September 29, 2007

From the Way Back Machine

DisneyWithDiabetes started life as a blog. When we had the chance to move it to Deb's AllEarsNet.com we were happy to do it. We figured more T1 parents would see it there and the more people who see it the more it can help.

When it moved it left some of it more edgy lobby Disney for some change posts behind, so as to comply with the friendly world of AllEarsNet. Like I said we were happy to move.

Well these little gems are some of what was left behind:

I don't know if Mark is still the guy but what the heck feel free to write anyway:




Update I
I went to a Disney Vacation Club annual meeting and stood up and asked why they couldn't provide carb counts. Two very nice senior suits swore they would get back to me. Still waiting to hear back years and a few letters later. I stopped holding my breath.

Update II
July 2007

We attended the Children With Diabetes Friends For Life Conference at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort In July '07. Every food, beverage, meal, snack and even condiment served at the convention by Disney catering had a little placard by it listing the nutrition information and serving size.

The US Surgeon General took the time in his talk on health literacy to comment on how useful and valuable this information is not only to diabetics but as part of the very health literacy every American should seek out.

Kudos to Disney Catering. They impressed the US Top Doc on the nutrition info they provided. Yeah Catering! (Maybe you can help out the CMs in the regular food service departments!)

By the way I wonder how Mr. Surgeon General did in the parks. I saw him walking around Magic Kingdom. He is type 1 too, so he carb counts like the rest of us.

Update III
Also July 2007, Just after the conference.

Nutrition Information Books at Counter Service
We heard a lot about these and with high expectations based on typical Disney execution were anxious to see how they help address the dietary need for type 1 diabetics to count carbohydrates.



They don't.



You typical McDonald's does a better job of making dietary information available than Disney does with any of the nutrition notebooks we saw. In fact McD's put it on the back of the place mat on your tray.

I asked for these books at a lot of different counter service places. About half the people I asked had no idea what I was talking about. The other half? - There was typically one book per counter service eatery. Finding it was a battle.

When found they were poorly organized (if organized at all) bad photo copies of vendor wrappers and packaging that have no constant layout, data content or presentation bundled into a black looseleaf notebook. Some have section tabs and a few of those actually have the contents collected into the sections the tabs identify.

Your 5th grader would get a F for this in health class.

Clearly the goal was to collect information on ingredients for allergy not nutrition information and then shove it in a book that they hope to god nobody will look at because the books are embarrassing. There are the odd food nutrition labels here or there where they could find something to copy but nowhere near all food items on the menu have full nutrition information.
I would have been impressed if a hot dog cart on a city street had this kind of information but this is the Walt Disney Corporation. In the words of the Pixar villain Syndrome, Lame! Lame! Lame! Lame!



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