Fast Food May Be Fast Lane To Questionable Eating

McDonald’s has just launched a major campaign to get your business back. During this promotion, you can get one of four featured breakfast items for just 55 cents, as long as you buy hash browns and a drink, too.

If you are both cost-conscious and nutritionally aware, pay attention.

When it comes to cost, an Associated Press article points out the add-ons could wipe out your sandwich savings. That’s because franchisers set their own prices for required additional items.

And when it comes to nutrition, those meals can fit in an overall healthy eating plan. But you’ll have to choose carefully for the rest of the day.

The worst-case scenario is a sausage biscuit with egg, hash browns and orange juice. That adds up to 715 calories, which is OK if you’re a younger man, but the 40 fat grams is almost half of your maximum for the day. If you’re a woman over 50, it’s almost two-thirds of your daily fat allowance.

An Egg McMuffin, hash browns and orange juice is more reasonable. It provides 490 calories, which is workable, even for older women. The 18 grams of fat is still high for a breakfast meal, but manageable; an older woman will still have 45 grams of fat left to split between lunch and dinner.

Beyond fat and calories, consider a few other nutrition issues as you choose lunch and dinner.

For women, the breakfast sandwich meals provide half your day’s protein. And mounting evidence shows diets high in animal protein trigger calcium loss from bones, increasing osteoporosis risks.

Sodium is even harder on your bones, and any sandwich-hash browns combo provides half your sodium for the day. In addition, these meals provide almost no fiber, important for preventing many chronic conditions from cancer to constipation.

Wendy’s new stuffed pita pockets can help. When you choose the low-fat dressing, the sandwiches average 300-400 calories with only 5 to 7 grams of fat. However, those that include chicken average 32 grams of protein (75 percent of your daily needs), so you might want to choose the garden veggie or classic Greek when you’ve had lots of protein for breakfast. They’re still high in sodium (close to 1,000 milligrams each), so you might try vinegar and oil dressing and lots of fresh pepper to take care of your bones.

Fill your hunger gaps with vegetarian meals, fresh fruit, vegetables and some low-fat dairy foods.

Recommended daily calories and fat limits: Men (ages 25-50), 2,900 calories, 97 grams fat; men (51 and older), 2,300 calories, 77 grams fat; women (25-50), 2,200 calories, 74 grams fat; women (51 and older), 1,900 calories, 63 grams fat.

McDonald’s breakfast items, calories and fat content: Egg McMuffin, 280 calories, 11 grams fat; Sausage McMuffin With Egg, 430 calories, 25 grams fat; Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit, 440 calories, 26 grams fat; Sausage Biscuit With Egg, 505 calories, 33 grams fat; hash browns, 130 calories, 7 grams fat; orange juice, 80 calories, no fat.

Wendy’s fresh-stuffed pitas, calories and fat content: Garden Veggie, 293 calories, 5 fat grams; Garden Ranch Chicken (with reduced fat/reduced calorie garden ranch sauce), 363 calories, 5 fat grams; Chicken Caesar (with reduced fat/reduced calorie Caesar vinaigrette), 370 calories, 7 fat grams; Classic Greek, 302 calories, 7 fat grams.