Have you ever suffered from Gut Rot? You know the sensation you get when it feels like your stomach is having a heart attack! I can specifically remember the times that I’ve suffered the most and it always follows a last resort feeding at the golden arches. Undressing this issue we will see that McDonald’s was made famous for offering unhealthy amounts of calories, fat, sodium, and sugar disguised as food. As I lay there moaning and drinking shot after shot of Pepto-Bismol I told myself “NEVER AGAIN!!”
One of my worst cases of gut rot came after eating a McDonald’s salad. A ‘salad’ is synonymous with ‘health’, but leave it to McDonald’s to make a salad so bad for you that it should be served with a side order of antacid and a recommendation for a good cardiologist.
Fact: Did you know that some of the McDonald’s salads are worse for you than a BigMac®? It’s time to strip off all the BS and see what these salads are really made of.
The McDonalds salad de-robed:
I chose the healthiest sounding salad on their menu and assessed its nutritional value – here are the results
Premium South West Grilled Chicken Salad (Yikes!!)
420 Calories
15 Grams of Fat
1300mg Sodium
14g of sugar
Here is one of their more unhealthy sounding salads:
Premium Bacon Ranch Salad with Crispy Chicken
540 Calories
35g Fat
1500mg sodium
6g sugar
Now for comparison, here is the nutritional value of a BigMac®
The BigMac®
540 Calories
29g Fat
1040mg sodium
9g sugar
The problem is that most people don’t know what the McDonald’s salads are really made of. It’s hard to blame them. McDonalds tries very hard to blur the lines and make things seem a lot healthier than they really are. I decided to check out the McDonald’s website to see what they were telling people about their salads. Here is what I found:
“McDonalds recognizes the importance of offering nutritional choices to Canadians. That’s why we have created entrée and side salad choices for customers. The salads are made with romaine and iceberg lettuces, sliced tomatoes and red onions. Prepared fresh daily with these lettuces, McDonald’s entrée salads contain about three servings of vegetables according to Canada’s Food Guide.”
It is shocking that listing a few salad ingredients causes McDonalds to claim that they are offering nutritional choices. Let’s call a spade a spade, if a piece of broccoli is deep fried, doused in salt, and then smothered with fattening cheese sauce, is it healthy? No.
In Canada alone in the last few years McDonalds has sold 7 Million salads! That is a lot of gut rot. I would hate to put Pepto-Bismol out of business because I thoroughly enjoy their TV commercials, but I hope this information provides some food for thought next time you’re thinking about ordering a ‘healthy’ McDonald’s salad!
Looking for an alternative? Tune in next time when we undress a great dressing that every salad would be happy to wear.
2 Responses
March 26th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Very interesting. I personally have a hard time eating at McDonalds after seeing the movie “Supersize Me”.I thought they were changing their image after that movie with the new salads, but after reading this column I now know the truth!!!!
April 29th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
The grilled chicken one doesn’t seem that bad to me, though I’m no dietician. You have to keep in mind that most people will eat a salad as a meal, while people ordering a big mac will typically add fries.
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