I'm Going on a Road Trip, USA Today Dietitian Says I Should Eat McDonalds

Even without the guide (4.00 / 4)

people should be able to find healthy food on a road trip. If they really wanted it, I'm thinking fast food joints wouldn't be the first place they looked for it. And if that was the only option, most folks that want healthy food know what to get there. I couldn't believe when she said about KFC "What a great place"! Interesting that most of the food was crap and (the scrambled eggs were square!) yet she had no problem finding organic milk?

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by: nycstray @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 13:12:06 PM UTC

Organic milk (4.00 / 2)

All the milk samples are the same Organic Valley product. I speculate that they did not come from the fast food joints. Perhaps a staff runner for the show picked them up at a store near the studio, or found them on her way to work from her home in the suburbs?

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by: count @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 21:36:21 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Actually (4.00 / 2)

if you wanted to eat breakfast at McDonalds, and eat something that has minimally processed foods (for a fast food chain) you might want to eat the Egg McMuffin or the Sausage McMuffin with egg. Those are made with shell eggs that are poached, and the Canadian bacon or sausage aren't going to have any more in them than the stuff you'd buy at the store. Same goes for the English muffins, and the American cheese. If you didn't want the meat and 'cheese', you could always take those off, leaving you with a dry muffin and poached egg.

The scrambled eggs are square probably because they're cooked in a form, as are the egg for the McMuffin sandwiches. I used to make my own McMuffin type sandwiches at home and could never figure out why my eggs came out differently that at McDonalds. Then I watched an episode of Unwrapped and found out that they steam poach the eggs. There is a ring mold that goes on the griddle, the eggs are cracked into the mold and a lid with a little funnel is placed over the top. Water is poured into the funnel and the eggs steam poach till they're cooked all the way through. I was pan frying my eggs, which are still good, especially if you fry 'em in bacon greese, but they definately don't tast the same as a poached egg.

Alternatively, if you want to eat at fast food joints but not support or eat the additives that the big chains may be using, then eat at an independant burger joint or restaurant. You'll still be eating fast food, but it'll likely be made out of whole foods and much closer to what you'd fix at home.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 17:02:59 PM UTC

They are done in a square form or at least they (4.00 / 2)

were when I worked there years and years ago but I don't remember them coming out perfectly square.  I'm surprised at all they additives in the scrambled eggs. Maybe it's changed or is different in other places. When I worked there the scrambled eggs were a cracked egg into the form. I think it had maybe four sections and then after a certain amount of time you just moved the form back and forth on the grill to get them scrambled. They they were just lifted with a flipper and put on the tray. They were served in the Big Breakfast. It's been years since I had one of those so I don't know what it is now.

Oh and when I worked there it was no problem to do a special order. It was actually pretty common to have people just order a side of scrambled eggs and a muffin -- usually without butter.

If I'm pressed and there is nothing else around open and I'm in a hurry,   I usually just have an egg muffin like you suggest.  Besides the processed cheese they're pretty much exactly like I would make at home though I use a canning lid as a mold and use a slice of a block cheddar.

Breakfast food is still one thing that I do occasionally eat from fast food places.  

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by: elizajade @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 17:49:15 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Well on further surfing it looks (4.00 / 2)

 like my time at McDonald's was the olden days when it came to scrambled eggs. Too bad I guess. I find it ironic though because I'm really not sure that the way the do it now really saves that much time. Eggs whether factory or pastured are a 'fast food' no matter which way you crack them or pre-make liquify or addify them. I don't see why they have to be changed so durn much in the name of 'efficiency'.  

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by: elizajade @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 18:05:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yah, that's a shame (4.00 / 2)

unless the eggs the they're using are liquid eggs and all the extra stuff in them is there to preserve them in the buckets.

In laying facilities, I'm talking the big farms, not the smaller free range places like mine, the eggs are inspected by machine, and any cracked or checked eggs go for liquid eggs, not shell eggs - what you buy at the store and what restaurants (regular restaurants) buy to cook with. I suppose that large food manufacturers use liquid eggs as well. So many to the bucket, so many buckets to the batch.

When you start looking at the industrial food industry, you find out just how much of a certain commodity, be it chicken, eggs, beef, pork, wheat, corn, etc. goes to manufacturing. For some commodities, like chicken, a huge percentage goes to manufacutring, not to your table as a fresh/frozen chicken, beef, etc.....

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 21:50:49 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I didn't know that about cracked eggs. (0.00 / 0)

I suppose it's at least good that they're not wasted. I do the same thing with my cracked eggs. I have little ziploc bags and the cracked ones get put in the bag and stuck in the freezer of course without all of the extra additives. I use them for things like scrambled eggs or if I'm making something basic like pancakes.  When I used to camp a lot I would also pre-crack eggs put them in bags, sometimes freeze them so they stay cold longer and then use them from the straight from the bag. One of the quickest hot breakfasts was to just add seasoning or whatever straight to the bag and cook them in a pot of boiling water. It made the cleaning easier, no dirty fry pan and I didn't have to worry about breaking them during transport.

So I guess for me it's not the fact that they're used in liquid form but all the additives. Freshness also of course but unless the restaurant or manufacturer is getting their eggs straight from a farm the whole eggs are more then likely not that fresh anyways. That's the biggest reason people get my eggs because they can be guaranteed that they at most only several days old. Taste is other reason but from talking to them the fresh factor outweighs even taste.  

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by: elizajade @ Mon Aug 17, 2009 at 13:19:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Actually (0.00 / 0)

the eggs at the store are probably only a few days to a week old, also. One thing I tell my customers is that the eggs they buy from us are only one to three days old, and if they want to make hardboiled eggs, they need to let the eggs sit in the fridge for a week, otherwise it's very difficult to peal them without tearing the white. The membrane sticks too well unless the eggs are aged a bit.

My dad said his mom used to store eggs in waterglass, they'll keep for months in that. I think it was Mother Earth News that did a study on how long you could store eggs. They used waterglass, stored washed in the fridge, unwashed in the fridge, and washed and unwashed on the counter at room temp. I think the ones that lasted longest were unwashed stored at room temp. I think that those lasted for around 6 months. The problem with eggs being stored for too long is that the albumen breaks down, which as I noted above for pealing hardboiled eggs with ease is a good thing, to a point. The other problem is that the longer the eggs are stored the more moisture they loose. I just cleaned out some eggs that had been sitting in our outdoor second fridge. They'd been in there for at least 6 months. When I broke the eggs in the compost pile, they smelled fine, and looked fine, but they had been reduced in volume by half. Shells are porous, and eggs dehydrate if stored in a relatively low humidity environment.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Mon Aug 17, 2009 at 16:16:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I ate an Egg McMuffin once (4.00 / 1)

That must have been 30+ years ago.  I just assumed that McD's wasn't using real eggs...b/c it didn't taste like any real egg had been cracked to make that sandwich.

More recently, I prefer the Mom&Pop places.  The eggs might still be factory farmed, but at least you can watch while they crack the shells, drop the eggs onto the grill, and cook them to your specifications.

In other words, I'd rather eat at any anonymous greasy spoon than at McD's.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Mon Aug 17, 2009 at 06:48:20 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Jeez, Jill, you read USA Today? (4.00 / 2)

They're the National Enquirer of daily papers!  At least go with McClatchy: they have some class!

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Mon Aug 17, 2009 at 06:50:36 AM UTC

hahaha no I don't read USA Today (0.00 / 0)

but I sure enjoy their Sudokus!

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Mon Aug 17, 2009 at 17:37:20 PM UTC

[ Parent ]