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...

@qwertyqwertyqwertyqwerty I'm not saying the supermarket food can't be bad for you, just that McDonald's isn’t as the kind of weird frankenfood that people are trying to claim that it is.

And it absolutely is snobbery 😂

The UK has one of the highest consumption rates of the type of supermarket food you're referring to so in that sense it is normal to eat it. And I eat it too, at times, I just don't pretend it's healthy.

Just because something is eaten by lots of people doesn't change the nutritional value of the food.

How is it snobbery?

I think that's an emotional response of yours to this topic.

I’ve always thought the opprobrium for McDonald’s is ridiculous. I remember when my children were small and parents would hold forth on how their children had never eaten there and never would while sitting in a soft play cafe and their child tucking into some sort of slurry that was far worse than anything at McDonald’s.

It's misleading to talk about healthy foods.

There is a healthy diet for a given individual, which might involve, e.g., a calorie surplus, consistent sodium intake, low residue, low fodmap, high soluble fibre, low sugar, gluten free, low protein, high salt, whatever. And there's how any individual food fits into a person's diet, including both long-term and immediate needs. Sometimes the healthiest food is a dose of pure glucose.

It's not that easy to classify a particular food as intrinsically healthy or an unhealthy, unless it's actively harmful to anyone who eats it in any reasonable amount. A food can only be healthy or healthy insofar as it interacts with the health of the individual eating it. Even when it is harmful to anyone who eats it, if the alternative would be an inability to afford sufficient food, then it's not so cut and dried. If the only food somebody can afford might give them kidney disease in thirty years, then they need to eat the food. The fault isn't in the choice made, it's in the choices available.

Where there are foods or ingredients that are harmful, they tend to eventually get banned or restricted in some way. It's perfectly reasonable to campaign for awareness of ingredients or foods you believe fall in this category. It's also reasonable to campaign about industry trends which lead to the promotion of unhealthy diets. The argument needs to be clearly targeted at the problem in the food supply and the industry's incentives and marketing. But very often, the tone people use makes it seem more like they're criticising the person eating it for not being as clever or as rich as them.

Saying that a bread roll isn't even food because it has a few additives you don't understand comes across more like snobbish mock horror than any kind of sane argument about unnecessary detriment to health. It's so hyperbolic it's hard to take seriously, and makes it seem like you're looking down on people for being stupid enough to eat something that isn't food.

@qwertyqwertyqwertyqwerty because it is - it's seen as common and cheap and so people automatically decide it's horrible.

I'm not trying to claim it's healthy or super nutritious just that it doesn't deserve all the ridiculous comments that it gets.

I also quite enjoy winding people up on here about it as they all get defensive 😂

I do understand the additives.

There are healthy and unhealthy foods, we all know this. This myth that there isn't is plain old bollocks.

I'm not looking down on anyone, as I said I eat foods that are right across the spectrum.

A food can only be healthy or unhealthy, I meant to say. I only notice this shit after the edit window's ended 🤣

Go on then, what's a healthy food? Just one.

A single food that if you only ate that could deliver a healthy diet? That's a silly question.

A healthy diet is made up of predominantly healthy foods, and you know as well as anyone what that means.

I think that’s close to my feelings too.

I’m learning we all have different “ rankings” of food in our mind. My grandmother, for instance, would have thought a wrap with freshly made salsa, avocado, and chicken mini fillets was “ junk food.” Yet her idea of a “proper meal” was a roast with plenty of nice goose fat potatoes and maybe even a bit of Yorkshire pudding.

Myself I don’t bake a lot because I just find the amount of white flour, butter, and especially sugar to be mind-boggling. Yet I know plenty of people who consider it a wonderful, wholesome sort of “home and hearth “ think to do yet rant about takeaways . I honestly think some of their baking would be worse than a McDs burger.

I think food is just quite emotional and people can have irrational blind spots.

I didn't ask that; that's ridiculously simplistic.

You said that everyone knows that there are healthy foods and unhealthy foods, and that it's "bollocks" and a "myth" to say otherwise (i.e. that there are healthy and unhealthy diets for given individuals, and that foods can be assessed for their place within that particular diet, but that foods are not intrinsically healthy or unhealthy outside of any reference to the health needs of the individual eating it).

So given that you can easily and simply categorise any food as healthy or unhealthy, can you tell me a food that you'd put in the "healthy" category?

It is true that McDonald's has been the global whipping boy for "bad" food for decades.

However the only way to really know would be to have access to the ingredient lists, processes used and to know the quality of ingredients, otherwise we're just guessing and going on "feeling."

They're very transparent about what goes into their food - it's all available on the website.

They even explain the purpose of the dextrose in the chips mentioned above (it's to ensure consistent browning of the fries, because sugar content of potatoes varies).

I think the reason it’s snobbery is because people generally don’t reserve the same contempt for somewhere like Five Guys, Gourmet Burger King or Nando’s which is basically the same thing. McDonalds is seen as being at the bottom of the pile.

There are healthy and unhealthy foods, we all know this.

Yes and no.

There are healthy and unhealthy diets, but it's far too simplistic to say Food A is healthy and Food B is not.

Take fruit - yes, it's healthy and packed full of nutrients but it's also high in sugar. Put it in a smoothie or use it in a juice and it's "worse" again as you're taking in more of it in than if you just ate a single orange.

A diet of fruit smoothies would not be healthy even though fruit itself is considered a healthy food. You need to look at the wider picture, not just think A is good but B is bad.

I'm getting old... I hear myself say in my mother's voice "a fiver for mince in a roll... don't be daft".

It's fast food, relatively cheap. Great, occasionally, for folks who have money, but are time poor.

But I've got the time to make my own, so I guess I look down on it as not great value for just ordinary food. I look down on places like 5 guys too as they are 4 times the McD price for "mince in a roll".

Yes, exactly this. You said it better than me!

I'm sorry, but it may be that your thinking is too sophisticated for me.

It's not that I can't name a lot of foods I'd put in the healthy category, it's that there's no need, because my sense is you know as well as I do what would be included, and if we disagree it'll be at the margins only.

Sometimes it all gets a bit through the looking glass about food on here.

Not everyone is suffering from orthorexia.

It’s the horrible hangover type of feeling the morning after eating McDonalds which I don’t enjoy.

I'm not sure what you're on about. You say that I'm talking bollocks when I say that a food needs to be contextualised within a diet in relation to an individual, and you insist that there are healthy foods and unhealthy foods. When I ask for an example of a healthy food, you bluster that it has to be contextualised as part of a wider diet, then backtrack and double down on the idea that there are intrinsically bad foods and intrinsically good foods, then accuse other people of orthorexia 🤣

I've never understood this as an issue. If we're eating an animal we should be eating nose to tail. If they can use parts that would otherwise go to waste in ground up patties, then all the better for it. At least then the cow has been used.

Firstly not everyone likes wholemeal bread and while I do prefer the taste of wholemeal, it would completely change the nature of that meal, it would have a much more malty, toasty flavour and that doesnt go well with fish in my opinion

Secondly, in the days when my eating was different, I certainly would make that for myself at home, and then eat another one. Whether you want or dont want something more after eating something is often an internal thing.

Secondly the fish in the filet is no different to the fish in fishfingers, its just a large fish finger thats square thats all

And the homemade chips, well you might as well get chippy chips then, particularly better (if you believe in the difference in fats) when its fried in beef dripping. But again, frites/fries are a better combination for that meal, home made chips would turn it into something that its not aiming to be.

No worse than any other fast food or the type of food served in many of the big chain pubs, wouldnt want it too often though