• A Big Mac contains 540 calories and 25 grams of fat. Consuming this sandwich alone – without the fries and soda that often accompany it – makes up more than 25% of an adult’s daily.
• In fact, many Grill’d burgers are actually worse for you than a Big Mac. Grill’d’s Crispy Bacon and Cheese burger contains a whopping 37.7g of fat, 11g of sugar and around 1500mg of salt.
• This juicy burger contains 520 calories 26.9 grams of protein 28.6 grams of fat including 11.3 grams of saturated fat 37.4 grams of carbs including 6.4 grams of sugar And 994 mg of sodium The amount of fat and sodium is half your daily intake so t.
• An essay or paper on Analysis of a Big Mac: Why Fast Food Is Not Bad for You. Why Fast Food Is Not Bad for You When Compared to American culture currently stereotypes fast food as being intrinsically unhealthy, giving the average person 'food for thought' about the risks versus benefits of eating.

With only 3 grams of dietary fiber, we think not. 9 grams of the carbs are claimed to sugars and the rest of it can be deduced to starchy, refined, belly-plumping goodness. As far as protein goes, the Big Mac scores extremely well. Claimed by McDonalds to use 100% real beef, the Big Mac contains a heaping 25 grams of protein per patty.

Fast food is incredibly convenient, and usually very tasty too, but it's not always the best option for refuelling our bodies. Over at comparison site, Fast Food Menu Price, there's a detailed infographic that shows the effect of eating one of the most iconic on-the-go meals of all time: the McDonald's Big Mac.

For the first 10 minutes, everything goes brilliantly, at least on the surface. Our brains have been wired to prefer high-calorie foods (sorry, dieters) and the Big Mac provides these calories in abundance - an average Big Mac contains 540 calories, which cause our blood sugar level to shoot up. Feel-good chemicals, like the neurotransmitter dopamine, are released into the brain, and you may catch yourself thinking: 'This is a tasty burger.'

It's from the 20-30 minute point that the downhill slide starts. The high levels of fructose corn syrup and sodium inside the bun leave us craving more of the same (and in the long term, this can lead to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease). Then the sodium - some 970 milligrams of it - causes dehydration and starts making the kidneys and heart work faster. Blood pressure rises, and you may well be tempted by a McFlurry or apple pie.

According to the infographic, at the 40 minute mark, the body will probably still be craving similar types of food: losing control of your blood sugar levels makes junk food (like a chocolate bar) seem even more appealing than it normally would. The gastrointestinal tract very quickly absorbs the high volume of fructose corn syrup we mentioned earlier, further adding to your hunger pangs.

From 50-60 minutes, the period of slow digestion starts in earnest. Food typically takes 24-72 hours to digest, but the grease and trans fat inside a Big Mac means the digestion time for the McDonald's signature burger can easily go beyond three days. 'If you want to enjoy a Big Mac, try to keep it an occasional event,' is the advice from Fast Food Menu Price. 'The ingredients can cause serious harm to your body, especially when consuming them on a regular basis.'

The infographic has been put together using data from McDonald's own website as well as articles from LiveStrong, Blood Pressure UK, and FoodMatters. McDonald's itself doesn't recommend living solely on a diet of Big Mac and fries - treat them as an occasional treat rather than a regular meal and you'll be fine (in fact, in small doses they can actually be good for you). At least now you know exactly what you're letting your body in for.

Fast Food Menu Price

Zoomable version here.

Another day, another dramatic infographic. This time, we’ve moved away from shocking suggestions of what sugar- and stimulant-laden drinks apparently do to your body within 60 minutes, to the unappetizing after-effects of eating a Big Mac.

Created by Fast Food Menu Price, this supposedly gives you a breakdown of the effects of Big Mac ingredients over a period of one hour, nicely segregated into 10-minute time periods. It goes as follows:

^{Credit: Fast Food Menu Price}

So how much of this has any truth to it? Well, for starters their list of sources does not include scientific journals, but does feature Fox News (twice) and the Daily Mail. Moving swiftly on.

It’s a bit confusing at the start because it mentions the high Calorie content (540) in the same sentence as raising blood sugar to “abnormal” levels. Calories themselves are not responsible for raising blood sugar – it’s the carbohydrates within food. And how much they raise blood sugar levels depends on the type of carbohydrate eaten, or more specifically its glycemic index (GI).

Those with a high GI, such as white bread, are quickly absorbed and thus can cause blood sugar to spike. At the other end of the spectrum tends to be more complex carbs that get broken down gradually and do not affect blood sugar levels as quickly.

A Big Mac has three slices of white bread in it, which in the U.S. are laced with high-fructose corn syrup, another simple carbohydrate. It therefore seems reasonable to suggest it may drive up blood sugar levels, but things are not that simple. The amount of fat in the food also affects how quickly carbohydrates are absorbed by the body. Furthermore, each body is different, so we can’t generalize like that. It seems extremely unlikely that eating one Big Mac would raise blood glucose levels to “abnormal” levels and they give no evidence for this.

This leads me on to the next point: Big Mac recipes differ across the world, so once again we can’t generalize the supposed effects. In the U.K, for example, no high-fructose corn syrup is used, it has 42 fewer Calories, and a lower fat content. In Sweden, on the other hand, the amount of fat is higher.

The point about dopamine – the brain’s reward and pleasure chemical – does have truth to it. Junk food has been shown to prompt the release of dopamine, and it has been shown to be addictive. But it isn’t only junk food that causes the release of dopamine: eating in general can trigger its release. However, one study has suggested that excessive eating may ultimately lead to changes in brain chemistry, fueling addiction.

Big Mac Not That Bad For You Got

Overall, Big Macs probably aren’t that different to other burgers; 550 Calories is not completely astonishing, although the added sugar in the U.S. is far from desirable. Probably the most worrying aspect is the high amount of salt it contains, which again seems to vary depending on which country they are sourced from. Yes, lots of salt can make you dehydrated, and thirst can be mistaken for hunger. But whether you will suffer from dehydration after eating a Big Mac again depends on the person and what they have been up to. Exercise and the amount of water they have drunk throughout the day would all affect this.

Big Mac Not That Bad For You Know

So in sum: Big Macs, like all junk food, are notgood for you, so don’t eat them every day. But once in a while, don’t worry yourself.

Big Mac Not That Bad For You Want