Fast Food 4-1-1: McDonald's
photo by hundrednorth
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Is it possible to get a healthy meal at the archetype of fast food restaurants, McDonalds? Well, to use the word *healthy* might be a stretch but there are always better and worse choices that you can make at *any* restaurant, even ones that are considered unhealthy. Here are my picks and pans from Mickey D's, and as always, I've included the Big Mac for the sake of comparison.
| Calories | Fat(g) | Carbs(g) | Protein(g) | Fiber(g) | |
| McDonalds Big Mac | 540 | 29 | 45 | 25 | 3 |
| McDonalds Worst Choices | |||||
| Deluxe Breakfast Regular Biscuit w/o syrup & margarine | 1070 | 55 | 109 | 36 | 6 |
| Deluxe Breakfast Large Biscuit w/o syrup & margarine | 1140 | 59 | 115 | 36 | 7 |
| Double Quarter Pounder w/Cheese | 740 | 42 | 40 | 48 | 3 |
| Premium Crispy Chicken Club | 660 | 28 | 63 | 39 | 4 |
| Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips (5 pc.) | 630 | 33 | 46 | 39 | 0 |
| Premium Crispy Chicken Ranch | 600 | 23 | 64 | 35 | 3 |
| McDonalds Best Choices | |||||
| Southwest Salad w/Grilled Chicken | 320 | 9 | 30 | 30 | 7 |
| Egg McMuffin** | 300 | 12 | 30 | 18 | 2 |
| Regular Hamburger | 250 | 9 | 31 | 12 | 2 |
| McDonalds Extras | |||||
| Large Fries | 570 | 30 | 30 | 6 | 7 |
| Large Vanilla Shake | 740 | 18 | 128 | 17 | 0 |
Well, the worst choices were easy because the calorie counts and fat content really stuck out. As you can see, the venerable Big Mac is not nearly as bad as it could be.
The best choices were a bit tougher to make. I selected only one of the available salads to highlight on the chart, but all of the salads available had similar nutritional numbers...just get the grilled chicken, not the crispy chicken. The regular hamburger is really not a bad choice considering some of the other options, and neither is the regular cheeseburger. The cheese on the cheeseburger nets you an additional 50 calories and a few more grams of fat, but I would still consider it a decent choice. The real key to the low numbers on those two sandwiches is their size. They are much smaller than most of the sandwiches available, and they don't contain a mayo-based sauce, which helps keep the calories and fat under control.
**For the third "best choice", I included my best choice of the breakfast items. The english muffin had a lower calorie count, but I would rather have some additional protein from the egg, so I picked the Egg McMuffin. It was the best choice of many crappy breakfast choices, but it's far from a good choice. My advice...go somewhere else for breakfast. McDonald's really doesn't have any healthy breakfast options.
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