McDonald's. Table of caloric content and chemical composition of food products.

McDonald's cuisine is synonymous with the American way of life, a true phenomenon of our time. Recognizable style, speed of service and an appetizing menu attract thousands of visitors to the chain's establishments around the world.

Articles are written and scary documentaries are made about the dangers of eating at McDonald's. Judging by the worldwide demand for fast food, compromising information does not in any way affect its success.

Information about the calorie content and actual composition of McDonald's dishes will allow you to draw objective conclusions about the properties of fast food. The secrets of proper nutrition in fast food chains will tell you how to eat at McDonald's without harming your health and figure.

Calorie content of dishes

Today McDonald's has 2 menus – the main offer and “McBreakfast”. Both options are American fast food classics.

Main menu

McDonald's classic - hot sandwiches. Closed sandwiches consist of a white bun accompanied by a fried beef, chicken or fish cutlet. Additions to the meat component are cheese and vegetables: lettuce, onions, pickled cucumbers. All sandwiches come with sauces.

Burgers and Filet-o-Fish are the most modest sandwiches in size. "Big Mac" and "McChicken" are larger specimens. They are sprinkled with sesame seeds on top.

Photo: mcdonalds.eg

"Big Tasty" ("Big and Tasty") is a giant among McDonald's sandwiches. Its height is about 12 cm, and the nutritional value of 1 piece exceeds 800 Kcal.

An alternative to burgers and poppies are rolls. Their main difference is a wheat flatbread instead of a bun. The rolls are filled with branded cutlets and breaded shrimp, cheese, vegetables and sauce.

McDonald's offers seasonal sandwich offerings inspired by cuisines around the world. Today it's the Greek Mac - a sandwich on Greek pita bread and several Gourmet burgers with sauces based on hot Mexican spices.

Fried potatoes are the second hit of McDonald's, presented in 2 versions:

• “Fries” – fried cubes with salt.
• “Country-style” is deep-fried with seasonings.

McDonald's diet includes poultry and seafood. Chicken McNuggets and king prawns are served breaded and fried.

By the way, from this video you can understand how McDonald's works from the inside.

McDonald's diet menu is small. 2 types of salads:

• Mediterranean Caesar with breaded chicken and without croutons.
• The “vegetable” salad consists of green leaves, tomatoes and cucumbers.

In addition to vegetable dishes, there are “Carrot Sticks” and “Apple Slices”, sold in sealed bags without additives.

McDonald's desserts are based on a highly nutritious mixture of sugar, milk and dough.

The basic options for sweet fast food are fried pies with fruit and berry filling and muffins. They retain their recognizable appearance and receive new seasonal editions with unexpected fillings: cream cheese, apple slices, etc.

McDonald's also produces baked goods from the assortment of traditional coffee shops - cheesecake, cherry cake and chocolate mousse.

Milkshakes and classic ice cream are supplemented with syrup at the request of customers. Available in strawberry, chocolate and vanilla toppings.

McFlurry – soft ice cream with chocolate chips. Today it has several interpretations - with nuts, pieces of biscuit, liquid additives.

Photo: marketnetwork.rs

You can quench your thirst with hot and cold drinks at McDonald's.

Basic options are tea bags and black coffee, cappuccino and latte with milk. Sweet hot drinks - iced coffee with ice cream and punch with berry syrup.

Most McDonald's refrigerated drinks contain sugar.

Today's menu includes the traditional Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite. In addition to soda, there is sweet Ice Coffee with milk and Lipton tea.

McDonald's also creates its own recipes for chilled drinks. The current season's offer is “Grenadine Lemonade” based on “Sprite” with berry syrup and “Sunrise” - orange juice with currant filling.

Children and healthy eaters will choose mineral water, milk or a bottle of Actimel with beneficial bacteria from the drinks list.

The nutritional value of main dishes from the current McDonald's price list can be found in the table. The average caloric content per 1 serving .

MacBreakfast

The morning diet from McDonald's includes a special list of dishes. They can be ordered in restaurants until 10 am.

Breakfast at McDonald's is an attempt to combine fast food with healthy eating.

