Are McDonald's Food Healthy? from a health, hygiene and nutritional Perspective
Edit
Sorry for the bland question and my English.
What I'm trying to say is, strictly McDonald's burgers, not fries and Coke, since they're universally not healthy.
Also, when compared to other food options, such as Italian, Chinese, and other carbs heavy options that are wildly accessible, McDonald's burgers are relatively healthier?
That's cool. But yea it's the same amount of sugar as normal white bread. 5g per 100g
McDonald's ingredients
White bread
McDonald's buns being high in sugar appears to be something people see online and repeat from what I can tell.
@Herbse: When you are eating a bun thats 50% carbs anyway its odd that people get hung up about the few grams of sugar in it. The sauce would be a significantly higher contributor to the sugar content. The ~50grams of sugar in the drink often bundled even more so.
@Duff5000: Agreed. It's the chips and drink that's the killer for health.
But that's what makes takeaway so good 😭
@Herbse: Ah fair enough, yeah an old wives tail indeed. So what makes them unhealthy when compared to burgers from say Grill’d?
@Herbse: Seems like that doesn’t it. Maybe the ingredients are slightly healthier 🤷🏽♂️ Either way it’s all about moderation!!
"did someone say KFC?"
If you want a burger and worried about health make it yourself. Its so easy to buy some lean patties and healthy normal rolls (not sugar filled burger buns) from the supermarket and thrown on some lettuce, tomato and some beetroot and you've got something way better than a maccas burger.
did this last night…had double patties too as there was a fair bit of meat left. it was a glorious struggle finishing the damn things
White bread buns are still mostly carbs either way. The teaspoon of sugar i doubt is going to make much difference.
If anything there may be more carbs in a normal roll as they tend to be much thicker.
Realistically most of eat way too much carbs via wheat.
There's quite a few fancy buns (Brioche) that I cant eat and a surprisingly good bun replacement is lettuce! Not too many carbs there.
I thought brioche buns were very high in sugar. They taste like dessert to me.
@us3rnam3tak3n: Just checked on the Woolworths page. While the brioche had more sugar (10% vs 1%) they both were 50% carbs overall. Carbs via flour or carbs sugar, take your pick i guess. There isn't a huge difference between the two which is surprising.
The egg, milk and butterfat in brioche is probably doing most of the cake taste.
Bread = healthy
Beef = healthy
Tomatoes= healthy
Lettuce = healthy
Hamburger with all those ingredients = unhealthy..
If you don't over do it with the deep fried potato sticks and high sugar drinks then there's nothing unhealthy about it as part of a balanced diet with other foods.
McDonald's, HJ, KFC burgers = unhealthy
Grill'd and other gourmet burgers = healthy
Really?
"fast food" = "junk food"
Sugary white bread isn't healthy and the sauces are loaded with sugar too. That's why people get hooked on the stuff.
McDonald's buns have the same amount of sugar as any other bread. 5grams. Keep repeating this claim that take away buns are full of sugar when it's the same amount as any white loaf bun per 100g
All sauces whether it's in your pasta, with your steak or anything has salt and sugar. Unavoidably if you want something called flavour.
I'm not advocating to eat Maccas daily and be healthy. But it's also not the death trap that people claim because "healthy alternative" brands label it as so, to sell their own stuff which is much the same.
The obvious has already been stated, moderation is the key.
Too many bananas can be unhealthy for you.
try convincing a monkey of that
Funnily enough, just had a quick look and "Wild monkeys never encounter bananas at all ever unless they are around human habitation where bananas are or have been planted".
https://www.businessinsider.com/wild-monkeys-do-not-eat-bana…
wtf are you talking about….??? see monkey, see bananas…its always been this way!!
I've never seen an unhealthy monkey!!
Monkey meat is 100% healthier than beef…
Wait, what are we talking about again?
I eat maccas once or twice a month and my weight and blood test is in normal range. I’ll say MacDonald is healthy enough.
Its not as bad as the pop culture rhetoric makes it out to be but fast food burgers aren't that great either. The buns are heavy on sugar, the meat patty is heavy on oils & salt & the amount of fibre is effectively nothing. Overall the burgers are ok but not great from a macros angle. That said any cheap meat patty & bun is going to be just as average.
