Untangling Fitness

by Mark ° Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I drove past McDonald's the other day and noticed that very familiar tag line, "Over 100 Billion Served."

Turning towards Karla, I said, "I know what my next post is going to be about. I'm going to estimate how many pounds everyone in the world has gained by eating at McDonald's 100 Billion times."

The meal that I chose to base my number on consists of the following:
-1 hamburger (not a Big Mac...just those paper thin burgers and squished bun)
-1 medium french fry
-1 medium coke

I'd say that's a pretty conservative meal at McDonald's. No cheese, no bacon and one small burger.

If 100 Billion orders of this meal were served that translates to a total of over
20, 700, 000, 000 (that's 20.7 billion) pounds of fat that people all over the world have purchased and ingested from the McDonald's corporation.

Now, based on some quick research, the "Average American Male" (I'll say North American male) weighs between 150-180 lbs. So let's compare against a 165 lbs man.

The amount of FAT that people have added to their bodies by eating McDonald's food is comparable to 124, 831, 168 adult males (assuming they weigh 165 lbs). That's almost 4 times (3.8 to be exact) the entire population of Canada being carried around in excess weight.

Now, I understand in the past McDonald's has taken a lot of heat about the quality of their food. In their defense, they are making this information available on their web site because consumers are demanding it. But still, that's no excuse!

Oh, and don't even start on the HEALTHY McDonald's salads. A quick review of the nutrition content of these so called healthy meals confirms my suspicion that those "Lighter Choice" salads are worse to eat than a fatty hamburger.

Labels: Insight, Thinking Out Loud