McDonalds just launched a very aggressive marketing campaign in Israel. It would seem that McDonalds is trying everything to overcome the devastating impact of the Super Size Me movie. And they should. Watching that movie made me sick to my stomach, for various reasons. One is that I have been struggling with overweight for years. Two is that I have children who love McDonalds for the food and for the tiny, little, worthless gifts that they get for eating this stuff.
Super Size Me opened my eyes to the fact that a Big Mac meal should actually take care of my entire calorie intake for a day. And I wasn’t even talking about the fat and sugar content.
However, once my eyes were open, I felt that I should and must practice personal responsibility. For myself and for my children. In terms of civil liberties, I would fight for McDonalds right to serve their fatty, possibly addictive, fattening foods to whoever likes to come between the golden arches. By the same token, I would fight for my right not to eat it and not to feed it to my children.
Back to the Israeli campaign. The Israeli campaign suggests the following:
Whole brown rice cakes with 3% cream cheese yields 157 calories per 100 grams. Mac Royal (which I think maps to Big Mac in the US) yields 154 calories per 100 grams.
Whole brown rice cakes with 5% cream cheese yields 171 calories per 100 grams. A Mac Royal meal with regular fries yields 185 calories per 100 grams.
It gives a few more examples, all on half page ads on the weekend edition of Yediot Aharonot, the largest newspaper in Israel.
According to the official Israeli McDonalds site, a Mac Royal alone yields 495 calories. This number suggests that it weighs roughly 320 grams (154*3.2). According to the official Israeli McDonalds site, a Double Mac Royal, Super Sized Fries, a Large Coke, and a Chocolate Ice Cream Sundae yields 1676 calories
Now, I took the time to seek out the calorie content of whole brown rice cakes (374 calories/100 gr), 3% cream cheese (81 calories per 100 grams), and 5% cream cheese (100 calories per 100 grams). In addition, I found that a rice cake weighs roughly 8 grams (18 units per a 140 gram package).
Here’s how to get the true comparison.
In order to stay within the parameters McDonalds itself set in the advertising campaign, I would want to calculate how many rice cakes with how much cheese would I have to consume in order to get the 495 calories in the Mac Royal, and the 777 calories in the Mac Royal meal with regular fries. You can find similar McDonalds nutrition data in many web sites, here’s one: McDonald’s USA Nutrition Facts for Popular Menu Items.
We could take a few routes.
Lets start with 200 grams of 3% cream cheese (162 calories) and about 12 rice cakes (336 calories) . Or we could go with 200 grams of 5% cream cheese (200 calories) and 10.5 rice cakes (294 calories).
We could take the same route for the 777 calories found in the Mac Royal Meal with regular fries.
We could start with 500 grams of 3% cream cheese (405 calories) on top of about 13 rice cakes. Or we could go with 500 grams of 5% cream cheese (500 calories) on top of 10 rice cakes.
Another example would be the Fruit Trix Cereal which offers 394 per 100 grams, and 3% fat milk, which offers 57 calories per 100 milliliter. A box of Trix has 480 grams (a little over 1 lb). Three quarters of a box of Trix (360 grams) yields 1418 calories. One would have to eat that with a pint of milk to get to the Double Mac Royal, Super Sized Fries, a Large Coke, and a Chocolate Ice Cream Sundae calorie content.
Let me ask you a simple question: would you actually sit down to a meal of over a pound of cream cheese and 10 rice cakes? Would you watch you child eat it without saying a word? But let me top it off with the following: go figure how many containers of cream cheese (no matter 3% or 5%) and how many packs of rice cakes would you (or your teenager kid) need to eat in order to cover the 1676 calories found in a Double Mac Royal, Super Sized Fries, a Large Coke, and a Chocolate Ice Cream Sundae?
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