To think McDonald's isn't actually That bad...it's not cardboard and cows ears as people seem to think?

[WittiestUsernameEver]

Looking at the ingredients in most of it, it's fine??

They use organic milk, free range eggs, burgers are meat and salt, probably better quality stuff than the likes of Harvester burgers etc.

People talk about it like you're feeding your kids arsenic, rats piss and pig shit...

So much veiled judgment in these words!

I bloody love a maccies.

Had one this morning - yummy breakfast wrap with latte.

We have one once a week. As with all food, it's fine in moderation.

How many times have you been in the situation where McDonald's is your only option for anything vaguely resembling a meal?

For me, it's quite a lot. I'm a coeliac, and often McDonald's is pretty much the only commonly-available place I can quickly and reliably get some hot food that's reasonably certain to be safe for me to eat. They don't fry anything gluten-containing in their chip oil, and follow heavily manualised kitchen protocols that mean the risk of cross-contamination is low. In many service stations, and even town centres, a portion of chips from McDonald's is the closest thing to a quick meal I can get without having to have a long, tedious, probably not very confidence-inspiring conversation with at least one staff member that might just result in a "no" anyway.

My heart sinks when we pull in at the services on a long journey and it's one with a Burger King (who fry onion rings in their chip oil) rather than a McDonald's. Last time I was at South Mimms, there wasn't a single gluten-free meal option, sandwich or wrap in the whole place — several restaurants, a café, and two shops, and my options were basically a tiny box of overpriced, sweaty-looking sushi, a couple of brands of crisps, and a load of sweet stuff I can't eat because I'm diabetic. The Pret didn't even have any of their "gluten free but we're covering ourselves with a disclaimer stating we're not saying they're safe for coeliacs" range.

Maybe you really would prefer to fast, but after the third or fourth time you've sat there with a cereal bar from home, a share bag of prawn crackers, or just nothing — while everyone else has an actual meal from wherever they chose — the McDonald's chips start to look pretty good

Exactly. It's cheaper than all the other options so people associate it with 'poor people' or 'chavs' more than other fast food places. That's where the snobbery comes from.

The reality is that it's no worse than eating any other type of burger or fast food. I think that McDonalds have made a huge effort to clean up the food sources, to offer more salad options in place of fries, to put calories on the menu etc, but they get an unfair rep compared to other food joints.

I very much doubt that burger and fries in a pub or restaurant is any better for you.

Like all food it's got it's time and it's place

Of course it's not. It's just that Pret is "naice" and middle class whereas McDonald's is cheap(er) and seen as common.

@fieldsofbutterflies exactly right. It’s ridiculous how a chicken wrap from one place is aspirational and lovely and a chicken wrap from McDonald’s is beyond the pale.

I really admire the effort McDonald’s have made in sourcing good quality meat etc and supporting British farmers. They also keep up with the times and are always looking to offer healthier alternatives.

A friend's husband works in the meat processing industry and confirmed that the quality of both beef and chicken that goes to McDonalds is incredibly high (as a large company they have the financial clout to insist on this).

Whereas some of the smaller fast food brands claiming quality food actually use far far lower quality beef and chicken.

But as other posters have said it's a lot to do with brand snobbery rather than facts.

Mayonnaise is really deceptive.

Hellmann's mayonnaise is 79g of fat and 725kcal per 100g.

Tesco unsalted butter is 82.2g of fat and 745kcal per 100g.

There's discussion to be had about types of fat, saturated vs unsaturated, the whole thing about seed oils, etc. etc. etc. but at the end of the day, nobody's squirting butter out of a squeezy bottle in a centimetre-thick layer on a sandwich to hold all the components together.

Mayonnaise looks and tastes so much lighter and more fluid and less calorific than butter. It's got a picture of an egg on the front and a light, tangy, vinegary flavour. But on sheer fat content and caloric value, you could replace it 1:1 with pure butter.

Evil, deceptive, delicious stuff

well, more fool you - missing out on perfectly good food and going hungry in the name of snobbery.

Had a cheeseburger there about a year ago...and it was tasty enough in the same way that anything salty is tasty, the fries are tasty as they are crispy and salty.

But it wasn't very satisfying.

But I'd eat it if there wasn't anything else much on offer and a million times over most of the Chicken shop/kebab type places with unidentified meat or a standard burger van.

😂

Actually, in the name of avoiding diabetes, but OK.

Big Mac with the middle bun removed and extra gherkins is my favourite (have to order it at the desk though - it's much better to get them to make it up without the middle bun than try to take it out yourself!) I have it with fries and a chocoate milkshake. Love it! I eat healthily most of the time, I'm not going to beat myself up about it being bad for me. Also, I think others have said already, their coffee is really good!

Everything in moderation people

mmmhmmm

An occasional McDonald's leads to diabetes?! Really? Citation please.

Eating the odd Big Mac isn't going to give you diabetes though, is it 🙄

Yeeees … 🤔just thinking of the filet de boeuf I had at the last ms restaurant and really, really struggling to envisage it in a MacDonald’s establishment being minced into a pattie. Ditto the turbot and trying to remember if I could detect a similar flavour in a filet o fish.

I’m all for not being snobby or overly fastidious about food, am happy to partake if the occasional family maccies trip … but there comes a point at which the claims get silly.

How many will give you diabetes?

Its much worse. Pret is middle class and the word baguette gives a French impression.

Mcdonalds is american.

Here is the nutritional elements of a cheeseburger anyway, because I was so bored I looked it up

https://nutrientoptimiser.com/nutritional-value-mcdonalds-cheeseburger/

The entire store's stock of every dessert option? 🤷‍♀️

Interesting.

So this is the small, cheapest cheeseburger?

Graded low for micronutrients / nutrients, fair enough because presumably most adults don’t eat this by itself as a main meal.

But even this small burger does edge into the ‘high’ category for diabetes risk.

Fries to accompany are hardly going to add to the nutrients, and will push the diabetes risk up a lot.

You won't get diabetes from having a small apple pie once in a while.

I know that. I was taking the piss (I did say the entire store's stock, as in every single portion of every single sweet thing in store)!

Was t pret owned by McDonald's at one time?? LOL