Fast Food Restaurant Menu Items Compared

Posted by Nathan on Nov 14, 2007 to Data Sources / Add your comment

McDonald’s Big MacWe all know fast food is incredibly bad for us and yet we still eat it. Why? Because it has tons of fat and tastes delicious. Nevermind that we will die a few days earlier for every French fry we eat.

Over at Calorie Counter, they try to make us feel guilty with numbers. Check out the Carl's Jr. Double Six Double Dollar Burger with 1,520 Calories and a delicious 111 grams of fat. I'm a little surprised that it beat out the Burger King Triple Whopper with cheese. I shudder just thinking about eating one of those.

Anyways, there's a whole lot of numbers here but not an incredible amount of meaning. How bad is bad? How much fat should I consume per day? Is 111 grams of fat bad? If yes, how will it directly affect me? Yes, 111 grams of fat is bad for you. You will directly feel the effects as you sit on the toilet in the morning wondering why it is taking you so long to take a dump. Now that's context.

Also, with all the numbers, I bet all the tables would benefit from some kind of chart or, at the least, a simple infographic. Any takers? We should have a contest for who can make fast food the least appealing using nutritional data and without bending the truth.

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