This week Ia??ve been trying to eat according to the DASH guidelines for lowering blood pressure. It actually hasna??t been too difficult a?? partly because Ia??m not following their strictest health/public/heart/hbp/dash/dash_brief.htm" >guidelines, which call for just 1,300 milligrams of sodium and 16 grams of saturated fat a day. Ia??ve been shooting for 2,300 milligrams of sodium and 22 grams of saturated fat.
In 2003, I tried a somewhat different a??diet,a?? which in some ways was more difficult to follow, even though it only lasted one day. My son Jim (then age 11) and I ate every meal at McDonald’s for an entire day (yes, this was before Super Size Me). We recorded the experience on the Web. I thought it would be interesting to compare my day at McDonald’s to a typical day on DASH.
This table compares my intake on March 1, 2003, and April 19, 2010, my first official day of DASH:
It might surprise you to learn that my caloric intake was roughly equal on both days a?? 2,130 at McDonalda??s versus 2,329 on DASH. But surely the DASH day was more nutritious, right? This graph gives some more details:
As you can see, the McDonalda??s day is not much different in fat content, but has much less protein and more carbs than the DASH diet. Personally I find high-carb meals much less satisfying than high-protein meals, so I suspect that someone consuming about the same amount of calories on the McDonalda??s diet would be a lot hungrier than someone on the DASH diet. In the end,??a person??may decide to super-size things, and that can lead to problems.
I used the McDonalda??s web page to create a super-sized version of my day, then calculated the nutrition facts.
Instead of the diet drinks and regular coffee I usually consume, I substituted large Cokes and a large caramel cappuccino. Instead of a Big Mac, I got a Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese, and instead of a McChicken, I got the Angus Bacon and Cheese burger. And of course I super-sized my fries and ordered an extra hash browns with breakfast. The calorie content for day: 4,070, which would put most people not named Michael Phelps on a direct course toward rotundity.
Leta??s take a look at what super-sizing does to our nutrition graph:
Fat and carbs are through the roof, while a super-sized day still doesna??t have as much protein as I consumed on my DASH day. Saturated fat, at 56 grams, is nearly three times whata??s recommended for most people.
Even the basic McDonalda??s day doesna??t take snacks into account a?? I find that Ia??m usually hungry a couple hours after eating a fast-food meal, so I think most people would have a very hard time living on regular-sized McDonalda??s meals all the time. If youa??ve seen Super Size Me, you know what happened to Morgan Spurlock after eating at McDonalda??s for a month: Elevated blood pressure and other vital signs indicating a serious health risk.
What about other nutrients? This table compares the three days on the other nutrients shown on the McDonalda??s Web site:
McDonalda??s meals offer plenty of iron and a reasonable amount of calcium (mostly from cheese), but not much Vitamin A or C. You might be able make up for that by ordering an orange juice with breakfast, but if you succumb to the temptation to super-size, youa??re still going to be consuming way too many calories, and youa??ll likely gain a lot of weight.
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