McDonalds 'cheapest, most nutritious and bountiful food' ?
Replies
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For $1 I can get a burger with 390 cals in it. $1 dollar!!!!
Dont know where you live, but thats a lie. Theres no more $1 menu. Its called the value menu now and that burger now costs $1.39 or $1.49 (cant remember which). The good news is they dont charge like gas prices. One week your cheeseburger is $5, the next week its 50 cents.0 -
I didn't read the whole thing.
and i am not a fan of fast food, nor do i think it's nutritious and good. I do indulge once in a blue moon (maybe 4-5 times a year) mostly foods of the falafel/shwarma ilk, which to me are more "real food" and less of the McDs et al.
however, this sentenceProduce may seem cheap to environmentally aware blond moms who spend $300 on their highlights every month, but if your object is to fill your belly, it is hugely expensive per calorie,' Smith writes.
I am not a blonde mom either. Relax, did you really think he was writing the article about you? I thought it was about me. Now I dissapoint :sad:0 -
Living on an island has some benefits, but food, especially fruit and non local vegetables like avocado kill my bank account.One grapefruit for $1.29 CDN are you kidding me? I want a bag of fries and gravy crisps instead !!
That being said, I haven't eaten fast food since February and my wallet is gaining weight, while I've lost. Sweet trade off!0 -
I didn't read the whole thing.
and i am not a fan of fast food, nor do i think it's nutritious and good. I do indulge once in a blue moon (maybe 4-5 times a year) mostly foods of the falafel/shwarma ilk, which to me are more "real food" and less of the McDs et al.
however, this sentenceProduce may seem cheap to environmentally aware blond moms who spend $300 on their highlights every month, but if your object is to fill your belly, it is hugely expensive per calorie,' Smith writes.0 -
I didn't read the whole thing.
and i am not a fan of fast food, nor do i think it's nutritious and good. I do indulge once in a blue moon (maybe 4-5 times a year) mostly foods of the falafel/shwarma ilk, which to me are more "real food" and less of the McDs et al.
however, this sentenceProduce may seem cheap to environmentally aware blond moms who spend $300 on their highlights every month, but if your object is to fill your belly, it is hugely expensive per calorie,' Smith writes.
It is very true though. When you have a family of five to feed, enough produce for a salad for everyone could cost a lot of money. I bag of baby spinach-$2.50 2 tomatoes-$2 A cucumber $1 Even if its just that and thats a boring salad, that's $5.50 for sometihng that wont keep your kids belly full all night. Add in chicken breast, thats around another $4-5. Now, let's assume eating is the priority.
You live where I live (new hampshire). You benefit bc there is no food tax.
You work for minimum wage at a place where they dont keep anyone fulltime, because thats the most common wage situation here. So lets assume you make $7.25x25hrs a week. Thats $181 per week. Now, you choose the cheapest, smallest apartment in the projects to live in that you can. Its a 2 bdrm, because your kids need their own room. Its $740 per month. Well, that costs $185 per week. You are already not making enough money to be not homeless, let alone eat any food.
So you start dating some *kitten* because you want someone to help support your kids. This double your family income when he moves in. Now your family income is $362. You can take out about $20 of that for social security, medicaid whatever they deduct. So you have $342. You need gas to get to work, because poor people housing is several miles away from anywhere to work. Assuming you only both drive to work,childcare/school and the grocery and have no friends,we budget $20 for gas. $322. Now we deduct our weekly rent need. We have $141. Now, these apartmnets generally don't include utilities. Everything runs on electricity, incl the water heater and the heater heater. It's an oven in the summer because there are so many apartments, so you have to choice to run something to cool it down (either the built in AC or fans). Your electric bill is around $120 a month, average in the area. Broken down, its $30. You have $111. Now, you aren't married to this guy and he isn't just handing his check over to you to spend so you can deduct $50. You have 61 dollars to: get toiletries, feed your kids, keep your kids in school supplies, medical care, credit card bills? Do your kids have beds? Shoes? Do you have clothes to wear to work? Hope you don't have christmas coming up. etc.
The point of this, please don't be smug and assume everyone has money enough that they can "prioritize" their money and have enough for like organic produce and ****. Even foood stamps can be hard enough to get on and its often not enough to feed yourself, especially if you are working and cant stay home learning how to cook from scratch and use a 10lb bag of dried kidney beans.