McDonald's takes the usual eggs, cottage cheese, porridge, pancakes and offers its own interpretation of the traditional hearty breakfast. McDonald's morning meals are loaded with sugar, dough and fried ingredients.

The classic omelette without additives is the healthiest breakfast option at McDonald's.

For lovers of carbohydrate foods, pancakes made from rich flour and breaded potato pancakes have been created. Oatmeal is made with instant oatmeal and cream.

Omelette, porridge and pancakes can be supplemented with butter, jam or honey.

Cottage cheese with dried fruits at McDonald's is served as a sweet filling on thin fried rolls of their dough.

McMuffins, McToasts and rolls - morning sandwiches from McDonald's. Breakfast sandwiches emphasize nutritious protein foods. In McToast it's cheese and ham. McMuffins are filled with butter, eggs and fried meat. Morning rolls include scrambled eggs, vegetables and pork cutlets. We suggest making a good replacement for such a sandwich with a homemade hot sandwich.

Photo: mcdonalds.ie

The muffin is a traditional English sandwich bun that became the basis for the American sandwich and gave its name to McDonald's morning muffin.

The table will allow you to estimate the energy value of a fast food breakfast. The average calorie values ​​are given per serving.

Dessert

Product composition

Fast food made from the freshest vegetables and 100% meat is a myth propagated by McDonald's advertising campaigns.

Popular McDonald's specialties are produced industrially and delivered frozen to restaurant kitchens. At the point of sale, sandwiches are only heated up, and nuggets, pies and potatoes are fried. They are sold hot and create the illusion of food being prepared in front of the visitor.

We invite you to watch a video that talks about burger meat.

The appetizing appearance of fast food, which lasts for a long time, is the merit of natural and artificial food additives. They are present in all hits of “fast” cuisine.

Photo: grubstreet.com French fries in the mass version are vegetable sticks sprinkled with salt and fried in oil. McDonald's version expands the simple composition of ingredients by 12 points. Among them:

• Potatoes, salt, vegetable oils are obvious products.
• Dextrose is a natural sugar that gives potatoes a golden brown crust when fried.
• Hydrogenated soybean oil is a preservative and a cheap analogue of natural raw materials for frying.
• Beef flavoring is a budget substitute for natural meat fat. It appeared in the classic recipe for French fries and turned out to be unprofitable in mass production.
• E900, E390 and E450 are preservatives that preserve the nutritional properties and attractive appearance of the vegetable.

The composition of another hit, “Big Tasty,” seems transparent: sesame bun, steak, sauce, cheese and vegetables. The naturalness of each ingredient taken separately is questionable:

• The buns are coated with sugars to give them a delicious blush and crispy texture. Stabilizers and “technological aids” are added to the dough.
• Emmental cheese contains preservatives, dyes and flavors.
• “100% beef” for cutlets raises questions about the quality and origin of raw materials.

In 2013, McDonald's was caught using the additive E527 to produce “natural” steaks. The drug allows you to give an edible appearance to low-grade minced meat.

After the scandal, McDonald's abandoned E527. Current topics for discussion are the quality of livestock feed on supplier farms and the fat content of beef meat.

• Burger sauces are the most “synthetic” fast food ingredient. E-additives in quantities of 3 pieces or more provide a thick consistency, bright taste and color of the seasoning.

Claims about the composition also apply to other McDonald's hits.

Nuggets and fish cakes are only partly filleted. About 50% of minced meat is starch and flour. As an alternative, we suggest making your own homemade chicken nuggets. Ice cream, milkshakes and baked goods have been "enhanced" with colorants and flavor regulators. Juices are made from reconstituted concentrates. Their benefits are minimal, and the amount of sugar exceeds healthy levels.

Sandwich

Harmful food from McDonald's

3 reasons to reconsider the place of fast food in the daily diet:

1. High energy value is the main argument against McDonald's. A single burger or wrap that is loaded with fatty ingredients like meat, cheese and sauces can result in excess calorie consumption. Deep-frying, popular on the McDonald's menu, increases nutritional value, but deprives the food of most of its beneficial properties.

In the McDonald's kitchen, "waste" frying oil is reused many times.

