A Comprehensive Nutritional Analysis of a McDonald's Fast Food Meal

This report provides a nutritional analysis of a medium pack of McDonald's French Fries, evaluating its nutritional value against USDA guidelines. The analysis reveals that while the fries provide significant amounts of fat and fiber, they lack essential food groups, potentially leading to nutritional deficiencies. A revised meal option, the Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad, is suggested as a healthier alternative, offering a more diverse range of nutrients. However, the salad's high sodium, saturated fat, and cholesterol content are also noted as potential concerns. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of incorporating various food groups and modifying cooking methods for a healthier fast-food meal, highlighting the need for balanced nutrition and portion control. Desklib offers a platform to explore similar solved assignments.

Running head: NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS OF FAST FOODS
NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS OF FAST FOODS
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1NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS OF FAST FOODS
Introduction
The following report encompasses the nutritional evaluation of a popular fast food meal
served by a noteworthy organization. The chosen fast food meal is 1 medium pack of French
fries served at McDonald’s followed by calculations of its nutritional value, its evaluation and
scope for improvement.
% Daily Values of Fast Food Meal: (As designed by the Author)
Chosen Fast Food meal: 1 Medium French fries (McDonald's, 2019)
1 Medium French Fries
Nutritional Information Daily Values (%) for a 2000
Kcal diet
Total Fat 11 g 17%
Saturated Fat 1.5 g 7%
Cholesterol 0 mg ----------
Sodium 160 mg 7%
Fiber 3 g 10%
Nutritional Analysis
As per the nutritional guidelines established by the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA), a meal must comprise of all the five essential food groups of grains,
legumes, dairy, fruits and vegetables and meats. However, considering that there is an option

2NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS OF FAST FOODS
French fries as just a meal by the chosen fast food restaurant, it can be observed that this meal is
grossly devoid of the above essential food groups and hence, prolonged adherence to such a meal
will result in nutritional deficiencies (Murray, Baker & Auld, 2018). As per the nutritional
analysis of daily values, the given meal is devoid of cholesterol but provides significant amount
of fat and fiber and lesser quantities of harmful saturated fats and sodium (McDonald's, 2019).
However, considering a 5-20 rule where daily value percentages of a meal is recommended to
range from 5% to 20%, while this meal meets commendable nutritional values, the same must be
distributed across a range of food groups instead of just one food item in order to make a meal
more wholesome (Nguyen & Lo, 2017).
Revised Nutritional Analysis (As designed by the Author)
Alternative fast food item: Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad (McDonald's, 2019)
To change the above meal of French fries to make it healthier, the meal can be changed to
a chicken salad which in addition to leafy green and chicken will also contained potatoes
(McDonald's, 2019)
1 Bowl Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad
Nutritional Information Daily Values (%) for a 2000
Kcal diet
Total Fat 11 g 17%
Saturated Fat 4.5 g 22%
Cholesterol 110mg 37%
Sodium 1070 mg 45%
Fiber 6 g 24%

3NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS OF FAST FOODS
Process and Reason for Changes
Consuming a meal of only French fries is not just devoid of all the essential food groups
but is also of low satiety, which may lead to cravings in the latter part of the day. Hence, to
make the meal more filling and rich in diverse food groups, it will be replaced with a chicken
salad which can further be improvised with by adding potatoes if the consumer is adamant on
their inclusion. Hence, this revised meal will consist of green leafy vegetables, meat and starches
(Chambers, McCrickerd & Yeomans, 2015). While essential food groups of legumes, dairy and
grains are missing, this meal is comparatively more wholesome compared to the previous one,
and will possess a higher feeling of fullness. However, from the nutritional analysis it must be
noted that the significantly high in sodium, saturated fats and cholesterol which if not controlled,
may be a precursor for cardiovascular disorders (Micha et al., 2017). Hence, to correct the same,
the food may be prepared using alternative cooking methods of steaming, blanching, roasting or
less usage of fat-rich oils, deep frying methods or sodium-rich dressings (Raber et al., 2016).
Conclusion
Hence, to conclude, while the first meal of French fries seemed nutritionally adequate,
one must consider addition of other food groups and modification of cooking methods to obtain a
healthier version of the same.

4NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS OF FAST FOODS
References
Chambers, L., McCrickerd, K., & Yeomans, M. R. (2015). Optimising foods for satiety. Trends
in Food Science & Technology, 41(2), 149-160.
McDonald's. (2019). McDonald's Nutrition Calculator | McDonald's. Retrieved from
https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-our-food/nutrition-calculator.html.
Micha, R., Peñalvo, J. L., Cudhea, F., Imamura, F., Rehm, C. D., & Mozaffarian, D. (2017).
Association between dietary factors and mortality from heart disease, stroke, and type 2
diabetes in the United States. Jama, 317(9), 912-924.
Murray, E. K., Baker, S., & Auld, G. (2018). Nutrition recommendations from the US Dietary
Guidelines critical to teach low-income adults: expert panel opinion. Journal of the
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 118(2), 201-203.
Nguyen, T., & Lo, J. C. (2017). Teaching Nutrition in Graduate Medical Education: An
Interactive Workshop. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 9(3), 375-376.
Raber, M., Chandra, J., Upadhyaya, M., Schick, V., Strong, L. L., Durand, C., & Sharma, S.
(2016). An evidence-based conceptual framework of healthy cooking. Preventive
medicine reports, 4, 23-28.