Eating out at any place that is relatively cheap is going to have similar constraints. Sugar is good for extending shelf life & flavour enhancer. Oil is useful for cooking quickly & most cheaper dining options are low on fibre & use carbs (bread, rice, pasta, batter etc) as filler to extend the meal.
The best option if you are looking for healthy fast food is to avoid the options that use carbs/starch to extend the meal. Chinese with lots of oily battered meat, Italian with lots of pasta, any meal with lots of potato or rice to bulk it out are all going to tilt further towards unhealthy.
Hygiene is equivalent to any place you eat out. They adhere to regulations to keep out of trouble, which is usually enough to keep things acceptable. There isn't a food establishment on earth where apathy isn't constantly eroding the food safety practices kept there.
the occasional hit won't kill you but it aint healthy, too much sugar salt and fat in the burgers.
they're very healthy, my doctor said i should eat it at least once a week to keep myself fit and strong! 💪🏻
As long as you get a Diet Coke with the meal it’s all good.
My daughter worked at Maccas 15 years ago and she hated when a person weighing 130kg plus would order 2 large hamburgers, nuggets, and fries and would always ask for a Diet Coke,
She would say to me you do you think the Diet Coke is making much difference with the amount of food you’re about to eat.
Considering the coke is the worst part of the entire meal because of the sugar content, it 100% does make a difference.
Coke has a massive amount of sugar, a large coke is a couple of hundred calories, not something to be sneezed at. regardless plenty of people drink diet coke or pepsi max for the taste not to avoid the sugar, coke tastes like drinking sugar water, it is so incredibly sickly sweet.
Eat everything else besides the buns
McDonald's has gone out of their way to improve their food over the years, removing added sugar from their buns, cooking in vegetable oil,making salads available as an alternative to fries and providing up front nutrition information for all their products.
The public see none of this and McDonald's remains the poster child of "unhealthy" food.
Their burgers are high in fat. So are dumplings. So are kebabs. They are not particularly unhealthy, the same as other takeaway.
From a hygiene perspective, probably one of the cleanest places you can eat at. When was the last time you heard of someone with food poisoning from a McDonald's? Think about how many customers they serve.
From a nutrition perspective, there are no vegetables
burger patties are healthy, salad is healthy, bread/buns are healthy
No, not really.
People saying "it's healthy if you only eat it twice a month" misunderstand the meeting of 'healthy'.
It's not them misunderstanding it, it's you misunderstanding it.
Perfectly fine to eat twice a month, as already stated moderation is the key. "Healthy" is the entirety of the food you consume over time not just the individual foods themselves. You can eat your vegetables, proteins etc throughout the month and then have a meal from maccas and you're not unhealthy just because of that one meal.
Perfectly fine to eat everyday too if you only have one meal a day.
Isn't that what the supersize me guy did?
No.
/thread
yes
/thread
When I have maccas I have problems getting hard for a week. I go into limp mode
Maybe it prefers Hungry Jacks?
jeez, you can look this up
a 1/4 pounder is 417 calories and 12g saturated fat
as a comparator, a cornetto is about 200 calories and 6 g saturated fat
honey prawns are 660 calories and about 4-6g saturated fat per 100g (which isnt very much)
1 KFC drumstick is 130 calories and 1.5g sat fat.
100g of mince (80/20) is 250 calories and 2g sat fat
Compared to my burgers where I cook the beef and bacon then cook the onion, tomatoes and pickles in the bacon/beef grease then layer on a pile of sauce and cheese and cram the entire thing into a massive bun?
Yes, it’s healthy.
I also put lettuce though. It’s basically a salad.
Minimalist salad. It's all the rage nowadays. The less you get the more you pay
consume with moderation
As long as my maccas app exists I'll say no because it's practically almost free.
Everybody has a choice: I was asked by Tripadvisor to rate Macces.
So I wrote on their site: Perfect meeting place serving no other purpose.
So I got a lifetime ban on Tripadvisor. Do I care? I can still find real food!
If you are looking for a healthy food option I would not think of McDonalds as up there on the list nor most fast food outlets. Those stores process foods to make them what people crave with fats and sugars, essentially energy dense foods. They are addictive, it’s why they have promotions such as $1 fries or sundaes. It’s not out of generosity, it’s to make you purchase other items.
