Egg McMuffin Topples Whole Foods Boycott

The problem is the home-made Egg McMuffins. Organic, cage-free eggs are not a dime dozen but can be had for under $3 a dozen in most Boulder stores. American cheese -- actually not as unhealthy as you think if you get it with reduced fat -- is required on an Egg McMuffin as is the bacon (uncured, low sodium) that is an item, and smell, of great contention in our house. I can get those anywhere. The problem is the muffin. For years, we have been using whole wheat Whole Foods English muffins. The whole wheat a concession to the Michael Pollan acolyte who lives in the house. For some reason, the child who can detect and reject the smallest amount of whole wheat in any product actually ate these muffins with relish. Who knew that an English muffin would require me to temporarily end my Whole Foods boycott?

First I tried Thomas' English Muffins -- the gold standard. I had no idea this kid would notice a difference in the muffin -- not exactly the most flavorful part of an Egg McMuffin. But he noticed and said it ruined the entire thing. Several tries later -- white, whole wheat, sourdough, store-brand, national-brand -- nothing has worked. (Parenting coaches would tell me to that he should eat what is served or make his own breakfast; nutritionists would tell me the entire thing is an abomination and that it should have never been served in the first place. My motherly prerogative is to ignore these voices).

This week I will venture back to Whole Foods for just this one item. I am not boycotting Whole Foods to make a dent in their profits. My former $600 a month habit is irrelevant to their economic health. I am boycotting Whole Foods to remind myself that we each need to make sacrifices to remember what is important. In my case, real health care reform is important. Not because my family of four pays more than $13,000 a year in premiums for a plan that has large deductibles, requires significant co-payments and does not cover preventive care. But because my family can afford to spend 25% of my salary on medical and dental costs and we know that many others cannot.

My family can afford to shop at Whole Foods but knows it is a fallacy that eating good foods alone will remove the need for a public option. My husband, who has been running for more than 40 years and watching his diet for at least that long, is willing to make sacrifices I won't -- he will forgo certain foods in the quest to keep his cholesterol in the right range and takes the vitamins and supplements that are de rigueur among the health conscious. He still can't get his cholesterol low enough because of his genetics (his doctor father dead at 50 of a massive coronary in the hospital he had built). So my husband can do everything within his power (and my willingness to cook wild salmon three nights a week) and he still should take statins and get annual stress tests (neither of which is inexpensive). Tell my mother, aunts and cousins that eating more organic apples would have kept them cancer-free. No amount of Whole Foods groceries would have changed the courses of their diseases.

I wish John Mackey, Whole Foods CEO, had not decided to publish his health care opinion in the Wall Street Journal because once I read it I knew I had to take my own little stand. I wish my kid would eat another brand of muffins. But he did and he won't.

I could stop making home-made Egg McMuffins altogether but I am not a believer in having others suffer (even trivially) for my choices and the rest of his diet pretty much follows the Boulder guidelines of healthfulness.

I could ask my teenager or my neighbor to pick up the muffins but that seems worse than doing it myself. I will walk in to Whole Foods and grab those muffins and marvel at the beautiful produce and remember that we all need to make sacrifices and hope that real health care reform passes soon. Because whether or not my kid eats Egg McMuffins he might need it.

Follow Anne Z. Boxer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/annezlang

Comments

[conniptionfit]

My Dad used to say: "I will defend your right to say anything, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with it!" Mr Mackey is, of course, allowed to have his own opinion, and say so, even if many others disagree with him. Two other points are valid, however. Mackey was allowed to state his opinions to the vast audience of the New York Times opinion page. A privilege that was extended to him by virtue of the wealth and fame he has accrued as a result of his job as CEO of Whole Foods. A privilege not extended to the average customer of the store. Therefore, Mackey was expressing an opinion on behalf of the store. Whole foods customers have every right and reason to object to Mackey expressing his opinion AS the CEO of Whole Foods. Whole Foods customers are often folks who have reasons other than purely business reasons for shopping there, ranging from an environmentalists' commitment to organic farming principles to good treatment of employees. So they stated their opinion in the only way they had left.

[confidance government]

I read Mackey's op-ed and I found nothing in it warranting a boycott. He had a series of proposals to improve health care that he believed would be effective given his libertarian philosphy.

I can't believe people would be so dense as to flagellate someone for their opinions and political leanings. What did he do to deserve your boycotting of his business, except that you don't agree with his economic philosophy?

Also, what points specifically in his op-ed did you disagree with? I found a few of his proposals to be quite reasonable, such as removing inter-state barriers to competition among insurance companies & having more choice. I am guessing you have one choice, the insurance your employer provides.

[Anne Z. Boxer - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for taking the time to read both my blog and Mr. Mackey's opinion.. My point was that my boycott had less to do with Mackey's position then it is a reason to remind myself, in a tangible way, that we need to make sacrifices to achieve certain goals.

There are things in Mr. Mackey's opinion piece that I agree with - inter-state compeitition and tort reform being two of them - and things I find offensive - that if we all take personal responsibility for our food intake then we will liive healthfully everafter and the idea that if people can make contributions on their tax forms we will have money to pay for the uninsured.

And you are right. I work for a small business. We have one insurance provider. We can opt out and buy our own insurance but the costs would be much greater and the number of pre-existing conditions they would not cover would make a policy of limited value. Having a tax break for personal health insurance would not make a difference in my case.

[confidance government]

Thank you for your well though out response, I just have met a whole host of people that are boycotting without even having ever read the original WSJ piece, and I find their level of venom & hostility towards Mackey, who put his ideas out there, incredible, especially considering that many of these people have never bothered to write an op-ed in a local paper or post their proposals on their blog.

In the end I think punishing somebody solely due to their honestly held beliefs (political­/religious­) is immoral (especially when you consider that Mackey won't suffer nearly as much as the employees of Whole foods due to any decrease in sales), but I also respect that we live in a country where we have the freedom to make that choice.

If Mackey had used immoral or illegal methods to advance his point of view, I would have a very different opinion, but he actually tried to add something to the debate, even if his proposals were misguided in some cases.

[cedy]

Thomas makes the gold standard?
Hardly, it's Bays that make the gold standard.

I too can detect whole whear in anything , it doesn't bother me, unless I eat a product that usually doesn't have it in it.

Whole wheat pasta -- yuck city.

Whole wheat english muffins, ralphamania

Whole wheat toast-- yes please.

I find the whole foods boycott stupid, people say stupid things all the time and I prefer having a whole foods in the neighbohood. Whole foods is a public compay and if your boycotting it, all your doing is hurting the stock owners. The benefit of having it around far outweighs stupid remarks from a person that really doesn't have much control over the company anyway.