McDonald’s salads – The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal

This blog, the No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal, recorded a record 88,398 views in 2022, blowing past the record set in 2021 of 80,127. The number of visitors also set a record in 2023 with 57,344 people coming to our site, well above the 43,64 who visited in 2022.

“Last year was an amazing one for us, people are finding us and, in the process, hopefully they’re cutting the salt, fat and sugar in their diets,” says blog founder and editor John N. Frank.

*Our reporting on the partial return of McDonald salads brought thousands of visitors to our site in 2022.*

The most popular post last year had to do with the spotty return of salads at McDonald’s, First look: McDonald’s 2022 salads – a shadow of what they used to be. That post attracted 16,319 views.

An earlier post, among the first to report the return of the salads which were eliminated during the Pandemic, McDonald’s salads are sneaking back onto menus, attracted 5,225 views.

“Salads are the only almost-healthy item on McDonald’s menus. There is obviously interest in them. LEt’s hope the burger chain does more to make them healthier, and tastier than what they offer now,” says Frank.

I’ve written a lot about all the low-salt, low-fat and low-sugar food items that have disappeared during the pandemic as processors and restaurants concentrate only on their highest volume offerings. McDonald’s salads were an early pandemic food casualty.

But I think they’re coming back. I recently stopped at a local McDonald’s for some diet Coke, really the only thing I’ve ordered there since they dropped salads and yogurt.

My order came with a flyer listing a ‘buy a salad, get one free’ offer at some local McDonald’s (presumably all owned by the same franchisee).

I checked my app for my local McDonald’s and see one salad, the Ceasar chicken, again available for order. The Southwest Salad is listed as not available.

Let’s be clear, there are many, many other lunch choices that would be healthier than a McDonald’s salad which is still loaded with salt. Healthier lunch choices would be things you make yourself so you can control the salt, fat and sugar content.

*My new tiny oil and vinegar bottles for eating out.*

But if you have to buy lunch at McDonald’s, the salad is the least unhealthy choice. Don’t use the dressings, there add even more salt. Carry your own in small plastic bottles like I used to do pre-pandemic.

Read my reviews of the new southwest salad and the new Caesar salad. Click on the embedded links in the salad names here.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a lot of food purveyors, whether retailers or restaurants, to cut back menus and just concentrate on their top sellers, or, for restaurants, on items that are quick to prepare. So several of my favorites have fallen by the wayside.

The most painful loss is that McDonald’s has cut what I considered the two healthiest items on its menu — salads and yogurt parfaits. I was a regular at a local McDonald’s before the pandemic, ordering a salad, side salad and two parfaits. The staff came to know me by my order, which I usually placed ahead of time through the McDonald’s ordering app.

What had been my weekly Costco lunch is no more. Who dumps chocolate from the vanilla-chocolate combo? Shame on you Costco. — Those were the days my friend — gone now. No frozen yogurt at Costco, no salads at McDonald’s.

With those options gone now, there’s no reason for me to stop at McDonald’s, even if it has reopened for eat-in service.

On the other end of the food scale — totally unhealthy but delicious, Costco has stopped selling its giant sheet cakes. Those were a mainstay when we had large parties, there was inevitably enough to freeze for ourselves to have on later occasions as well.

Costco already broke my heart when it dropped its fat-free chocolate frozen yogurt for the trendy acai. I used to eat lunch there once a week, getting a salad (bringing my own oil and vinegar to avoid it’s fatty dressing) and a yogurt swirl. I had shifted to McDonald’s salads after that. Now with both gone, there’s I am confined to eating lunch at home.

By the way, Costco also has dropped acai from its food court! Ha!!!!

Tag: McDonald’s salads

No salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal tops 88,000 views in 2022

McDonald’s salads are sneaking back onto menus

Pandemic Food Casualties: Costco sheet cake, McDonald’s salads, yogurt parfaits

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