Project Review: Misconception of food

The McDonalds Sugar Misconception Project was totally up my alley. As of lately I have been paying some serious attention to the foods that I consume simply because i want to be in the best shape possible, so I thought that is why this project peeked my interest. Seeing studies that revealed McDonald's Big Mack had less sugar in it than their SouthWest Chicken Salad wasn't all that surprising. In no way am i saying a Big Mac is healthy, but you would automatically think that a salad is the smarter choice right from the start. In truth the amount of dressing, cheese, croutons, ext., compromises the "healthiness" of the salad itself. On the poster board there was a comment about how it is such a common misconception that people hear the word salad and they automatically think that its healthy and i can totally agree with that statement. A salad is as healthy as you make it. I did some research on the matter for myself and discovered that a Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad from Mcdonald's with grilled chicken and absolutely no dressing is around 230 calories. On the same website it showed the amount of physical fitness that you would have to participate in in order to burn the salad off and a variety of activities were given; 60 minutes of walking, 26 minutes of jogging, 31 minutes of cycling or 19 minutes of cycling. Now keep in mind that is still without the dressing, croutons, and all the extra goodies that make salads taste good. Although the calories may look like a decent number, you must also take into consideration that there is 700 mg of sugar in the salad as well. Now for McDonald's Premium Southwest Salad with grilled chicken. There are about 110 more calories in this particular salad and about 200 mg more sodium as well. So in total that comes to 340 calories and 910 mg of sodium. Now given the fact that most people don't eat their salads without dressing, these estimated numbers truly mean nothing. As i said before all the extra additions to the salad jack up the calories big time. Just by adding ranch dressing to the Southwest Salad with grilled chicken makes the calorie count shoot up to 530 calories and the sodium to 1440 mg! The calorie count is the exact amount of McDonald's Big Mac, and the sodium level exceeds the Big Mac's by approximately 200+ mg! If you are serious about turning around your diet, you should cut out all fast food as a whole. Perseverance is what separates the strong from the weak and when you are on a diet  self discipline is whats going to get you to where you want to be.