#Big mac deal 2017 mac

'And while the added bacon may be 'crispy trim' and the egg 'free range', the inclusion of these ingredients along with cheese and mayo/aioli inevitably contributes to kilojoule creep.'ĭespite slamming retailers who marketed their gourmet burgers as being 'healthy', Choice doesn’t necessarily recommend you start eating Big Macs either – advising that their investigation is simply to make consumers more aware of the calorie traps in supposedly more nutritious options. 'The gourmet burgers are bigger (385g for The Mighty and a whopping 515g for The Okker, compared with Big Mac's 216g),' writes Clemons.

#Big mac deal 2017 mac

One of the prime reasons why the gourmet burgers eclipsed a Big Mac in the health stakes doesn’t have anything to do with ingredients, but rather size.Īs Clemons notes, almost all of the gourmet burgers analysed were simply larger overall than the Big Mac, which Macca's aficionados (a most prestigious club) will tell you has been dwindling in size since the early 2000s. RELATED: How food manufacturers make junk food as moreish and addictive as possible This wasn't the case – with the low-carb bun from Grill'd actually containing more kilojoules than a traditional bun, thanks largely to the eggs and coconut cream that it's made from. One of the prime marketing moves made by the gourmet burger retailers was to label their options as being 'low-carb', which many consumers implied to also mean 'low kilojoule'. 'But we found that all of the gourmet beef burgers we looked at (and most of the chicken and veggie burgers too) had more kilojoules than a Big Mac, and many weren't shy with the saturated fat and salt either.' 'Certainly Grill'd claims its burgers have 'no nasties' (including no preservatives in its buns, and no artificial preservatives in its dressings), whereas a range of additives are included in the ingredients lists of burgers from McDonald's.

'You might expect that with all those premium, fresh ingredients, most gourmet burgers would compare favourably to a Big Mac, which isn't exactly the poster child for health food,' writes Clemons. Many would argue that the quality of ingredients used in the gourmet burgers compared to a Big Mac outweighs their kilojoule content – but Clemons argues that it's hard to ignore the data.

It's not all doom and gloom however – with some burgers like the 'Simon Says' from Grill'd (2240kJ, 5.1g saturated fat and 921mg sodium) and the 'Bombay Bash' from Burger Edge (1830kJ, 2.1g saturated fat and 1030mg sodium) performing better than the Big Mac. Other poor-performing burgers were ' The Okker ' from Burger Edge (3500kJ, 16.3g saturated fat and 2400mg sodium), the ' Caesar's Palace ' from Grill'd (3208kJ, 16.6g saturated fat and 992mg sodium) and the classic ' Whopper ' from Hungry Jack's (2900kJ, 11.7g saturated fat and 667mg sodium).