McDonalds McWrap

I disagree with the statement that fast food is not cheaper than healthy food. Here in US - you can get two for one coupons, super-size free, coupons and discounts. I can feed a hungry group of kids for $12.00. Good luck filling then up on chicken, hummus, salad and veggies. Even good starches. All this will be at least $20.00 and then there are the leftovers and they are hungry in 2 hours and start to snack. Even adults, chicken, fish, lean meats are not cheap. Veggies are out of season and expensive here. The only cheap thing are dried beans and rice.

It costs more to eat healthy. That being said, you can always find good things to eat at fast food places. I agree if you compare these items on their menus to healthy food at home, it is probably just as costly. So... conclusion is... eating healthy is more expensive than junky.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you on this. I've cut over $100 a month off of my grocery bill since we stopped eating so much junk food. I just bought groceries for 2 weeks for 5 people for $183. I buy lean meat, fish, chicken, fresh veggies, fresh fruit, and I get healthy snacks too. My fridge, freezer and cabinets are full. The only thing I might possible have to buy before next payday is some more bread.

It really depends on what you're buying, honestly. I have to agree that if you're in a rush and must go the fast food route....it's $.99 for a McDouble and what, $5.00, for a salad?
Not for or 100% against fast food, just something I wanted to throw out there. I don't eat fast food on the regular, but I don't think it's going to kill me either.

So we all know that fast food isn't exactly the best choice that a person could make.

We all know that it's crappy and bad for you.

We all have a CHOICE as to whether or not we want to eat there. Do I eat at fast food restaurants? Yes. Probably about once a year. Do I know that the burger and fries I'm shoveling into my face isn't the "healthiest" for me? Yup. Do I enjoy it? Hell yeah. I also realize when I go to a non fast food restaurant that the burger I'm eating isn't the best or healthiest for me either but am I going to come on to a message board and post about the evils of fast food, how bad it is for you and how stupid people are for eating it? No. Because it's your choice as to whether or not you want to eat that food.

jonnythan doesn't. he HONESTLY believes it's good for you. blows my mind.

I think his point is that it's pretty much the lesser of two evils and based on what the ingredients are it isn't that bad. He also pointed out that you can make your own, which you thought was crap, right?

lesser of two evils? what's the worse evil?

I think a lot of fast food is cheaper per calorie, but since we don't generally want that many calories anyway it's a false economy.

I saw these images going around tumblr and I was super skeptical because some of their veg and meat seemed really cheap. So I actually sat and went through all the calculations using the UK supermarket Tesco. Right enough, the UK food was more expensive- but so was the burger king. I worked out this meal at something around £22 for the BK and £19 for the Tesco shopping (sadly I don't have the picture on this computer to show you!). Only difference is it was frozen minced beef- not the best quality- because I really had no idea what that sausage-looking package of beef was like. But you could spend that £3 difference on better beef and you're still eating a lot healthier for the money.

I think I'll take my chances with mcdonalds or BK ground beef before I eat that concoction fake burger crap.

Agreed! The ingredient list for those Morningstar Grillers is just as long and scary as the McDonald's Chicken!

TEXTURED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (WHEAT GLUTEN, SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, WATER FOR HYDRATION), EGG WHITES, CORN OIL, CALCIUM CASEINATE, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF MODIFIED TAPIOCA STARCH, ONION POWDER, CANOLA OIL, TRIGLYCERIDES FROM COCONUT OIL, HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (CORN GLUTEN, WHEAT GLUTEN, SOY PROTEIN), DEXTROSE, SALT, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, SUGAR, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS FROM NON-MEAT SOURCES, CARAMEL COLOR, CULTURED WHEY, MALTODEXTRIN, GARLIC POWDER, SPICE, CELLULOSE GUM, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, DISODIUM INOSINATE, SOY SAUCE (WATER, SOYBEANS, SALT, WHEAT), VITAMINS AND MINERALS (NIACINAMIDE, IRON [FERROUS SULFATE], THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE [VITAMIN B6], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], VITAMIN B12), SESAME SEED OIL, CELERY EXTRACT, SOY LECITHIN.

I disagree with the statement that fast food is not cheaper than healthy food. Here in US - you can get two for one coupons, super-size free, coupons and discounts. I can feed a hungry group of kids for $12.00. Good luck filling then up on chicken, hummus, salad and veggies. Even good starches. All this will be at least $20.00 and then there are the leftovers and they are hungry in 2 hours and start to snack. Even adults, chicken, fish, lean meats are not cheap. Veggies are out of season and expensive here. The only cheap thing are dried beans and rice.