And then let us add in the fact that advertisers spend a lot of money brain washing the poorest,least educated people to buy products like nutrigrain bars and fruit gummy snacks because they;re "made with real juice".0 -
I didn't read the whole thing.
and i am not a fan of fast food, nor do i think it's nutritious and good. I do indulge once in a blue moon (maybe 4-5 times a year) mostly foods of the falafel/shwarma ilk, which to me are more "real food" and less of the McDs et al.
however, this sentenceProduce may seem cheap to environmentally aware blond moms who spend $300 on their highlights every month, but if your object is to fill your belly, it is hugely expensive per calorie,' Smith writes.
Yeah, I really think his point was more "If you are struggling JUST to get a reasonable amount of calories on the table, produce is not the first thing on your list." He could have done without the divisive comments about highlights.0 -
I have heard this from a Doctor as well... Whose specialty is weight loss... The reason some may say this is because in some items you can get your macronutrients from just one thing.
Now whether I agree with this or indulge in their food is a different matter all together.0 -
I am not a blond mom, nor do i spend 300$ a month on highlights. in fact, i don't spend ONE dollar on highlights. and yet, i would prefer to buy fresh produce , organic/sustainable when possible , and not fast food. It's a question of priorities and not a question of money.
No, it IS a question of money. I am generally very careful with my budget (I have to be) and cook nutritious food at home for my family. However, sometimes I get sick of cooking and want a meal cooked for me. If I could afford to give myself the occasional meal out at a good restaurant that serves fresh, healthy food then I would. However, I can't. So, in order to have a rest from preparing/cooking/clearing up, I OCCASIONALLY get a McD.0 -
Despite being an article in the New York Post (but I have read only the article linked, not the ariginal one) , I think it's absolutely stupid what it says.
Firstly, I don't know in UK, but in most European countries (Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerlanad) Mc Donalds isn't cheap at all and I suppose that that article could be valid only for US.
Second, it makes no sense consider totallly organic-super expensive-only from farmers-food as the only possible alternative to macdonald. It's absolutely not true in Europe and, for what I know, even in the United States.
Third, of course mcdonald offers nutrients that we actually need at very affordable prices, but cheesburgers also contain things we don't need at all (too much sugar, saturated fat). Assuming a diet of 1500 calories (4 double cheese) in which we eat only double cheeseburgers, we actually eat 46,2% of fats (too too much), 28,2% of carbohydrates (too few), 25,6% of proteines (too much, considering that is only from meat). Moreover, tha article considers positive that a double cheese covers our fiber needs for 7% but 7x 4 (number of cheesburger in a 1500 kcal diet) is 28%...And what about vitamines?
In conclusion, I think that a cheeseburger occasionally do not kill you, but to pretend that it's a healthy meal seems to me pretty busive.
:flowerforyou:
It depends on your definition of health. The macronutrient breakdown of a McDouble isn't ideal, but it can fit very nicely into my day any day if I were to choose to have one. It isn't 390 calories worth of chips or some other calorie dense food with few micros. The micronutrient breakdown is better than many home cooked foods that people think are healthy.
I pay very close attention to my macro and micronutrients (and 75 grams of protein is hardly too much protein for any adult, I eat twice that daily because of my nutritional and body comp goals). I rarely miss them, don't take multivitamins to hit them, and I occasionally enjoy fast food. When I do want fast food, the McDouble is always the treat that I pick. Unless I am at a Wendy's, then it's their double cheeseburger version of the same sandwich, which has a slightly better micro and protein profile.
Food shouldn't be demonized. It wouldn't hurt people to learn the basic micro and macro breakdowns of what they are eating, however, so they can make more intelligent choices without resorting to deprivation and demonizing.0 -
I didn't read the whole thing.
and i am not a fan of fast food, nor do i think it's nutritious and good. I do indulge once in a blue moon (maybe 4-5 times a year) mostly foods of the falafel/shwarma ilk, which to me are more "real food" and less of the McDs et al.
however, this sentenceProduce may seem cheap to environmentally aware blond moms who spend $300 on their highlights every month, but if your object is to fill your belly, it is hugely expensive per calorie,' Smith writes.
Yeah, I really think his point was more "If you are struggling JUST to get a reasonable amount of calories on the table, produce is not the first thing on your list." He could have done without the divisive comments about highlights.0 -
I love where this is going.
I make burgers from scratch out of grass fed 85/15 ground. I am also a fan of the occasional McDouble. Balance is key here. The McDouble does have pretty good macros and if you paired it with a salad or small fries it wouldn't be a terrible meal.0 -
McDonalds and nutritious do not belong in the same sentence. <-- Except this sentence...
