Kale, the newest celebrity to enter the health food kick, has made an appearance at McDonald’s. With its noteworthy benefits of vitamins A, C and K, B, Folate, 2.5 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein, it is small wonder so many are adding it to their diets.
McDonald’s, in order to offer this healthy green to its customers, has created the “Keep Calm, Caesar On” salad in Canada. But on a side by side comparison, the famous double Big Mac actually does better calorically, as well as in fat and sodium content, than the salad.
By comparison, the double Big Mac featuring two beef patties and three pieces of bread has 680 calories, 38 grams of fat, and 1,340 milligrams of sodium.
McDonald’s Canada’s “Keep Calm, Caesar On” crispy chicken salad with “real parmesan petals” and “a nutrient-rich lettuce blend with baby kale” has 730 calories, 53 grams of fat, and 1,400 milligrams of salt, once you add the Asiago Caesar dressing.
If one wants to actually make the salad healthy, a McDonald’s representative said that customers could exclude the dressing, which would “reduce the calories to 520 and cut the fat nearly in half.” Also, replacing the crispy fried chicken with grilled chicken will further reduce the fat and calorie content.
In the United States, McDonald’s has also been testing kale. It began offering breakfast bowls with “kale, sausage, egg whites, and other ingredients” in Southern California last spring.
Another fast food chain has also added the superfood kale to it’s menu. Chick-fil-A has a salad that has much fewer calories than the McDonald’s creation, but it is 15% smaller. At Chick-fil-A one can get a crispy chicken salad of “kale, broccolini, dried sour cherries, and roasted nuts tossed in a maple vinaigrette dressing. The whole meal has 410 calories, 20 grams of fat, and 1,210 milligrams of sodium.”
It seems like getting a perceived healthy meal at a fast food joint is not the point of fast food. More power to the restaurant chains for listening to their customers desires, but the customers need to know that just because it has nutritiously trendy kale in it, does not make it healthy.
Source: Business Insider
90% of McDonald’s patrons, don’t care about ingredients.
Nothing at McDonald’s is good!