It costs more to eat healthy. That being said, you can always find good things to eat at fast food places. I agree if you compare these items on their menus to healthy food at home, it is probably just as costly. So... conclusion is... eating healthy is more expensive than junky.

I beg to differ. I'm in Canada, on vancouver island and our food Is a little pricier than others, but not like Hawaii expensive... that said, i never pay more than $12 to feed my family.

the chicken example... i bought a farm raised chicken... the smallest i could get was $20 (probably 4 lbs)... I roasted it up two days ago, served it with homemade sidekick noodles (noodles, bacon, sour cream chives) and cooked carrots. We will get 2 more meals from the meat (not counting the broth), so the chicken cost $6.70ish for that meal.

The noodles i made from scratch... even with my local stoneground wheat, i can't imagine it being more than 25 cents worth of flour. the recipe uses an egg... farm raised, $4/dozen... so $33 cents... a small tub of sour cream was about $2, i used 1.4 of it so 50 cents, local smoked bacon, about 50c per strip, i used 2... my "sidekick noodles" we will call $2. There are a million cheaper sides i could have made, but this was a treat.

my husband specifically asked for carrots, that's not my first choice, but whatever. I used something like 8 carrots... a small bag of organic carrots are $3, for the benefit of the doubt, I'll say it took half the bag, so $1.50

so that meal came out to about 10.20... This is a roast chicken dinner, where everyone eats a reasonable portion, and EVERYTHING (except the sour cream) is organic or local. I consider this one of our more expensive meals that we eat!

Pasta and sauce is a GREAT example of food that is super cheap to make and healthy (i make fresh pasta and cut it with spaghetti squash for the adults), homemade pizza - not the cheapest, but i love the control over ingredients... definitely cheaper to make at home... i bake pita bread, i make my sauce from fresh tomatoes (not the cheapest option, but i'm anti can these days) there is not way even with the cheese that I'm paying more than $10 to feed my family that day.

When i want to be cheaper i make veggie chili and serve over lettuce in tortilla bowls, that's a $5 meal... rice and beans with anything; indian spices, Cajun spices, tomatoes, whatever gets you going; cooked with chicken broth for extra nutrition... that's like a $2 meal.

It's not always the easy way out, but I'm 100% sure that I'm feeding my family WAY cheaper than i could ever feed them, two for one coupons or not. I could cut my costs drastically if i bought conventional meat and canned tomatoes too, but even with my organic shopping and pricey meat, i spend only about $80/week on groceries for 2 adults, 2 preteen boys and a baby

yes they would. absolutely they would.

So how do you propose I make my chicken wrap? From scratch? Slaughter the chickens, process the grains for my tortilla. Make the cheese? Would that make it "healthier"?

haha please see the ingredient list i posted. is there NO way to make that list smaller? no brands of tortillas with fewer ingredients? no chicken that doesn't come with partially hydrogenated soybean oil? no cheese that doesn't come with potato starch in it?

come on.

Jonnythan was the one who pointed out the ingredients that one could use to make their own chicken wrap. Last time I checked the chicken I buy at the store and the shredded cheese I would use, not to mention the tortilla doesn't have crap in it.

Pick out the specific ingredients in the cheese and tortilla McDonald's uses that aren't in the tortillas and cheese you buy at the store, and are dangerous in some way.

*sigh* I'll do it... fine....

Chicken Breast: Chicken breast fillet with rib meat, water, seasoning (rice starch, salt, sugar, yeast extract, canola oil, onion powder, maltodextrin, chicken skin, paprika, flavor, sunflower oil, chicken, garlic powder, chicken fat, spices), sodium phosphates.

Prepared with Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil and hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, soy lecithin, mono-and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).

Flour Tortilla: Enriched Flour (Bleached Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Shortening (Interesterified Soybean Oil and/or Hydrogenated Soybean Oil and/or Soybean Oil and/or Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil), Contains 2% or Less of: Sugar, Leavening (May Contain One or More of: Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Corn Starch, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Calcium Sulfate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Salt, Wheat Gluten, Dough Conditioners (Sodium Metabisulfite [Contains Sulfites], Distilled Monoglycerides).

CheeseCheddar cheese [pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, annatto (color)], Monterey Jack cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), potato starch and corn starch and powdered cellulose (prevent caking), dextrose, enzymes, natamycin (natural mold inhibitor).

