There's been a lot of buzz about the evil of toys in your kid's Happy Meal or other fast food meals lately. Busy moms might find themselves in the drive through once too often as they try to cram in after school activities, homework time and dinner for their kids.
If you're curious about the calorie count of a McDonald's Happy Meal, you can click here for a break down of all their Happy Meal combinations. Click here to see the nutritional info on the rest of their food.
For example, the classic combo of cheeseburger, fries and soda has 640 calories, 24 grams of fat, 940 grams of sodium, and 5 grams of fiber. The meal combo with the lowest calorie count is the nuggets with apple dippers and apple juice, which comes in at 380 calories, 12 grams of fat and 460 grams of sodium, but 0 grams of fiber. Go figure.
By comparison, an adult meal of Quarter Pounder with Cheese, large fry and a Coke is 1330 calories, 51 grams of fat, 1560 grams of sodium and 9 grams of fiber. Ouch! Maybe mom's should eat a Happy Meal too! Moms can tone done their meal without going the salad route by ordering a plain burger, small fries and a diet Coke, for 480 calories, 20 grams of fat, 710 grams of sodium, and 5 grams of fiber.
If you haven't gotten into the habit of letting your kids pick out Happy Meals, you can actually avoid the controversy by sharing a Two Cheese Burger value meal with your kid. If you're eating fast food because you actually enjoy a cheeseburger, you cam split your fries with your kid and both eat a more reasonable amount. Because, let's face it, sometimes mom's want a cheeseburger too!
You can check out the Fast Food Explorer to find the nutritional info on food from other popular chains.
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Comments
On the rare occasion we go out to eat, I order happy meals for myself and it is more than enough food for an adult.
I tend to order the kids meals myself.
Thanks for the information--I wish McDonald's would go the Panera Bread route (recently announced) and post the calorie count on its menu board.
I am going to share this with my blog and Twitter account, because so many doll collectors collect the little Happy Meal dolls. (Stumble it, too!)
Wow, that is a lot of calories for a kid's meal.
Great info- thanks for sharing. I just watched Supersize Me again and it seems like the fast food places have slipped back into the old routine, after getting rid of their supersized menus a few years back.
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