Eat fried chicken for the cure?

KFC's move to team up with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure to fight breast cancer has some folks clucking in outrage. The fried chicken chain, purveyor of a food that may contribute to obesity, partnering with the world’s largest breast cancer organization?

"A lot of folks are questioning just how appropriate it is for a fast-food chain that sells, well, not exactly the most healthful food, to partner with a group known globally for helping save women's lives," wrote Erin Allday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The chicken chain is changing the traditional red color of its buckets to pink until the end of May and donating 50 cents for every bucket sold in what’s being billed as the "Buckets for the Cure" campaign. So far, about $1.9 million has been raised, and KFC has set a goal of more than $8 million, according to the Buckets for the Cure Web site.

It’s not, as the San Francisco Chronicle points out, the first time that "junk food" purveyors and organizations that promote wellness have collaborated. Pepsi is financing a program in obesity studies at Yale, McDonald’s is a long-term sponsor of the Olympics, and a program to promote heart and lung health that partnered with Coke earlier this year drew criticism, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

With the KFC and Susan G. Komen collaboration, as blogger Yoni Freedhoff of Weighty Matters points out, consumers who buy the buckets of chicken are likely to also buy fries, gravy and soda, too. "So, in effect, Susan G. Komen for the Cure is helping to sell deep-fried fast food and, in so doing, help fuel unhealthy diet and obesity across America, an odd plan given that diet and obesity certainly impact on both the incidence and recurrence of breast cancer," Freedhoff wrote. And suggested that a possible alternative would have been for KFC to just hand over a check for breast cancer research to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

nydailynews.com