the McDonald's Healthy Eating Guide by your Friendly MD
Written: May 04 '00 (Updated May 10 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: grilled chicken is healthy without mayo, salads aren't bad- with either lowfat vinagarette or french dressing
Cons: unhealthy items- mayo and honey mustard sauce high in fat, breakfast unehalthy as well
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| drdavec1's Full Review: McDonald's |
Well, with the name drdavec1 I shouldn't eat at fastfood too often..and I don't. But I will say I avoid McD's. I will talk about healthy eating at McDonald's (which is almost impossible to do). Yes the fries are king. Kids like it. That's all that one could say in praise of it. From a health aspect, you should turn your car around and go to Wendy's instead.
HOW TO EAT HEALTHY
Well... first off, burn some calories and walk in versus using drive through. Seriously though I know many of the customers don't care about health, and occasionally that is fine. Other times, the key is avoiding the sauces and cheese.
1. The Chicken McGrill is the best bet on the menu. However, you have to order it plain (without Mayo) The reason for this is that the sandwich with Mayo is 450 calories and 18 grams of fat. Lose the Mayo and you drop down to 340 calories and 7 grams of fat. Most people sthink that Grilled Choicken is always healthy. It is but often the sauce that these fast food restraunts add negates the healthiness of the grilled chicken... If you get grilled chicken add barbeque sauce to it.
2.Use ketchup and BBQ sauce instead of Mayo. Also be aware that the honey mustard sauce has 4.5 grams of fat and 80% calories from fat. Yikes!
3. Get a hamburger not a cheeseburger. One small piece of cheese adds 4 grams of fat and 40 calories. This may not seem like a lot, but in all likelihood you may be drinking regular soada and eating fries....any extra fat calories you can avoid is a good thing...
4. Skip the fries, or don't finish the fries. The fries are the absolute best thing about McDonald's. I agree. However, there is a huge difference between a small fries and a extra large.
5. Drink Diet Soda.
6.Skip breakfast! The breakfast menu is horrible- loaded with fat and chlesterol. For example, sausage mcmuffin with egg has 28 g of fat and 255 mg of cholesterol. better hope they offer an angioplasty with your mcmuffin. The only viable breakfast options are 1)HotCakes (plain- but who can eat Pancakes plain? almost impossible) and 2)Plain English Muffin (but you don't need to go to McD's to get this!)
7.SaladNot bad here. Probably the best forr those on a diet. The Grilled Chicken Ceasar is the best of the bunch. The chef salad is the least healthy. They key to eating right with their salad is getting the Fat Free Herb Dressing- 30 calories and fatfree. Avoid the Ranch, Ceasar, and Honey Mustard. You may think you are doing well eating salad, but these three dressings work against that.
8.Low Fat Ice Cream - not a bad way to treat yourself and skip some fat and grease
Realistically, McDonald's does not have a menu friendly to a low fat conscious customer, as compared to Wendy's. For a low fat fast food meal, go to Wendy's. If you yearn for fries or you have crying kids you may have to suck it up and go to McD's...
Recommended:
No
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drdavec1
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Member: dave
Location: New Jersey
Reviews written: 44
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