1. An abundance of simple carbohydrates - sugars and rich flour. Sugar is added to most McDonald's dishes for the sake of a pleasant taste or attractive appearance. Butter flour is not only used for sandwiches and pies, but also as a breading, as well as part of the raw material for cutlets and nuggets.

Sweets and wheat dough are perceived by the body in the same way. The feeling of fullness after consuming fast carbohydrates does not last long. They are instantly absorbed and just as quickly deposited on the body in the form of extra pounds.

1. Abundance of E-additives . Unnaturally strong flavors and long shelf life undermine consumer confidence in fast food. Some dyes and preservatives are safe for humans. Other "enhancers" like hydrogenated oil can cause serious health problems.

Possible negative consequences

Abuse of food from McDonald's is fraught with dangerous phenomena for the body:

• Obesity is the result of uncontrolled absorption of fat and fast carbohydrates.
• Diabetes and tooth decay are diseases that occur when there is too much sugar in the diet.
• The risk of cancer increases with the consumption of hydrogenated oils.
• Diseases of the cardiovascular system are a consequence of excessive love for fried foods.
• Bone fragility. Sugary drinks containing caffeine interfere with the absorption of calcium and are dangerous for the child's body.
• Destruction of the liver and pancreas is a side effect of E-supplements.

The harmful effects of food “chemicals” have been experimentally proven. Volunteers ate exclusively McDonald's food for several months. The results of all experiments are the same - excess weight and a diseased liver.

Recommendations

It is still possible to visit fast food establishments with minimal losses to your health and without disrupting the weight loss process if you try:

1. You need to eat there no more than 2 times a week.
2. Before visiting, create a menu in advance in accordance with the calorie table for dishes and drinks.
3. Avoid sandwiches, rolls and desserts. Focus on salads and drinks.
4. Do not buy into promotions and special offers - strictly adhere to the list that you compiled in advance.
5. Eat slowly, chewing thoroughly and enjoying the taste.
6. Don't stay longer than half an hour.
7. If you visit a restaurant together, take something that can be easily divided between each other (for example, 1 serving includes 2 pies, 6 nuggets, 4 shrimp, etc.).
8. If you couldn't resist buying a cheeseburger or hamburger, try not to eat at least the bun.

Without a doubt, the high calorie content of McDonald's dishes is not the most pleasant circumstance for those who are losing weight and at the same time are fans of this fast food. Despite this, you can still avoid the pitfalls by competently and in advance making a list of what you will order.

Why can you eat fast food while losing weight?

No matter how various coaches tell us that to lose weight we need to eat only fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, buckwheat and boiled chicken breast, this is not entirely true. What I have listed will certainly help you lose weight. But in fact, you can eat everything, and even indulge in high-calorie treats, and still lose weight. It's all about the calories you consume per day.

Each person has an average daily calorie requirement. For example, for an adult man this is an average of 2000 kcal per day, and for an adult woman 1500-1600. This is subject to an inactive lifestyle. And if you take a working or active person, then the norm can be increased by 500 kcal or more. But these are all average indicators and they are not specific for everyone. Everyone must calculate the norm themselves.

This means that you can lose weight even on milk chocolate if you eat 3-4 100-gram bars a day, and nothing else. On average, milk chocolate contains 600 kcal. This means that three tiles will not affect an inactive person. And an active person can also knock out a fourth tile. But this is just an example, not a call to action.

In addition to observing the daily norm of kilocalories, it is also necessary to take into account the norms of BZHU (proteins, fats and carbohydrates). So, eating (occasionally) McDuck treats won't affect your weight as long as you stick to your calorie goals.

Vegetables and salads

Caesar salad contains more fat than a hamburger.

Blame it on the cheese and dressing. But a serving of salad is much larger than a hamburger, which means it has greater nutritional value.

McDonald's salads

Thanks to fresh vegetables, salt as the only seasoning, and chicken, the feeling of fullness after the salad will last a long time.

Bottom line

As you can see, you can eat at McDonald's even while on a diet. The main thing is to follow the daily norm. But still, it is not recommended to make a lifestyle out of it. Still, McDuck is not the healthiest food, so you shouldn’t eat there often.

We hope you liked the article. We also recommend that you read the article about the lowest-calorie sweets from stores. Lose weight without exhausting diets.

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