Doctor Fired Over Doughnuts

Photo: Qfamily, Flickr

If you're a government employee advocating against junk food, don't mess with the doughnuts, especially Dunkin' Donuts. Dr. Jason Newsom, the head of the Bay County Health Department in Panama City, Fla, was recently fired for his controversial messages equating Dunkin' Donuts with death.

It all started innocently enough, according to the Associated Press. Citizens driving by were greeted with electronic sign one-liners such as "Sweet Tea = Liquid Sugar," "Hamburgers = Spare Tire" and "French Fries = Thunder Thighs." No doubt this county's eating habits aren't stellar, 39 percent of all adults were overweight in 2007, and one in four obese. But when Newsom started naming corporate names with "America Dies on Dunkin'" and "Dunkin' Donuts = Death," two local lawyers who owned a Dunkin' Donuts came calling. They knocked on the door of the County Commissioner, who also happens to own a local doughnut shop. Hmm -- wonder if their sugary meeting was fueled by a dozen Dunkin' or a plate of Commish doughnut holes?

Some of Newsom's staff were angry he'd banned the sacred doughnut from department meetings and replaced vending candy bars with peanuts. Cruel. Newsom would probably have a job today if he hadn't messed with the corporate doughnut giant of them all. But he did.

"My method was a little provocative and controversial," he told the AP, "but there wasn't a person in Bay County who wasn't talking about health and healthy eating."

Now it's your chance to make the right Dunkin' Decision for your waistline.