I knew some smart butt would say something... :blushing:0 -
At 390 calories, 23 grams of protein, 7-percent of the daily value of fiber, 20-percent of daily calcium and 19 grams of fat.
Those are good numbers, you add a salad to that and you have a great meal that will fill you up and keep you moving.
My mouth just started watering. I've been proudly McD free since last Halloween though.
Yeah - but when did you ever see a McD's burger look like that?! They're always all smashed - not nearly so delicious looking!0 -
I love where this is going.
I make burgers from scratch out of grass fed 85/15 ground. I am also a fan of the occasional McDouble. Balance is key here. The McDouble does have pretty good macros and if you paired it with a salad or small fries it wouldn't be a terrible meal.
I'd like to live on the planet where McDonald's wouldn't be a terrible meal LOL.
Once giving up fast food, I'd never go back. It turns my stomach to just think about anymore.0 -
I love where this is going.
I make burgers from scratch out of grass fed 85/15 ground. I am also a fan of the occasional McDouble. Balance is key here. The McDouble does have pretty good macros and if you paired it with a salad or small fries it wouldn't be a terrible meal.
I'd like to live on the planet where McDonald's wouldn't be a terrible meal LOL.
Once giving up fast food, I'd never go back. It turns my stomach to just think about anymore.
Well if you don't like it that's different. I like both lol0 -
I just get the sw salad with grilled chicken and bring my own dressing. that's how they get you the calorie chart for each specific salad does not include dressing which can range from 100-400 cals0
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It won't be cheap anymore if they get their way and get $15 an hour. Ridiculous.0
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If I'm in a situation where it's McD's or nothing, I'll go with the Atkins version of the McDouble.
I'm on a low-carb diet, and in a pinch I will order two McDouble's without buns, or ketchup. It comes out to 460 calories with a fair amount of protein and fat which works with the Atkins diet... I'm still surprised that getting rid of the carbs cuts the calories in half, but, c'est la vie!
I make up for eating garbage with a nutritionally strong meal later on.0 -
Despite being an article in the New York Post (but I have read only the article linked, not the ariginal one) , I think it's absolutely stupid what it says.
Firstly, I don't know in UK, but in most European countries (Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerlanad) Mc Donalds isn't cheap at all and I suppose that that article could be valid only for US.
Second, it makes no sense consider totallly organic-super expensive-only from farmers-food as the only possible alternative to macdonald. It's absolutely not true in Europe and, for what I know, even in the United States.
Third, of course mcdonald offers nutrients that we actually need at very affordable prices, but cheesburgers also contain things we don't need at all (too much sugar, saturated fat). Assuming a diet of 1500 calories (4 double cheese) in which we eat only double cheeseburgers, we actually eat 46,2% of fats (too too much), 28,2% of carbohydrates (too few), 25,6% of proteines (too much, considering that is only from meat). Moreover, tha article considers positive that a double cheese covers our fiber needs for 7% but 7x 4 (number of cheesburger in a 1500 kcal diet) is 28%...And what about vitamines?
In conclusion, I think that a cheeseburger occasionally do not kill you, but to pretend that it's a healthy meal seems to me pretty busive.
:flowerforyou:
It depends on your definition of health. The macronutrient breakdown of a McDouble isn't ideal, but it can fit very nicely into my day any day if I were to choose to have one. It isn't 390 calories worth of chips or some other calorie dense food with few micros. The micronutrient breakdown is better than many home cooked foods that people think are healthy.
I pay very close attention to my macro and micronutrients (and 75 grams of protein is hardly too much protein for any adult, I eat twice that daily because of my nutritional and body comp goals). I rarely miss them, don't take multivitamins to hit them, and I occasionally enjoy fast food. When I do want fast food, the McDouble is always the treat that I pick. Unless I am at a Wendy's, then it's their double cheeseburger version of the same sandwich, which has a slightly better micro and protein profile.
Food shouldn't be demonized. It wouldn't hurt people to learn the basic micro and macro breakdowns of what they are eating, however, so they can make more intelligent choices without resorting to deprivation and demonizing.
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And now I want McDonald's. I can't wait for dinner!0
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McDonald's Big Breakfast has awesome numbers. Even their Big Mac isn't bad. I am not snooty about my food, I will generally eat anywhere if it can fit in my daily plan.0
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It is very true though. When you have a family of five to feed, enough produce for a salad for everyone could cost a lot of money. I bag of baby spinach-$2.50 2 tomatoes-$2 A cucumber $1 Even if its just that and thats a boring salad, that's $5.50 for sometihng that wont keep your kids belly full all night. Add in chicken breast, thats around another $4-5. Now, let's assume eating is the priority.
