Eating Vegetarian At: McDonalds!

Ahhh, Mcdonalds! Otherwise known as a Brick Wall for vegetarians. McDonalds is known for meat. Meat, meat, meat, meat, meat! Filet of Fish, McDouble, McRib, BLT, Grilled Chicken, Etc. And that by itself is fine, if a food company sells meat, that’s OK in my opinion, but it would do better on their bottom line if they opened their menu up for more options.

Here is a list of all of the vegetarian options at McDonalds:

• Cinnamon Melts
• Hashbrowns
• Hotcakes
• Fruit and Maple Oatmeal
• Side Salad
• Asian/Southwest Salad (no meat (or protein))
• Apple Slices
• Fries

That is not including deserts like Yogurt, Fruit and Yogurt Parfait, cookies, and the apple pie. The ones I crossed out I did so for the fact that they are breakfast-only items, which are things I rarely take into account. So all you have left is the salads, apple slices, and fries. Period. The salads do have a small amount of beans and other vegetables on them, at 160 calories per salad you’d be hardpressed to feel full. The best you can do is combine that with a several hundred calorie medium fry. And to be honest, I’d rather not. So all you can eat when you go to Mcdonalds as a vegetarian is fries and salad. The main issue I have with McDonalds, is that it would not hurt to add a vegeburger to its menu like Burger King has done, but I digress.

Mcdonalds was asked about vegetarian options a few years ago, and McDonalds responded with “Many of our menu items can be customized without meat.” Which that is true, to me that comes with two issues:

1. Even if you remove the meat, you are still paying full price of the food, making it economically unfair to pay the same amount for less food.

2. Not being able to substitute the protein just eliminates the protein altogether. Not only is protein an issue that many vegetarians have to account for anyways, but removing protein instead of substituting it makes people feel hungry, sooner, after eating. That feeling of fullness might not even exist after a meal in the absence of protein, so just eating a cucumber and ranch wrap, or two slices of bread with no patty, is just a recipe for a customer finding other places to eat.

Again, not that it is McDonalds job to cater to the 1-4% of people who identify as Vegetarian, but I am just saying, it’d be nice. It’d also be nice if they did not spout BS when confronted about the lack of vegetarian options.

I can’t give McDonalds a good score, because ever since I became a vegetarian I have not been able to eat there.

EDIT: Well, what do you know, the fries actually are not vegan either. They contain beef flavoring.