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Comment by grecy | Hacker News Reader

> I am pretty sure the cheeseburger, apple slices, and chocolate milk are not much worse, and probably better, than the typical fare on a slapped together kids meal.

Wow. It saddens me to see that statement. I thought it was commonly knowledge that McDonalds isn't actually "food" in the nutrition and health sense of the word any more than cotton candy and pure salt are.

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That's awfully ignorant. Hating on McDonalds and the like is the trendy thing to do now, but to say that there is no nutritional or health value in their food is ridiculous.

I just looked up the nutrition facts for a kid's happy meal with a cheeseburger, apples slices and chocolate milk. In total, you've got:

  450 calories
  12g total fat
  6g saturated fat (not that it matters)
  61g Carbs
  32g Sugars (22 of which come from the chocolate milk)
  24g Protein

Thats about 60% carbs, 24% protein, and 12% fat. Lacking a special diet, that's about ideal (textbook anyway) macros.

Wanna talk 'health' and specific micros?

You've got 820mg of sodium. High, sure, but so is all American food. 20% of your daily Vit A, 160% of your daily Vit C, 50% of your daily Calcium, 25% of your daily Iron.

You're getting a reasonable amount of calories, with a reasonable macronutrient ratio, and a fair spattering of micronutrients for, what, $5?

Plus a toy, and a playground. Two things that plenty of people don't have trivially available to them.

But it's not organic, or free trade, or antibiotic free, or gluten free, or made exclusively by third-world war orphans, so it must be crap. I get it.

Exactly. I take my son there all the time to eat the chicken nuggets, apples, and choc milk. He plays on the playground and has a blast being social with other kids there. People just speak with the mobs instead of thinking, its absurd.

High sodium intake is not bad for you (unless you have a few very specific and unusual health conditions.) Like most late 20th century nutritional guidance, turns out that idea was totally wrong.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-th...

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=sodium+no+longer+bad+f...

I'm on board, but when talking about stuff like this it's best to use the textbook answers: less wiggle room.

I'm not suggesting that you eat only McDonald's every day. Nobody is. But relative to some of the stuff that kids find palatable? It's not really much better or worse. It's saltier than I would cook at home, but a healthy kid can pass plenty of salt without a problem:

Chicken Nuggets -- pretty standard breaded chicken [1]. I don't love autolysed yeast, but it doesn't make it not "food."

Milk -- same as you can get anywhere else.

French fries -- potatoes, vegetable oil, and salt. Definitely "food."

Chicken sandwich -- again, saltier than I'd cook at home, but the major ingredient is the same chicken meat as anywhere else.

[1] http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/getnutrition/ingredientslist....

[edit: punctuation]

>Chicken Nuggets -- pretty standard breaded chicken //

In the UK the recipe includes "dried glucose syrup" and dextrose.

Also, just calling it autolysed yeast instead of MSG shows they're trying to hide the real contents. What else do they hide under "natural flavours (botanical source)" or whatever they use in ingredients list.

It's not particularly healthy food, but saying "it's not food" is anti-scientific gibberish.

The grilled chicken sandwiches at McDonald's are actually pretty healthy.

I don't think anyone would claim that McDonald's is a healthy option, but saying that it's "common knowledge" that it's not "food" comes off simultaneously arrogant and ignorant.

For many families, McDonald's is one of only a handful of local food sources within their budget. Consider that, also.

If it's common knowledge, please link to some info about how a cheeseburger, apple slices and chocolate milk aren't food.

There are plenty of "real", "local", "organic" restaurants where the kids' meal is (local) grilled cheese and (organic) fries. How could this possibly be less nutritious?

There are certainly items on the menu of questionable value. That said, something like apple slices are pretty universal, no?

What is kid food? Kids can very early eat and enjoy the same food as adults; it's a question of food education (for instance, https://theconversation.com/pleasure-is-good-how-french-chil... in France and Italy)

Get a couple double cheeseburgers with no bun (meat and cheese only). An extremely affordable way to get a quick bite to eat while on a ketogenic diet.

This.

Using McDoubles instead will save you another $.80 or so.

To be fair to the original commenter... a "kid's meal" isn't typically "food" either in the nutritional sense. A lot of "food" made for "kids" is actually devoid of nutritional content in the best cases... and actually harmful in the worst cases.

Why the downvote? Have you read the ingredients list, its insane!

My kids would rather eat cheap Maki rolls from a local sushi spot than American fast food. In many cases, it actually cheaper.

> Have you read the ingredients list, its insane!

It literally contains dihydrogen monoxide!

More seriously: Unless you actually understand what's on the list, just slamming it because it looks "insane" is ignorant.

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