Wednesday, September 7, 2011

McDonalds calorie count and blackberry jam crumb cake

Pasta with chickpeas and cauliflower
Food Diary (September 06, 2011)
Breakfast: Wholemeal sourdough with cheese
Lunch: Pasta with chickpeas and cauliflower
Dinner: Rolled oats with coconut, raisins, flax seeds and sunflower seeds
Baking/sweets:

Chickpeas and cauliflower together was good but not great I thought. I ate it and was happy with it but I will  still complain, I am human after all! Chickpeas just on its own would have been much nicer, or together with meatballs or bacon or probably any other meat. I posted a recipe for pasta with beans and meatballs  sometime back, it is a really comforting dish. I don't think I will be in a hurry to repeat the chickpeas cauliflower combination.

Today's Favourite Photo
Source: Technicolor Kitchen
Blackberry jam crumb cake



Today’s Favourite Blog
This is not surprising, McDonald's puts calories on the menu and it is not making much of a difference. In New York where McDonald's has been publishing calorie counts since 2008, the average lunchtime purchase has dropped from 829 to 785 calories.  This is about 5% only.

I guess the decision to put calories was more for awareness. Personally I rarely go to McDonalds but when I do, I don’t go there to eat healthy food. Calorie count will make no difference for me. I suppose for people who visit McDonalds often they may be influenced by the calories. Perhaps ordering a medium coke instead of large, or diet coke instead of regular coke, will make some people feel a lot better. And happy customers means improved customer retention. So perhaps the calorie counts are helping McDonalds and other fast food chains. 

And did you know that sprite zero has only two calories? This reminds me of the Russian saying "drinking beer without vodka is a waste of money".

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18 comments:

  1. Oooh, that crumb cake is enticing~love that thick topping!

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  2. You eat such healthy meals! I am doing better at that, but still have a way to go because I do like my sweets. I would love to have a piece of that crumb cake.

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  3. hahah calorie count is just one end of the deal. publishing nutritional profiles.. like fat cals n such.... would shock customers...

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  4. Got to agree I certainly don't go to McDonalds to be healthy. Though calories could make me go for a different burger choice ... maybe. I don't even THINK about calories when I see that crumb cake!

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  5. I don't like cauliflower, so I would definitely eat it without that :))

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  6. Haha I don't think I've ever looked at the calorie counts at McDonalds although admittedly I only tend to order fries! :)

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  7. I dont mind counting the calories as well, as long as its good food!

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  8. I love the Russian saying! (Although as someone who has already tasted once beer with vodka I don't recommend doing it).
    The other day I saw a French tv program about healthy eating habits and all the doctors and nutritionists agreed hamburgers are the healthiest part of the standard Mc Donald's meal (coke, chips and hamburger). The worst is apparently coke (luckily I don't like it and never take it), then went chips (or French fries for some).
    They were saying that if someone really needs a fast food meal, a well-known chain is a better choice than for example frozen meals from supermarkets (full of strange things) or unknown small kebab places (it reminded me a Swiss tv investigation: out of about 15 kebabs (marked as "lamb kebab") they tested in a lab, only one had 100% lamb meat... Luckily for me here the kebabs are awful and I never eat them.

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  9. Lizzy: I know, thick toppings are awesome

    Elaine: sweets are good, I love them too!

    Junia: they already publish nutritional profiles but maybe there is too much focus on calories

    Keely: I don’t think about calories either!

    Marina: that’s an easy decision then

    Lorraine: you’ve just reminded me of the wonderful fries McD’s has

    Raymund: good food ahead of calorie count – I like your approach:)

    Sissi: that Russian saying refers to drinking vodka after drinking beer, not together. The reason is that beer has low alcohol content and you generally have to drink a lot to get drunk. So if you just drink few beers and don’t get drunk, it’s a waste of money (since the objective of drinking is to get drunk, according to the saying!). Hamburgers are pretty good, its 100% (or almost?) beef and good quality. The frozen stuff has lots of things added to prolong shelf life. I am not surprised about the kebabs, in some cases probably the kebab shop owner does not know whats in it:)

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  10. You know, I think that the problem with including the calorie count is that most people don't know how many calories they SHOULD be eating, and so when something is 700 or 800 calories, it doesn't mean anything to them. And those who ARE concerned with calories/health probably aren't going to McDonald's for lunch anyway. I know I haven't stepped foot in one in at least five years.

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  11. I am with you, when and if I ever go to MCDonalds I don;t go to eat healthy, I know what I am getting but i guess it would help those who go there all the time and need to make "better" choices as far as portions, etc. I think overall it is a good idea.

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  12. Agreed. When I do visit McDonald's, I'm not really checking the calories. Though, I will compare when I want to get a couple of things off the "healthy" menu, like the fruit and yogurt parfait and apple slices.

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  13. Joanne: agree, I don't know how many calories I eat so whether its 200 or 400 makes no difference me!

    Kitchen belleicious: it is a good idea, it helps some people at least but more work for those whose job is to calculate calories:)

    yummychunklet: that makes sense, to ntoe calorie count when eating healthy!

    Sissi: I forgot to add, the meat patty is healthy but the sauces, bun etc are not so healthy.

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  14. The noodle looks so comforting and tasty!

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  15. Same here. I don't go to McDonald's too often and when i do, I'm not too bothered with amount of calories.

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  16. Oops, so I revealed my student years' experiments with alcohol ;-)
    Seriously I have seen many people drinking vodka with beer (in the same glass).
    In Switzerland they put ads saying it's only beef and only Swiss, and since they are rather strictly controlled I suppose there is not much chance of it being false. When I saw how the Swiss frozen kebab "towers" are made, I understood why it's so disgusting here and why it's easy to cheat with the meat: it's all ground meat! In the countries where I had really good kebabs they were made of thickly cut not ground meat.

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  17. Angie: thank you, it was comforting and tasty!

    Sylvia: thats a good practical approach

    Sissi: Yes you did reveal your experiment and now I want to hear more. Maybe a blog post dedicated to your alcohol mixing experiments:) I have tried vodka and beer together also, its not very delicious, especially if you put a lot of vodka in beer! In Sweden they say the burger contains 100% Swedish beef but since it has salt its slightly less than 100%! The meat patty is pretty good

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  18. Yes, the bun is all sugar and fat... Unfortunately.
    I don't know if they still do it, but once they made a special hamburger with real Swiss cheese (I think it was Emmental) instead of the usual thing pretending to be cheese. This one was really good!
    The beer and vodka mix was really disgusting I remember. Then I once also tasted a mixture of vodka and Red Bull. It was scary!

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