You live where I live (new hampshire). You benefit bc there is no food tax.
You work for minimum wage at a place where they dont keep anyone fulltime, because thats the most common wage situation here. So lets assume you make $7.25x25hrs a week. Thats $181 per week. Now, you choose the cheapest, smallest apartment in the projects to live in that you can. Its a 2 bdrm, because your kids need their own room. Its $740 per month. Well, that costs $185 per week. You are already not making enough money to be not homeless, let alone eat any food.
So you start dating some *kitten* because you want someone to help support your kids. This double your family income when he moves in. Now your family income is $362. You can take out about $20 of that for social security, medicaid whatever they deduct. So you have $342. You need gas to get to work, because poor people housing is several miles away from anywhere to work. Assuming you only both drive to work,childcare/school and the grocery and have no friends,we budget $20 for gas. $322. Now we deduct our weekly rent need. We have $141. Now, these apartmnets generally don't include utilities. Everything runs on electricity, incl the water heater and the heater heater. It's an oven in the summer because there are so many apartments, so you have to choice to run something to cool it down (either the built in AC or fans). Your electric bill is around $120 a month, average in the area. Broken down, its $30. You have $111. Now, you aren't married to this guy and he isn't just handing his check over to you to spend so you can deduct $50. You have 61 dollars to: get toiletries, feed your kids, keep your kids in school supplies, medical care, credit card bills? Do your kids have beds? Shoes? Do you have clothes to wear to work? Hope you don't have christmas coming up. etc.
The point of this, please don't be smug and assume everyone has money enough that they can "prioritize" their money and have enough for like organic produce and ****. Even foood stamps can be hard enough to get on and its often not enough to feed yourself, especially if you are working and cant stay home learning how to cook from scratch and use a 10lb bag of dried kidney beans.
And then let us add in the fact that advertisers spend a lot of money brain washing the poorest,least educated people to buy products like nutrigrain bars and fruit gummy snacks because they;re "made with real juice".
Thanks for this honest description of what poverty in USA looks like. There was a time when I was barely getting by, and I distinctly remember veggies being expensive for the amount of calories it provide. I watched what I ate out of necessity, because I only had so much $ to spend for food. No, I was not overweight at the time, that wasn't remotely possible with the fund I had available.
Eating McDonald's day in and day out is probably not the healthiest diet, but it's not as terrible as many people make it out to be. In a pinch I really think you can live just fine with McD items, provided that you keep it within your caloric goal and you supplement it with multivitamin pills.0 -
For the price its pretty good. Though I normally get it without cheese. I never liked American cheese that much.0
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I can understand why people would willing to spend $2 on a couple mcdoubles w my mentioned kind of budget, but mostly I was upset at the implication by my quoted posted that people who are poor don't eat well bc they just don't prioritize.0
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Of course it's cheaper! The rich people want the poor people to get fat sick and die!0
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I live in Norway.. you can live off of 300 kr / week.. or you can live off of 3000 kr / week depending on where you shop and what you buy. Yes some things will be more expensive than others.. but buying rice and frozen things in bulk is usually fairly cheap.. and worth the busride if you have to take that.
I might be lucky, both my grandmothers tought me how to do things the way they did it - with hardly any income and waaaaaay too many kids. My family lived in a village where there was NO SUPERMARKET just overpriced "store on the corner" style so mom would drive for 7-8!!! hours to a supermarket every few months to buy bread and such in bulk (as well as do the clothes shopping for school, take us to the dentist, see family, and all the other stuff you cant do living in a small village :P ), and made sure she bought meat in bulk when it was in season (dad was a sailor so fish wasnt an issue). So yeah I learned how to manage food with bulkbuying and large families in mind, even though I dont really need to know it now. Even now people at home will make monthly 3 hour drives to the nearest supermarket (in the summer, in the winter its not really safe :P ). Milk and vegetables and stuff you cant keep for long gets bought in the local store.. often you need to special order it!
So while I can easily go towards the 3000 nok /week if I dont watch myself and do what some people do (who also complain about lack of time and cost) I can get down to 300 nok/week when I need or want to and usually save time while doing so.
