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...

Read Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken. He talks about 'industrial produced edible substances'. Such an eye opener.

With regards to McDonalds, I think we all know it's unhealthy. It's Ultra processed and full of salt, fat and/or sugar.

No, ta, I'm fine.

And whatever is in that book, McDonald's is still food.

I know nobody IRL as obsessed over UPFs as I see on here.

The only person I know IRL who is obsessed with UPF's is orthorexic.

Everyone else just...buys food and eats it. And they're generally all healthy, active people who don't struggle with their weight or with any major health issues.

It's only really on MN that I see people behave like this. Part of me wonders whether most of it's made up tbh 😂

It’s just processed and fatty.
I do go to macdonalds but my guts play up after so something in it definitely doesn’t agree with my digestive system.

Most people don't obsess about UPF but about 80% of our diets in the UK are made up of UPFs so we really should start thinking about it.
I think everyone can see as a nation we aren't healthy. Over 60% of us are overweight. UPFs play a massive role in that.

I often think that, people are banging on about UPFs and cooking from scratch while tucking into a packet of jaffa cakes and a Charlie Bingham ready meal (because its soo much better than Iceland's own dontcha know!)

The same people slagging off Mcdonalds, and their kids would never touch that muck, will go to a 'restaurant' with cutlery and have burger and chips. But they're 'restaurant' chips and its a 'restaurant' burger and it comes with a salad garnish and afterwards the'll have icecream but its 'restaurant' icecream. Not the stuff out a machine that the plebs eat.

That doesn't make it not food though, which is my point.

Whether we eat healthily as a nation is a separate issue.

people are banging on about UPFs and cooking from scratch while tucking into a packet of jaffa cakes

Are people who bang on about UPFs eating Jaffa cakes? Aren't they UPF? (I've not read that book, but would assume they are?)

Yes of course, thats my point!!!

Average UPF poster…?

This. Too many people just want to ignore the evidence in front of them, because it is easier to do that, then make the hard effort to eat well. Too much reliance on ready meals, and fast food, is a massive problem. The outcome of all this is plain to see.

Look up definitions of food though, eg.

'A material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate and fat used in the body to sustain growth, repair and vital processes to furnish energy'

UPFs, including most things at McDonald's, have loads of added ingredients which our bodies do not need and which actually are causing our bodies harm. That is not 'food' as it should be. Just because we can eat it, doesn't mean it's food.

It's food. I'm happy with that definition.

We'll agree to disagree then.
It's your body, your health.

UPF ingredients dont change the the fact there is protein, fat, carbohydrate in the item.

It might not be the exact balance a person is striving for if they are following a particular diet style. It might also be in a combination that makes it too moreish to limit what you're eating. The UPFs in it may also affect or not suit a persons particular chemical/biological make up and make them ill or feel ill

But it doesnt make it not food.

Haven't read the full thread but went on a school trip to a working farm with my DD's school and the farmer said that McDonalds used to be bad but now uses good quality meat - his cows supply Sainsburys, Aldi and McDonalds.

I haven't said what I do or don't eat. But the obsession over UPFs on here is crackers, IMO.

But then I have an autistic child with ARFID, and frankly I just need him to bloody eat to stay alive. If the only safe foods he has are UPFs, then that's what he'll have to eat, as I'm not in the business of starving my child to death over how healthy (or otherwise) his VERY limited food stuffs are. Some things are bigger and more important than that.

I'd definitely recommend Chris van Tulleken's book. It's fascinating and scarey in equal measure. The companies that produce most of the 'food' we eat are just about profit - and they'll go to any lengths to make money.
See also Nestle and the whole breastfeeding/ formula scandal in Africa. That's for another thread though...!

It’s only ever emergency rations for us, such as when we’re travelling.

This is like agreeing to disagree about whether a 1974 Austin Allegro with no seatbelts is actually a mahogany dining table. Just because someone knows it's a car doesn't mean they want to drive it tho.

The companies that produce most of the 'food' we eat are just about profit

Of course they are

Netcam · Yesterday 22:23

Agree. I wouldn't eat it if you paid me. I know someone who got dysentery from a McDonald's burger.”

🤣 Highly unlikely.

I dont need to read the book, I was onto this/aware of this before this bloody book came along in terms of food manufacturers and profit making. People think that supermarkets and food manufacturers are cosy friends, they are businesses that need our money and they work on a model of over buying (food waste) and over consumption. I know this, have known this for decades. The stuff people bang on about here is not revelationary to me. Sick of people going on about this bloody book

I make nearly all my own foods but thats not because I will pass out if I eat something thats UPF and I dont buy into this absolute horror that are UPFs, I believe in balance and an overall diet. I got hugely hugely overweight by eating virtually majority based home cooked foods and 'very naice' restaurant food. Very naice in fact. I dont buy into that our health problems as a nation are just about UPFs, although its a big contributing factor

Having said that, Mcdonalds is still food, its not going to kill someone in and of itself. There is no such thing as a 'healthy food' or 'unhealthy food'.

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“UPFs, including most things at McDonald's, have loads of added ingredients which”

The only added ingredients in the beef patties are salt and pepper.

The burger patties are great. We have a McDonalds beef farm up the road, happy cows.

The buns are sad. You don't have to chew, they are suckable. If there was an option for chewy white sour dough I'd probably eat there though.

Fries, I prefer chippy chips.