Post by Frogleg"healthy" selection. BTW, once you add (fried) croutons, dressing, and
cheese, the difference in calories is minimal.
Ah yes, the cheese. There's probably an ounce of shredded cheese on the
speciality salads. Enough for flavour, but nothing more. And I don't think
they give croutons with the speciality salads, or if they do, I never eat
them. The dressing portion is perfectly reasonable given the size of the
salad. It is *not* over dressed by any means, and the dressing itself is
*fine*.
So, in the interest of everyone (including me) to not be talking out their
asses any more, here's the nutritional information for the McDonald's
speciality salads.
For the sake of saving space, I'll only detail a couple of items. (in order
for this table to look right when you view it, you should change your view
to a fixed pitch font like courier, or you can go to the McDonald's website
to see the the nutritional information table there
http://www.mcdonalds.com/countries/usa/food/nutrition/categories/nutrition/index.html).
Bacon
Ranch Ranch Quarter- Medium
Grilled Dressing pounder Fries
Size 10.2 oz 2 oz 6.1 oz 5.2 oz
Calories 270 290 430 450
Total Fat 13 18 21 22
Sat. Fat 5 4.5 8 4
Cholesterol 75 20 70 0
Sodium 830 530 770 290
Carbohydrates 11 4 38 57
Fiber 3 0 3 5
Sugars 4 3 9 0
Protein 28 1 23 6
Vit. A 90 0 0 0
Vit. C 50 0 4 30
Calcium 15 4 15 2
Iron 10 0 25 6
We can assume for the sake of the exercise that people are drinking a diet
drink, and aren't having a dessert, and are satisfied with 11-12 ounces of
food. Let's talk about calories first.
560 for the salad, 880 for the burger and fries. The salad and dressing are
well within the limits for a reasonable dinner. The burger and fries, not
as much (unless you've not eaten much, or eaten only a few calories the
rest of the day, and assuming the recommended 2000 calories a day diet most
adults need).
Alright, how about fats. Anything other than saturated fats are either
beneficial (monounsaturated fats that have a protective effect), or neutral
(polyunsaturated that neither add to cholesterol nor protect from arterial
plaque buildup) fats.
Overall the salad is lower in total fats (31 versus 43). The salad has 9.5
grams of saturated fat, and 21.5 grams of beneficial or neutral fats. The
burger and fries have 12 grams of saturated fat and 31 grams of benefitial
or neutral fats. So the burger and fries are something of a wash, because
you end up with more beneficial fats than the salad, and only marginally
more saturated fats. This rather surprised me, I thought the burger would
be signficantly higher in saturated fats.
For those of us who are diabetics, though (or who are trying to follow a
low carb diet for their own reasons), this is where the salad shines, grams
of carbohydrates.
The salad has 15 total grams, only 12 of which count as effective carbs
(fiber grams don't count as they aren't digested and don't contribute to
blood glucose or overall carb consumption). The burger and fries are a
whopping 95 total grams of carbs, 87 of which are effective carbs.
Though, you can reduce that a fair amount, a quarterpounder bun is around
30 grams of carbs, so if you just don't eat the bun (which lots of people
do and I've done myself), then you're changing the carb counts drastically.
Though there's nothing you can do about the fries, potatoes are just high
carb food.
All in all both meals are relatively nutritious. They aren't "empty
calories" because you *need* calories to live. They also have nutritive
value beyond the fats, as both meals have vitamins and minerals.
The burger and fries are fairly high in fats (though mostly beneficial or
neutral ones), and so they'd blow your "fats budget" if you were shooting
for the "no more than 35 grams of fat a day" that some people recommend.
The salad does that, too, but if you choose a different dressing, or eschew
McDonald's dressing and use your own no-fat ranch on the salad (I do
sometimes bring my own dressing), then the salad is definately the winner
here.
None of this has anything to do with taste (though I find the premium
salads quite tasty, and at least as good as any quick salads I whip up at
home, the burgers are, at best, stomach filler, and not something I could
say I really enjoy), or supporting the massive corporate giant that is
McDonalds, or commenting on anything to do with the global impacts such
operations have.
I just get sick of people acting like eating McDonalds is the same as
eating dirt. It's not. The food has nutritive value, and it's not all evil.
It is possible to eat an actually healthy meal at McDonalds, as with
everything else, it's all about making informed choices instead of just
kneejerking.
--
Siobhan Perricone
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who
cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn,
and relearn." -- Alvin Toffler