So ... since I am German, I once dug up the nutrition information from the McDonalds website and made one huge chart which compares all the McD products. Turns out you can change the total amout of garbage you consume there by altering a couple of things. Let's see what this is about and then make two examples (this is based on the German McDonalds, the products and their sizes may vary for your country).
It boils down to this: the main burgers all are pretty much identical in total calorie count, sugar and fat. Sure there are better ones and worse ones, but they all circle around 500 kcal, so you can pretty much choose what you want. There are exceptions such as the 20 pcs. ChickenMcNuggets (855 kcal), but you can simply choose a smaller size and are good to go. Now, the side dishes are a problem: french fries are bad. The large fries have as many kcal as the burgers and an assload of fat and even sugar (whereever that comes from). The beverages are obvious: all the lemonades are heavy on sugar Water, apple spritzer and coke light are okay. If you need to have a sauce, take the ketchup. It contains some sugar, but less than any of the other sauces. For desert, either take the fruit bag, the fruit&yogurt or the McSundae. The latter obviously has sugar, but the serving is so small that it's better than all the other things. And if you must have breakfast at the golden arches, take one of the scrambled egg variants - not good, but better than all the breakfast burger crap.
So, let's crunch some numbers. Let's assume I go to McDonalds and order...
1. A large McMenu BigMac with french fries, extra mayonnaise, a 0.5l coke and a McFlurry Smarties for dessert
When I'm done, I have comsumed 1,730 kcal, 77g of fat and 216g of sugar.
2. A large McMenu BigMac with the Garden Salad (Balsamico Dressing), a 0.5l coke light and a McSundae for dessert
When I'm done, I have comsumed 650 kcal, 31g of fat and 63g of sugar.
Now, according to the
GDA, a man should consume around 2,500 kcal, 80g of fat and 110g of sugar per day. With #1, I have - with this one meal - consumed 70% of my recommended daily calorie input, have almost done 100% fat and exceeded my sugar input by almost twice of what I should do. With #2, I am well within specs and can still have breakfast and dinner without too much hassle.
Of course, going to McD never is healthy to begin with. But with changes such as the above, you can make the best of it. It may not be as tasty overall, but it makes one hell of a difference.