McDonald's

I thought that it would only be fair of me to do a post about McDonald's tonight after somewhat bad mouthing them in last night's post.

Much like Ed's Easy Diner McDonald's have some good information about nutrition in general and nutritional information of their food on the Understanding Nutrition section of their website which is in depth with sections on calories, protein, carbohydrates, fat, fibre, salt sugar, water and fruit & veg. There is also a meal builder on the website that calculates the nutritional information of menu items you add to it which is very useful for deciding what to have before you go to the restaurant

This is all very good, but it's unfortunate for the company that their image is that their food is unhealthy and most people think of it in this way. If I'm being honest since I started my new healthier lifestyle in January of 2014 I've not touched any of their food and this is because in my mind it's unhealthy and fattening but here are some of the options open to you if you're on a calorie controlled diet and you find yourself in McDonald's:

Main Menu:

• Hamburger: 250 calories.
• Cheese Burger: 295 calorie
• Classic Chicken Snack Wrap: 285 calories
• Peri Peri Snack Wrap: 285 calories
• Mayo Chicken: 315 calories
• Sweet Chilli Mayo Chicken: 340 calories 
• 6 Chicken Nuggets: 250 calories
• Grilled Chicken Salad Wrap: 330 calories
• Crispy Chicken Salad: 325 calories
• Grilled Chicken & Bacon Salad: 190 calories
• Grilled Chicken Salad: 140 calories
• Fillet O Fish: 335 calories
• Garden Side Salad: 20 calories
• Carrot Sticks: 34 calories
• Fruit Bag: 46 calories
• Small Fries: 230 calories

Breakfast Menu:

• Bacon & Egg Snack Wrap with Tomato Ketchup: 270 calories.
• Sausage & Egg Snack Wrap with Tomato Ketchup: 305 calories.
• Hash Brown (1): 145 calories.

So as you can see it's not all as bad as you think but it is certainly worth also bearing in mind that due to the way some of theses products are prepared they will be high in fat although I generally don't worry too much about how much fat, protein and carbohydrates I eat in a day as long as I'm under my calorie goal, so long as you're not eating high fat food on a regular basis you should be OK.

A good tip is to get yourself a Happy Meal, as you get one of the small burgers and chips with the added bonus of a toy!

As an example a meal of a cheese burger, small fries and carrot sticks would be 559 calories, which isn't as bad as you might think, the only issue is going to be that it's not really going to satisfy your hunger for very long and the fat content is high at 34% of a woman's daily recommended intake, but as I say this kind of meal shouldn't be a regular occurrence.