I like beef.
Alright, more accurately I used to like beef. I don’t eat the stuff anymore. Apparently I am not the only one, either.
People are worried about “Mad Cow” disease. In fact, several foreign nations are worried about it too, enough so that they won’t import American beef. Granted, this is probably only a very tiny part of the reason the trade deficit reached record highs in the month following the discovery of a Mad Cow infected animal in Washington State. The experts have done a poor job of convincing us that American beef is safe to eat. And the stakes are too high for most of us to be willing to take chances.
The USDA is planning to double — no, make that triple! — current testing levels. This sounds impressive until you realize that they are talking about testing 120,000 of the 35 million cattle slaughtered annually in the United States. That’s about a third of one percent. I do believe that is what most scientists would call a not statistically significant sample. There are of course many issues involved in deciding how many animals to test.
Most Americans support the idea of doing a lot more testing than the USDA proposes. As many as 60% think all slaughtered cows should be tested, and 70% are willing to pay more in beef prices to cover the cost of testing. The USDA not only opposes this, they are preventing one meatpacker from having all the animals they process tested. Creekstone Farms of Kansas has proposed doing such testing, at their own expense, so their beef can be certified for export to Japan. Needless to say, they may also be able to charge a premium for “Certified BSE Free” beef here in the States, too.
Does this sound strange to you?
Alright, so much for a burger. Maybe you should just have a salad. You wouldn’t be alone if you said that. Maybe it’s the Mad Cow thing, maybe you are among the 59 million Americans who could stand to loose some weight. Don’t worry, dieting is becoming popular again, and McDonalds wants to help you. No, I’m not talking about eliminating the Super Size Fries.
Before you say “I’ll just have a salad,” you need to think about what it really contains. You probably heard yesterday’s buzz about how the new “‘Caesar salad with Chicken Premiere’ contains 18.4 grams of fat compared with 11.5 grams of fat in a standard cheeseburger.” Unfortunately, they neglected to provide any other nutritional information. Choosing a food solely on the basis of its fat content is like buying a car based solely on its horsepower. Another article with somewhat more detail tells us that “A grilled chicken caesar salad without dressing or croutons has 3.2 grams of fat per 100 grams. However, a crispy chicken caesar salad with dressing and croutons has 8.1 grams of fat per 100 grams.” Imagine that, fried chicken bits with dressing have more fat than grilled chicken bits without dressing. Alert the media.
The nutrition facts are all right here. If you scroll down, you will find that McDonald’s entrée sized salads range from 6.7 oz. to 10.9 oz., meaning the largest of them weighs in at over 2/3 of a pound all by itself, before adding a single crouton or a drop of dressing. For reference, Dole considers 3 oz. of their salad bags to be a serving. As for the calories, they don’t seem bad until you add meat. Then you are talking about 200 to 370 calories. Add fifty for croutons. Add another 290 for the packet of ranch dressing! From a calorie standpoint, you are better off putting a McDonalds ice cream cone on your salad.
If you think these salads are tasty, that’s fine. Just don’t pretend you are eating healthy. You aren’t going to lose weight eating these salads, regardless of your diet paradigm. A sack lunch is seeming awfully appealing now.