Ranch Sauce: Soybean Oil, Cultured Buttermilk, Water, Sour Cream (Milk, Cream, Modified Food Starch, Guar Gum, Sodium Phosphates, Carob Bean Gum, Sodium Citrate, Calcium Sulfate, Carrageenan, Dextrose, Potassium Sorbate, Enzymes), Egg Yolks, Contains 2% or Less: Distilled Vinegar, Maltodextrin, Salt, Dextrose, Modified Food Starch, Soy Sauce (Soybeans, Wheat, Salt), Dried Onion, Garlic Powder, Lactic Acid, Natural Flavor (Vegetable Source), Shallots, Preservatives (Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, Calcium Disodium EDTA), Xanthan Gum, Spice, Phosphoric Acid, Sodium Acid Sulfate, Propylene Glycol Alginate, Autolyzed Yeast Extract.

Ya know, if we made our own chicken wrap, this would look differently. You can alswo make your own tortillas, (it isn't hard) and the ingredients list would have only 4 items in the list.

If you bought Mission tortillas, Kraft shredded cheese, and Kraft Ranch Dressing, and used some Mrs Dash to season the chicken, it would actually look almost identical.

And if I did that, and posted about it, no one would call it inedible crap or say I was killing myself.

+1

What I don't get is this fixation on fast food restaurants. Why isn't any restaurant that gives me a portion 4-5 times normal size met with the same hostility? Many do, these days. Or some of the 'fine dining' places that serve things like pork belly wrapped in bacon and fried with a side of bone marrow poached in olive oil? Those aren't healthy meals either, I don't care how fresh, organic, or locally sourced they are and the number of ingredients doesn't really matter either. A 1000+ Cal meal is a 1000+ Cal meal. I don't hear any outcry about that. (Well, actually Andrew Knowlton just did a piece on it in the last Bon Appetit, but that's the only bit I've seen or heard)

I think a lot of fast food is cheaper per calorie, but since we don't generally want that many calories anyway it's a false economy.

I saw these images going around tumblr and I was super skeptical because some of their veg and meat seemed really cheap. So I actually sat and went through all the calculations using the UK supermarket Tesco. Right enough, the UK food was more expensive- but so was the burger king. I worked out this meal at something around £22 for the BK and £19 for the Tesco shopping (sadly I don't have the picture on this computer to show you!). Only difference is it was frozen minced beef- not the best quality- because I really had no idea what that sausage-looking package of beef was like. But you could spend that £3 difference on better beef and you're still eating a lot healthier for the money.

Hold is this picture? I can't find any of those things that cheap at Wal-mart, especially not the hamburger!!

People seem to forget. Anything home cooked > Fast food. You don't NEED to buy the expensive lean beef, etc, regular mince will probably still work out healthier than fast food options.

I LOVE my McDonalds (though I haven't probably be in 2-3 months... but I pretty much cook all my meals) but I'm an adult, I choose how often I eat it, kids have no choice in the matter, and have no self control. If you offer a kid salad or fries, they're going to go for the fries. Sometime you just need to take those options away from them for their own good.

I'm curious if it really is that expensive to eat 'fresh' in the US, I'm going to have to check it out when I'm on holiday there. Bit worried I'm going to put on weight, everyone tells me the portions are huge over there and to always share with a friend.

The comparison will depend on where you are, but yeah, the portions are big. I take about half of each restaurant meal home to eat later (asking for a box to take food home is common here).

I know, right? I can't ever get out of a restaurant without a box. I saw a commercial yesterday that now Olive Garden is doing some promotion where they give you a free "to go" entree, in addition to the one you order, as if the "free" one will be your lunch the next day or something. That is like 6 meals worth of food right there, it boggles my mind. And also makes you really question the quality of the ingredients, but that's neither here nor there. I don't eat any of that stuff anyways, but geez.

I disagree with the statement that fast food is not cheaper than healthy food. Here in US - you can get two for one coupons, super-size free, coupons and discounts. I can feed a hungry group of kids for $12.00. Good luck filling then up on chicken, hummus, salad and veggies. Even good starches. All this will be at least $20.00 and then there are the leftovers and they are hungry in 2 hours and start to snack. Even adults, chicken, fish, lean meats are not cheap. Veggies are out of season and expensive here. The only cheap thing are dried beans and rice.

It costs more to eat healthy. That being said, you can always find good things to eat at fast food places. I agree if you compare these items on their menus to healthy food at home, it is probably just as costly. So... conclusion is... eating healthy is more expensive than junky.

I wish there was a "like" button such as on facebook!

I really can't eat at McDonalds anymore. Lots of "mystery" ingredients are going on behind the scenes and ever since I was 5yo I've been addicted to chicken mcnuggets. However there are some people who can eat smart at McD. I have friends who've lost weight BUT their overall health concerns me in the long run..