In an evolutionary sense our bodies aren’t able to have frequent intakes of these highly energy dense foods especially without the lifestyle to burn those calories. The net result is obesity, diabetes and the flow on health issues. More so with certain ethnic groups such as south Asian and Australian Aboriginals.
The entire blame can’t be placed on the fast food outlets either, customers should inform themselves what they are eating with regards to caloric intake, sugar, sodium, fibre etc. Ultimately it’s the consumer who decides what they purchase. Post like this highlight the issue, some people aren’t aware how to work out what is healthy food. Personally I think this should be taught in schools if not done so already.
When I was in school the healthy food pyramid said eat lots of bread and pasta. Hopefully that's changed now.
It's still just as bad.
They teach the "food plate" now.
https://www.myplate.gov/eat-healthy/what-is-myplate
Grains are still the biggest group.
Fruits are a major group.
A huge portion of dairy, which you are encouraged to choose "low fat" options.
Someone who is overweight will not lose weight following these guidelines.
https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines/australian-guide-…
Yeah, the Aussie equivalent looks to have the same proportions as the old pyramid
Serious question, why can't we post screenshots of MacDonald's public website? I makes no sense. How can that give rise to any legal liability for the poster and OzB itself?
Because they employ lawyers and to justify their costs they say hey OzB are infringing on your intellectual property rights. People can't just use your intellectual property. A website is public facing, and it's only for free public access or use on their website and not for the public to reuse and post elsewhere.
Unless its transformative. Eg, if I take a picture with the MacDonald's logo in the background, they can't ask me to take it down from my Twitter or any social media.
By the same logic, someone should just take a picture of the MacDonald's website and post that image here, that should be allowed.
As soon as you see the excess fat/oil of the burgers then you’ll probably never eat it again in your life.
That's pretty much what you get cooking burgers and sausages, it shouldn't really surprise anyone. Sausages are ~ 1/5th fat! Doesn't stop people eating them.
The carbs in the sauce and bun should be a bigger concern.
A little bit of fat isn't the end of the world - as long as your total calorie intake is ok.
You can make the burgers healthy by not eating the buns.
Or the sauce. And adding some soluble fibre.
Not sure about healthy, as you can see all their nutritional content and all the ingredients they use. It has a lot of bad stuff in it.
Is it better than say Chinese? Thai? Indian? Pizza etc, well, those guys don't provide a guide with all their ingredients.
So eating Macca's, you're more informed about the shit going in your body.
$4 shake-and-win HJ Whopper without mayo FTW (healthish, inexpensive takeaway burger).
Just look at their mascot leader Ronald.
You know what they say big feet, big…
shoes?
The salt and sugar content is too high.
Toasted sandwich and salad would be ok but the salad wouldn’t be very fresh. Burgers no.
"Final Note'? That's it, comments are closed!
So here is how its incredibly unhealthy for me based on my personal circs.
I typically get 2 burgers - a "smaller" burger like a cheese burger and a big burger like a Double Big Mac. I'll get regular fries too.
That an epic 1300kcal meal. This is like > 50% of my planned dietary calories.. and what really sucks is that after such a behemoth intake of calories, I'll be hungry again in 2-3 hours. If I just have a regular meal with a single burger, I don't even feel full.
I can very clearly see why food like this is causing an massive obesity epidemic around the world.
Tl;dr
High calories + shit tier satiety = garbage food.
I often go to McDonalds in food court for free water so there's that
It's difficult to get sufficient nutrition from McDonalds food, without also consuming excess calories.
If you stick to the 'healthier' options, burgers, salads etc, and don't touch the fries and coke, then it may be doable… but I doubt it.
Just thought given the burgers have shrunk in size at Macca's .. it is now" less unhealthy"
Why do Macca’s employees always put the napkins at the bottom of the bag, then dump fries and hash browns on them, making them useless?
I just get the 1/4 pounder patties and Aussie jack cheese. I usually get 3 to 6 of each just stacked up in a box depending on how hungry I am. They don't cook with any vegetable/seed oils or anything so I'd say it's pretty healthy as it's literally just meat and cheese (yes, both are healthy). When you start adding the buns, fries, sauces, coke etc that's when it gets bad.
I didn’t claim bread didn’t have sugar in it. I said there’s are full of sugar, more so than most breads.