Its a life skill.. and you need to stop making excuses and do what is needed to reach your goals. If your goal is to eat healthy and at a low cost you *will* find the time and means to do so.
Living in Norway you probably experience a very different life compared to poor people in america.
You cant just extrapolate your own experiences and apply them to everyone in the world, this is really short sighted.
It is a life skill, but like all life skills they take learning and cultivating, something that requires time, which some people just do not have. It also gets easier with the help of someone else with expertise (like you say you got from your grandmother), which some people do not have.
Maybe instead of sitting on your high horse thinking that you are so awesome and worked so hard to be there you should thank your lucky stars that you had so many shoulders to stand on to get you up there in the first place.
I'm not poor, and I can afford to eat well all the time. I do work hard to reach my goals but i recognise that I am DAMNED LUCKY to be where I am now and have the choices I have.
Some people are NOT so lucky and I'm not going to judge them for choosing a quick and easy option to fill their families bellies0 -
If I'm in a situation where it's McD's or nothing, I'll go with the Atkins version of the McDouble.
I'm on a low-carb diet, and in a pinch I will order two McDouble's without buns, or ketchup. It comes out to 460 calories with a fair amount of protein and fat which works with the Atkins diet... I'm still surprised that getting rid of the carbs cuts the calories in half, but, c'est la vie!
I make up for eating garbage with a nutritionally strong meal later on.
If I'm in a situation where it's McDs or nothing, I just practice intermittent fasting
It is quite expensive when you take the whole family so we don't go there anymore. Now when we go out we chose a local pizza place (they have the best vegetarian subs ), or Fazolis, where we can have a more 'sit down' type of meal with pastas and free, unlimited bread sticks. Price wise it's about equal to a McD's trip and much more filling. It's also a nicer environment to eat in (real dishes, manager walks around and checks that everything is satisfactory, and did I mention the free bread sticks lol). They also have a low calorie menu-I can get a $3.99 three cheese pasta dish for 350 calories. Pair that with a 150 calorie bread stick and a glass of water, and I'm a happy girl0 -
At 390 calories, 23 grams of protein, 7-percent of the daily value of fiber, 20-percent of daily calcium and 19 grams of fat.
Those are good numbers, you add a salad to that and you have a great meal that will fill you up and keep you moving.
My mouth just started watering. I've been proudly McD free since last Halloween though.
haha! my mouth was watering too.. my train of thought went straight to "must have burger.. work out later.. burgers are good" lol0 -
Living in Norway you probably experience a very different life compared to poor people in america.
You cant just extrapolate your own experiences and apply them to everyone in the world, this is really short sighted.
It is a life skill, but like all life skills they take learning and cultivating, something that requires time, which some people just do not have. It also gets easier with the help of someone else with expertise (like you say you got from your grandmother), which some people do not have.
Maybe instead of sitting on your high horse thinking that you are so awesome and worked so hard to be there you should thank your lucky stars that you had so many shoulders to stand on to get you up there in the first place.
I'm not poor, and I can afford to eat well all the time. I do work hard to reach my goals but i recognise that I am DAMNED LUCKY to be where I am now and have the choices I have.
Some people are NOT so lucky and I'm not going to judge them for choosing a quick and easy option to fill their families bellies
And in the same way you cant extrapolate to EVERY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
My point has been from the start that its possible to eat cheap meals that are healthy.. I was never saying you have to buy fresh vegetables straight from the farmers market. Excuses like "supermarket is too far away" or "I dont have time" is what I am against, not "I cant even afford to pay medical care for my kids". There is a difference there and I am not attacking the poorest people.. rather the people who make excuses but could.
Also I live in Norway now.. hasnt always been that way and certainly not for my grandmothers who were the people I was referring to of finding a way if there is will.
I do know I am lucky for being born in Scandinavia.. but that doesnt mean I havent worked for what I have. Not everyone here is born with a silver spoon in their *kitten*.0 -
I suppose it is less expensive to eat at McDonalds, although when I did eat there, dinner for me and my kids would be over $20, and I can prepare a meal at home for less than that.
My opinion is it is cheaper in the short term, but when you are buying diabetic medicine, high blood pressure medicine, high cholesterol medicine, etc....it is not cheaper in the long run.
And bringing up the food codes is irrelevent. Even something that is not organic is healthier than most of the stuff in McDonalds. Getting locally grown produce is not expensive. Wash it off well, get the pesticides off, it will be OK.
I used to work in McDonalds, I know what goes on there. Trust me...eat an apple.0
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