McDonald’s has been working hard to stay abreast of competition lately, adding all-day breakfast, specialty items like mac and cheese and mozzarella sticks (which turned out to be a huge disaster), as well as testing out menu items such as fancy gourmet burgers and chocolate french fries. But one of the chain’s biggest problems is that it’ll never be able to corner the healthy fast-food market.
That won’t stop them from trying, though, as McDonald’s announced last year that it would be offering kale-based menu items in Canadian test markets. Now the new kale salads are here, with cutesy names such as “I’m Greek-ing Out” and “Keep Calm, Caesar On” — but how do they hold up nutritionally? Sadly, not well.
Before dressing, the Greek and Caesar salads weigh in at 280 and 520 calories, respectfully. But when you add the dressing those numbers jump way up.
…Once you plop the accompanying Asiago Caesar dressing on the “crispy chicken” version, the salad’s nutritional profile doesn’t look so good. According to McDonald’s own numbers, the salad tops up at 730 calories, 53 grams of fat, and 1,400 milligrams of salt.
Combined with the Greek Feta Dressing, the “I’m Greek-ing Out” salad with grilled chicken amounts to: 420 calories, 26 grams of fat, and 1,080 milligrams of sodium.
To put this in perspective, both the Big Mac and a Quarter Pounder with Cheese weigh in at 520 calories (the same as the Caesar salad pre-dressing), whereas even the Double Big Mac (a delectable found only in Canada) will set you back just 680 calories.
With consumers being savvier than ever about what they’re putting into their bodies, we don’t know how McDonald’s thinks they’re going to fool anyone with these so-called healthy salads. But what’s even the point? Just eat the burger, you know that’s what you really wanted anyway.
(Via CBC)
