I opened my mail yesterday morning and found – gasp! – four McDonald’s “wholesome” choices for 300 calories or less.
Get out. Who knew McDonald’s had anything wholesome for 300 calories!?
Ironically enough, last night, one of my friends was mentioning that he grabbed McDonald’s the other morning, because he just didn’t have the time (“…but it’s only 300 calories!”).
Pause.
McDonald’s marketing campaign: 1
Friend: 0 (with all due respect, of course)
So, let’s check out what this marketing campaign entails. We’ll choose the infamous Egg McMuffin nutrition facts: English muffin, Egg, Pasteurized Process American Cheese, Canadian Style Bacon, and Liquid Margarine.
Pretty wholesome, right? I mean, minus the liquid margarine; a man-made, hydrogenated, vegetable oil that contributes to inflammation.
Digging further, though, McDonald’s prints the exact breakdown of those “wholesome” ingredients further (and feel free to SKIM the long list quickly!).
Egg McMuffin
Allergens: WHEAT, SOY LECITHIN, EGG, MILK
English Muffin
Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, high fructose corn syrup (arggg!), sugar, wheat gluten, soybean oil and/or canola oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, citric acid, calcium citrate, yellow corn flour, corn meal, rice flour, barley malt, artificial flavors, natural flavors (botanical source), dough conditioners (ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, datem, tricalcium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, calcium peroxide), calcium propionate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), soy lecithin.
Prepared with Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil and hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, soy lecithin, mono-and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).
Egg (apparently, a McDonald’s egg is not just an egg.)
USDA Grade A eggs, soy lecithin (release agent). Prepared with Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil and hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, soy lecithin, mono-and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).
Pasteurized Process American Cheese
Milk, water, milkfat, cheese culture, sodium citrate, salt, citric acid, sorbic acid (preservative), sodium phosphate, color added, lactic acid, acetic acid, enzymes, soy lecithin (added for slice separation).
Canadian Style Bacon
Pork, water, sugar, salt, sodium lactate, sodium phosphate, natural flavor (vegetable), sodium diacetate and sodium nitrite (preservatives).
Liquid Margarine
Liquid soybean oil and hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, soy lecithin, mono-and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).
…….
Have you left me yet!??
So you get the picture that a bite of an Egg McMuffin contains an ingredient list as long as a book. Without breaking down every single one of the processed ingredients, the majority of this entire meal is processed. Not good.
But, what about the 300 calories, you say?
Food (and life) is just not about the calories. There’s no magic prize that we get if do or don’t eat a certain number of calories. Nor is it healthy emotionally or physically to do obsess over these numbers.
It’s about WHAT we eat. Is it real food? Did it grow from the ground and/or have a mother?
It’s also about the QUALITY of what we eat. Is it organic/chemical-free? Is it fresh, local, seasonal?
Save Now, Pay Later
So before you or a friend become a successful statistic for McDonald’s stockholders, ask yourself if saving a buck (or two) and a minute (or two) is REALLY worth it?
Because the extra dollar(s) and the extra minute(s) that you save now, will cost you later in both health (and time!) and money.
As Ghandi says,
“Man[…] sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”