I am sorry Oprah,’” he said. “I am not sorry.”
James and Kim are certified nutrition and lifestyle coaches who assist pregnant moms and new parents to achieve optimal health. They can be contacted at FitForBirth@gmail.com or through their websites GetFitForBirth.com and SecretsofPainlessChildbirth.com