Burger Wars Essay, Research Paper

Burger Wars

Forty million customers are served every day by America’s biggest hamburger chains–McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. In fact, many fast food restaurants are becoming an extension of the family kitchen. About two-thirds of all fast food is takeout, and most of that goes home. Some chains are beginning to put mobile units in unpredictable places such as Wal-Mart, hospitals, schools, and even gas stations. So, what is it about their burgers that attracts people to them so much? Following is a comparison of nutritional value, price, size, and taste of the most popular three hamburger chains.

Let’s take a look at Wendy’s burgers first. According to a Consumer’s Report research project on food chains, much evidence was discovered that Wendy’s burgers were the most unhealthy of the three restaurants. These burgers had more calories, saturated fat, sodium, and cholesterol than the others. They were also the highest priced. However, Wendy’s hamburgers were bigger and contained the most protein. Personally, I feel that bigger or not, burgers were not meant to be square.

McDonald’s hamburgers seemed to be pretty healthy considering their size. They had the least calories, fat, and sodium. They were also the cheapest priced. However, they did have the least protein. These hamburgers taste pretty good. But, they could be better if they had less onions and a sesame seed bun.

Burger King’s hamburgers seemed to fall right in the middle of the other two types. they were just a little higher numbered in calories, fat, and sodium than McDonald’s were. They were also priced slightly higher than McDonald’s burgers. Even though they are the same size as McDonald’s hamburgers, they contained less cholesterol and had more protein. These burgers taste great being that they are flame broiled and not fried. Burger King’s hamburgers definitely rate the highest on my scale.

Basically, the small burgers at these three fast food chains are nutritional. But, that doesn’t mean that the larger burgers are. Most large burgers have more than two-thirds of the fat, half of the sodium, and all the saturated fat that the government recommends for a daily diet. However, most Americans sacrifice nutrition to taste. These days more and more Americans are eating fast food and taking more home also. But, it’s still far from home cooking.