Lesson Eighteen

Section One: News in Brief

Tapescript A
I. Much of the flood-plagued Midwest got more today. Flood rain
waters have forced more than 2,000 families out of their homes.
Illinois has suffered heavily with 4 deaths and $ 30,000,000 damage flooding.

There are also reports that one man was killed
today in Oklahoma when his car was swept off a bridge. A

partially- red dam was in Wisconsin and remains standing but
leaking, and officials are fearful more rain could cause it to burst.
v-e 4
, @14 @,@
2.. A French television cameraman reported kidnapped in Lebanon
on Sunday has been freed according to the French Foreign Ministry.
A spokesman says Jean Marc Srucie was released today in the sout
ern suburbs of Beirut and has returned to the Christian east sector
the city. No group claimed responsibility for his kidnapping and the
Foreign Ministry did not provide any details about his captivity or
his return.

3. @eVi er president y
Carter during dedication ceremonies for Mr. Carter's presidential li-
brary near Atf nta. President Reagan, who soundly defeated Carter
in the 1980 election, said there was no need to lav differences
between the two men: "Our very differences attestt@hegreatness of
our nation, for I can think of no other rth where two
political leaders could disagree so wide gether in mu-
tual respect.' Mr Reagan went on to sident Carter
graced the White House with his passio commitment.
The library was dedicated on Mr. Carter' sixty-second birthday.

And President Reagan advised his predecessor that life begins at
seventy.

Section Two: News in Detail

Tapescript
There was more rain in the Midwest today, where several states
are facing rising flood waters. Thousands of people in Illinois and
Wisconsin have been forced from their homes. And in Oklahoma,
the State National Guard was called upon to rescue - stranded
homeowners who had been cut off and trapped. In northeastern
Illinois, the floods follow 5 straight days of heavy rain. Cheryl
Colralie of member station, WBEZ, reports that the governor of
Illinois was on the scene with a promise for the people:
'They're coming. They're coining. They're on the way." During
his tour of the damaged areas, Illinois governor, James Thompson,
tried to buoy the spirits of weary residents, alerting them that muc
coveted sandbags were on the way. Three northern and western
counties near Chicago, hard hit by storms, have seen the burgeoning
Foy and Desplaines Rivers spill into their streets, their gvages and,
ultimately, their homes. 'Pi@ ii(4. @ li
Residents and authorities had bee@ inning their hopes
sandbagging. Public works trucks line up to oa san onto their
flatbeds. The US Army Corps of Engineers with state officials today
are distributing a quarter million of the bags to communities stricken
or threatened by ever expanding flood waters. But for some
residents, even the sandbags have failed.
'The water, from flowing this way, went through and by the
pressure finally knocked the sandbags over. And, within a matter of
a minute, every wall came down, and I was standing in water this
deep.'
State emergency officials say the state could suffer $ 30' 000,000
in damages and what is one of Illinois' worst flooding disasters.
Most residents have been trying to tough it out, but rescue worker,
Dave Besh, says that's changing-.

"I know there's people calling up now that refused evacuation
yesterday, that are calling here now, getting hold of our trucks ver-
bally because their phones are out, that want to be evacuated now
and they're trying to get the boats to get them out of there.'
The floods have driven more than 2,000 people from their
homes. They have also forced road closures and businesses and
schools to shut down. In Gurney, Illinois, the elementary school
classrooms sit under 5 feet of water and Gurney Deputy Fire Chief,
Tim McGrath, says there's little that can, be dpne.
'We know we're going to d e.4@f@nowthat we're going to
sustain more loss. There's no wav kf c
there's no controllingthe river.'
Today, Governor Thompson decl
community state disaster areas, setting up the first step for Federal
help. The rainy weather forecast is not of much comfort, and some
weary workers and homeowners say the only thing left to do now is
wait until the flooding passes and put everything back together
again.
For National Public Radio, I'm Cheryl Coralie in Chicago.

Section Three: Special Report

Tapescript
Fast food restaurants have made some Americans rich. It's been
more than 30 years since the first McDonald"S opened, and this na-
tion's eating habits have been transformed by fast food. Today, we
spend over $ 50,000,000,000 a year on Whopper's Big Macs and the
Colonel's Fried Chicken. The key is convenience. The ignored factor
is nutrition. That's something Michael Jacobson cares about. He's

written a Fast F,3od Guide to tell consumers what's under the
As far as hamburgers go, Jacobson says one chain's burger is as
good nutritional as the next.
'Each chain has a variety of hamburgers: singles, doubles, tri-
ples; in some restaurants, cheeseburger, baconburger, mushroom
burgers, and generally, when they start gussying up the hamburger
with the toppings, you're going to get ore fat, more salt, and less
nutritious product.'
'So you think you shouldn't be so concerned with which chain
it is you're eating at as far as the burger, but rather whether you're
getting the simple, naked burger, or the burger with all the fillings on
it. That's where a lot of the fat comes in.'
' For instance, at Wendy's, you can just get a regular little
hamburger, which has about 4 teaspoons of fat, or you can get then
triple cheeseburger with 15 teaspoons of fat, and that's a tremendous
difference. I think the message for hamburgers and many other fast
foods is to keep it simple, keep it small.'
"Is the meat that's used in most of thesechains fattier than what
I'd buy if I went to the butcher and bought meat?'
'We actually had these meats analyzed, and we found they were
pretty average. It was an ordinary grade hariiburger meat for most of
the chains. You can get much leaner meat at the grocery store, or if
you get ground round. If you want red meat and you want to eat at a
fast food restaurant, I recommend going for the roast beef. All roast
beef was leaner than all hamburger meat in the tests we conducted.
"Now this does differ from chain to chain because, for instance,
the Roy Roger's roast beef, you have listed as having 2% fat whereas
Arby's roast beef, 13%.'
'The differences in roast beef are really remarkable. Arby's and
Hardy's have 7 times as much fat as Roy Roger's. Also, Roy Roger's
had real roast beef, whereas Arbys has kind of a composite roast
beef, where the beef is chipped afid scrunched together with sodium

......

are not whole pieces of chicken. Rather it's compo-
,;ite chicken made with ground-up chicken skin held together with
sodium phosphate and salt. ft's a relatively fatty product, about 5
teaspoons of fat for a small order of McNuggets. The competition
at, say, Burger King, which makes chicken tenders, uses real chicken.
And the fat content, partly because it doesn't have -round tip cliick-
en skin in it, is much lower, about 2 teaspoons for a small order of
chicken tenders."
"Chicken is a food that is highly recommended by people who
are very calorie conscious and are very fat conscious, because it's a
food low in fat. But once you get the chicken and you deep fry it, as
they do at all the fast food chains, is it still a nutritionally good
food?'
"Well, chicken products tend to have less fat than beef products
partly because the fat stays on the outside. If you're getting fried
n, you ought to take off the skin, take off the breading. That's
ere most of the fat, most of the sodium are. So you can turn kind
of a mediocre product into really quite a nutritious product."
st food industry came to you for advice about how they
could nutritionally improve their menus, what would you tell them?'
'Fresh fruit, low-fat diary products, low-fat or skim milk, keep
up those salad bars, baked fish, baked chicken, and that lean roast
beef. It is possible to offer nutritious tasty foods at a fast food res-
taurant, and I hope that the chains are moving in the right direction
with the proliferation of salad, salad bars, and the like."
In Washington, Michael Jacobson, Director of the Center for
Science in the Public Interest.