The Big Mac was created by Jim Delligatti, a McDonald's franchisee, in 1967. It was intended to be a rival to Burger King's signature sandwich, the Whopper, and was to be created by Delligatti using only ingredients already available in McDonald's kitchens (except those famous sesame seed buns — he snuck those in). It was he who came up with the whole double-decker design and perfected the. For those of you who are still wondering about the Big Mac vs. Whopper health debate let me throw some stats at you: Big Mac – 550 calories, 29 grams of fat. Whopper – 630 calories, 35 grams of fat. Now THAT is a cheat day burger! These aren’t going to be the best foods in the world for you. If you are eating a diet of around 2,000 calories a day, a Big Mac provides 52 percent of fat, 55 percent of your recommended daily intake of saturated fat, 16 percent of your carbohydrates, 12 percent of your fiber intake, 28 percent of your daily cholesterol, and 45 percent of your total sodium. What is good about a Big Mac? Created by Fast Food Menu Price, this supposedly gives you a breakdown of the effects of Big Mac ingredients over a period of one hour, nicely segregated into 10-minute time periods.

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Everyone knows Big Macs aren’t good for you — but these ‘healthy’ foods are actually much worse. Picture: Paul J. Richards/AFPSource:AFP

There is more “healthy” food out there than ever before, specifically designed to meet the growing market of time-poor, health-conscious Australians.

But dig a little deeper and a surprising number of these so-called healthy options are actually worse for you than a Big Mac.

To its credit, McDonald’s makes no secret of the fact its Big Macs aren’t designed to be good for you. It says it right there on the box: Fat, 31g, sugar 7.1g, sodium 1040mg.

The infamous Big Mac. Picture: SuppliedSource:$1 Big mac 2019

But the same can’t be said for those “healthier” options that market themselves as better alternatives but can actually be worse for you than everyone’s favourite McDonald’s order.

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GRILL’D HEALTHY BURGERS

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It’s funny that a company that actually has the word “healthy” in its name unfortunately doesn’t always live up to the “healthy” hype. In fact, many Grill’d burgers are actually worse for you than a Big Mac.

Grill’d’s Crispy Bacon and Cheese burger contains a whopping 37.7g of fat, 11g of sugar and around 1500mg of salt. Healthy, you say? Not exactly.

THAI TAKEAWAY

When you walk into any Thai restaurant and watch the simplicity of the ingredients that go into every dish, it’s easy to think you’ve landed in tasty health food heaven.

But there are some dishes lurking on the menu that pack an unbelievable amount of fat and salt — take that perennial favourite pad Thai, which, according to Deliveroo, is the most popular takeaway dish in Australia.

Are you ready for this? A chicken pad Thai contains as much as 40g of fat, and an incredible 2600mg of sodium and up to 20g sugar.

Big Mac Good For You Clean

Big Mac Good For You

We love pad Thai, but it doesn’t love us back. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

YOUFOODZ

Youfoodz is now one of the largest “healthy meals on the go” companies around with their clever advertising to busy people who want to eat healthily. And yes, like McDonald’s, they too have healthy options. However, does Youfoodz live up to all the hype? Take their Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad — yes salad it says, however this meal is actually worse for you nutritionally than a Big Mac with 31.4g fat and 10.6g sugar.

Most YouFoodz meals are great healthy choices, but some aren’t as healthy as you would think. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

SUSHI

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Sushi is the go-to pick for a healthy snack, and to be fair, if you’re ordering sashimi (up to 40 calories per piece), it genuinely is good for you. That’s largely the meal of choice in Japan, for example, a country with one of the longest life expectancies on the planet.

But do you know what you never see in Japan? The fried chicken rolls and Teriyaki chicken options paired with white rice, slathered in mayonnaise, then dunked in the salt bath that is soy sauce.

Just one roll has up to 13g of fat and 960mg of salt, and that’s before the soy sauce. And most of us have 2-3 of these little rolls which can blow out to over 30g fat, 20g sugar not to mention 2000mg of stroke-inducing sodium.

BANANA BREAD

I’m going to let you in on a little secret — banana bread is not actually bread. It’s cake. And it’s delicious. But it has had a very clever marketing job pulled on it.

No surprise, then, that a single, 128gm slice will serve up 16.3gm of fat, 411mg of salt and, wait for it, 30.3g of sugar.

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Banana bread? Nope, banana cake. Picture: SuppliedSource:The Cairns Post

I guess the point is all restaurants have healthy options but you need to look for them very carefully and be aware that not all foods labelled “healthy” end up being good for you. I guess, as the saying goes, if it tastes too good to be true it probably is.

Belinda MacDougall is the Founder of The Lady Shake

Let me start off by saying that I love burgers – I think they are absolutely one of the tastiest foods out there and I’d prefer a good burger over many other foods.

On my last cheat day for instance I had a Big Mac and thought it was delightful – ba-da-ba-ba-ba – I was lovin’ it.

Now, based on the title of this post you may be hoping that I’d tell you either the Big Mac or the Whopper is healthier for you, but I’m really going to tell you this:

It doesn’t matter.

Now just hold your horses for a bit if you are upset by this – let me explain and help better your perspective on things.

Is One Big Mac Bad For You

The issue of a Big Mac or a Whopper or any other fast food burger being “healthier” is basically irrelevant.

If you are worrying about issues such as this one and not looking at the amount of food you are consuming, the amount of protein in your diet, your hydration levels, or your exercise habits, then you are going to have difficulty reaching your goals – regardless of what they may be.

You know just as well as I do that fast food tends not to be the healthiest option, (Have you seen Super Size Me?) so what can you do about your cravings for a Big Mac or Whopper? How can you consume these and still lose weight or stay fit?

Well, there are two options I have for you:

  1. The 80/20 rule. Basically with this thought process the idea is to eat healthy 80%of the time and indulge 20% of the time. If you are eating 3 meals per day plus 2 snacks you are looking at roughly 35 feeding opportunities per week. Using this method you could eat basically whatever you want 7 times per week with the other 28 times being completely healthy meals. For many people this works great. For those of you who can’t control the amount you are consuming 20% of the time this may be an issue for you. Try this method out and see what you think – just make sure those healthy meal times are completely clean – no cookies, chips, and all those other unhealthy foods during that time.
  2. One cheat day per week. This is a method I’ve personally used for a fair amount of time and I’ve found it works well. You’ll eat healthy 6 days per week and then 1 day per week you’ll eat whatever you want. I’ll often have my cheat day be a Saturday and I’ll go hard on that day. Anything I’ve been craving throughout the week I’ll just have on this day. This method isn’t for everyone, especially if you can’t stay on track during the week, but I’ve found it works well because you are selecting one day ahead of time to eat all the Big Macs, Whoppers, or other foods you’ve been craving. When you want something during the week, just tell yourself that you can have it on cheat day!

Try out one of these methods and see how it works for you. Remember, we’re all different and can handle different things.

For those of you who are still wondering about the Big Mac vs. Whopper health debate let me throw some stats at you:

Big Mac – 550 calories, 29 grams of fat

Whopper – 630 calories, 35 grams of fat

These aren’t going to be the best foods in the world for you, but not the worst either.

I’ll tell you this though, if you enjoy them and want to have them occasional, go for it!

I’m not saying you should have them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, but come on, you have to enjoy life a bit!

Do you already use the 80/20 method of eating or the one cheat day per week method?

Leave a comment below and let me know how they are working for you, I’m sure other people would love to see which method works best!