Outrage in one of the world's healthiest towns as McDonald's gets approval to open up a restaurant

By Daniel Bates

Last updated at 11:29 PM on 19th December 2011


It is one of the healthiest towns in the world with a life expectancy well above 80.
But the residents of Loma Linda in California have been left outraged and in fear for their children after McDonald’s was given permission to open up a restaurant.
Locals fear the arrival of the fast food chain will mean their boys and girls will embrace a fatty diet of burgers and fries rather than follow their virtuous example.

Health conscious: Many of the residents of Loma Linda in California are vegetarian 

Half of the 23,000 residents in Loma Linda are Seventh-day Adventists, or Protestant Christians who prize healthy living and are normally vegetarian.

They have banned smoking in almost any public place in the city, only certain businesses can sell alcohol and meat can be hard to come by.

Saturday is observed as the Sabbath and no work is done while locals spend time with their families.

Loma Linda has approved fast food restaurants in the past, although McDonald’s appears to have a significance beyond just a locally-run burger joint.
The company went through the tough approval process and to the dismay of some, it got the green light.
Wayne Dysinger, a physician and public health professor in the preventive medicine department at Loma Linda University’s School of Medicine, told the New York Times that he was worried about the influence of pester power.

Neat and tidy: Residents are concerned the town's children will embrace an unhealthy lifestyle 

He said: 'We know from research that if a school is near a fast-food restaurant, the kids there are more likely to be obese.
'We will never eliminate unhealthy choices, and pretty much everyone has an unhealthy treat once in a while.
'I am going to drive by that intersection every day and it’s fairly likely that they will say "Oh Daddy, can we stop there’ more often. Why do we need to encourage that?'
Loma Linda was first settled by American Indians and given the name Guachama, or 'plenty to eat.'
The first white settlers arrived along with the railroads in the early 1800s and it was founded as Mound City.
It quickly became a place for Seventh-day Adventists when the church acquired a former hotel in 1905 and transformed it into a sanitarium that eventually became part of Loma Linda University.

Green light: McDonald's now has permission to open up in the ultra-healthy town

In July one of the city’s residents celebrated her 104th birthday with a parade through the main street with her granddaughter.
Edna Mae Winegar said the secret to living a long life was that her mother was a vegetarian and that she lived simply.
She also saw the value in hard work well into her 70s and 80s would be out for hours each day harvesting crops.
Dan Buettner, an author and healthy living advocate, told the New York Times that Loma Linda was one of just four places in the world with a high number of people who routinely live past 100.
He said: 'You have to realise how easy it is to be healthy there, you don’t even have to think about it and it’s the default choice.
'Your social network is all concerned about the same thing. They are really trying to preserve the culture that has been established for a really long time.'
The city’s mayor Rhodes Rigsby added that he did not think that government should be stopping people from eating meat - or junk food - if they wanted.
However, he did say he would back a city-wide vote to ban fast food restaurants entirely as a way of dealing with the issue.
He said: 'I don’t think we should be getting into the business of legislating vegetarianism.
'If this is something that people are really opposed to, that’s how we should deal with it.'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2076346/Outrage-ultra-healthy-Loma-Linda-McDonalds-gets-approval-open-restaurant.html#ixzz1hSo7XpgG