Tag: McDonalds

McDonalds’ Chef Considers Menu to be Healthy

McDonald’s senior director of culinary innovation, “chef” Daniel Coudreaut, was recently interviewed by Lisa Abraham, a Beacon Journal food writer.

Besides chef Coudreaut’s crazy statement that he “doesn’t see anything on the menu that’s unhealthy,” he was promoting the “healthy” items on McDonald’s menu.

It made me giggle that he’s an actual “chef” – a chef??! at McDonald’s??? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

He should be refer to himself as a chemist, because there is nothing chef-like about creating the “food products” at McDonald’s, and there certainly isn’t anything healthy about them either.

It’s all about choice, balance and moderation. There are healthful items on the McDonald’s menu — oatmeal, yogurt parfaits, salads, grilled chicken and low-fat milk.

Stop right there! These are what he considers the healthful items at McDonalds? Oatmeal, yogurt parfaits, salads, grilled chicken and low-fat milk?

Time to dissect each one!

McDonald’s Oatmeal

Yes! In our nation’s current obesity crisis, oatmeal with 32g of sugar is something to be proud of. I suppose it beats the 42g of fat in a double quarter pounder!

Sure, you can order the oatmeal without brown sugar & cranberry raisin mix, but what average McDonald’s patron is going to do that? They see the word oatmeal, and it immediately brings to mind something healthy.

And McDonald’s preys on that misconception!

In reality, what is the difference between their loaded up oatmeal and any one of the sugar-laden dry cereals like Honey Smacks or Fruit Loops?

McDonald’s Yogurt Parfait

McDonald’s Yogurt Parfaits are probably one of the sneakiest items on their menu. At least with a Big Mac, you know what you are getting!

Just like oatmeal, consumers have considered yogurt synonymous with a healthy food item, but most commercial flavored yogurts are loaded with refined sugar; McDonald’s yogurt parfaits are no exception, with 23g of sugar in their 5.2 oz (149g) serving.

Even if you just ate their yogurt “plain”, you’d still be getting 16g of sugar because they’ve added refined sugar PLUS fructose in their ingredients. And it’s only a 3 oz serving.

In comparison, a container of low-fat plain Stonyfield yogurt is 6 oz and contains 11g of sugar (natural dairy sugar). That’s 5.5g sugar if you match McDonald’s 3 oz serving. So, if you opt for McDonald’s yogurt, you’re getting 3x the sugar! What is healthy about that???

McDonald’s Salads

Next is Salads. Yeah, we all know how misrepresented salads are in restaurants. It’s been repeated over and over in a trillion different ways on TV and in print! But we still don’t listen.

Actually, it’s really not the salads that are unhealthy, it’s the dressing slobbering all over the salad that makes it unhealthy. Can you believe that 2 fl oz of Newman’s Own Creamy Caesar dressing (that’s 2 Tbsp) is 190 calories: 18g fat and 500mg sodium. All for a “healthy” salad!

McDonald’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich

You probably thought I could give McDonald’s Grilled Chicken a pass, right? Wrong. Grilled chicken, made at home, can be healthy, if it’s just plain chicken.

But add a McDonald’s white flour bun & cheese, slap on some mayo and you’ve got 400 calories with 13g of fat, 840g sodium, and 8g of sugar. Yikes!

If you think that eating just their chicken by itself would be a healthy choice, you’d also be wrong.

Look at the ingredients in one piece of grilled chicken:

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).

They’ve even sneaked some sugar in the “seasoning” and I just love their “liquid margarine” – GROSS!

Low Fat Milk

Okay, I will give the low-fat milk a pass, although I’m not convinced that low fat dairy is all that healthy, but that’s for another discussion.

Junk Food is Still Just Junk Food Even with Fancy McMarketing

So, I’m not going to lie and state that I never ever go to McDonald’s, but when I go, I’m not fooling myself into thinking I’m eating something healthy.

It’s junk food. It’s ALL junk food.

From the oatmeal to the fish filet, it’s junk food and it’s time we STOP allowing corporate Food’s CEOs and “chefs” to continue feeding us their misleading marketing myths!

Wake up and smell the oatmeal!

Supersize Me

I am now a huge (no pun intended) fan of Morgan Spurlock.

His book, Don’t Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America started it all for me!

I knew fast food was bad for my health, but I didn’t really realize how bad until I took a real close look at the calories of all the Wendy’s food I was regularly eating. Wow! Like a ton of bricks, I realized that I was eating way too much! I needed to make a change.

I started with a desire to stop eating so much processed food, and a commitment to learn more about food in general.

I don’t know why, but I chose the audio version of Don’t Eat This Book to be my first learning tool.

The book is based on his experiences during the filming of the “Super Size Me” movie. For one month, Morgan ate nothing but McDonald’s food. He gains weight, his health deteriorates, and he feels like crap!

Sure, I knew how horrible McDonalds’ food was for your health, but the book really made me realize how evil these food companies really are, with their sneaky advertising tactics peddled directly at children. Our nation is in extreme disarray, with more and more of our adults and children becoming overweight and obese. Diabetes is skyrocketing!

I chose the audio version of the book because I love audio podcasts, so I knew it would be great to hear on the way to work. I was right! The audio of Don’t Eat This Book is excellent. It’s Morgan Spurlock’s voice you hear; he has a great personality so listening to the book is very easy. He made all the boring facts interesting, and I enjoyed how he separated the “sidebar” text. He added voice “impressions” for the different characters in the book, which added a ton of humor. I don’t know if the book would have been as enjoyable if I didn’t “listen” as opposed to “reading” it. He really made it special!

Listening to this book set me on the path I am on today. The decision to try to limit or completely remove processed food from my everyday diet can hopefully make my life more healthy and enriched. But what about everyone else? It’s very sad how people are blind to the poison that McDonalds, Coke, and countless other big food corporations are pushing on us. I wish everyone could read (or listen to) this book! Just don’t eat this book! hahaa

So, I finished the audio book, and was intrigued to watch the movie “Super Size Me” now.

Luckily, I found it for free on Hulu.com – cool!

I started to watch it the other day on my laptop while working out on the treadmill, then took a break after about 20 minutes. I started it up again in the kitchen on Tuesday while I was cooking dinner. Would you believe my dear hubby came in, and decided to watch it as well. I was so happy! I wanted him to see this too!

It’s such an important message, and something we can’t afford to ignore any longer! We all need to open our eyes and minds and STOP eating this junk!

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PS I admit though there were times when watching him eat those greasy burgers and fries, that a little part of me was craving to grab a bite for myself! Gawd, it’s very sad how they have snuck into our brains!