You know it in your heart. McDonald’s may taste good sometimes, but it’s bad for you. It just isn’t healthy. There’s no fooling yourself into thinking it’s helping you or your health in any way.
It’s hard to just quit on your soft spot for the golden arches. So when you see that they’re now offering up that new Caesar salad, and it’s made with a “nutrient-rich lettuce blend with baby kale,” you think you’ve finally found a reason to justify how much you’re “lovin’ it.”
So you order the new salad, which comes with shaved Parmesan and your choice of grilled or fried chicken. And on the side, you get a package of Mickey D’s Asiago Caesar dressing. And you crush it. The problem is the combination of “nutrient-rich” lettuce and all that other junk turns worse than a Double Big Mac with the dressing slathered on top. It’s bad to the tune of more fat, calories and sodium than a sandwich with four burgers packed in among three buns and secret sauce. But you know that already.
It’s symptomatic of a bigger problem beyond fast food joints’ continuing inability to offer truly healthy menu options. A recent study performed by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics revealed that 92 percent of large chain, local chain or independently owned restaurants serve meals that far exceed what is considered the proper calorie intake of a “healthy meal.”
Another study, performed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that just 12 percent of 314 meals tested from restaurants in the California Polytechnic State University general vicinity were “healthy,” the criteria being an entree with no more than 800 calories, 30 percent or less of calories from fat, and no more than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat.
The moral of the story? Find a way to suppress that McDonald’s jones. And don’t eat out so much either, if you want to stay fit and trim. Or just don’t think about it. Eat away and try every new thing that pops up. If that doesn’t work, you can always sue once it goes south.
(via Ars Technica)
