Fast food restaurants are more popular than ever. Quick’s Giant sells more than 10 million copies each year in Belgium. At its little brother, Burger King, the star is the Whopper and its approximately 2.5 million copies gobbled up each year. McDonald’s did not want to give us the figures for its famous Big Mac, but millions of them are also sold each year in Belgium.
We put these famous burgers through a nutritional scanner to analyze their calorie, fat, sugar, protein and salt content. The Giant and the Big Mac stand neck and neck when it comes to calories: 523 kcal for the first, 524 kcal for the second. On the other hand, the Giant is fatter (35.4 gr vs. 27 gr), but contains fewer carbohydrates (27.3 gr vs. 43 gr) and is less rich in protein (23 gr vs. 27 gr).
Belgians addicted to fast food: 10% of Belgians go there… twice a week!
For its part, the whopper is both more caloric (632 kcal), richer in proteins (28 g) and carbohydrates (49.5 g), but is not fatter than a Giant (35.3 gr). As for the KFC Colonnel, with its 511 kcal, it is average, while containing less fat (20.4 g), as much protein as a Whopper (28.6 g) and as many carbohydrates as a Big Mac (43.3 g). Generally speaking, these burgers represent between a quarter and a third of the recommended daily calorie intake, but weigh in at up to 50% of the maximum daily fat intake and almost 40% of the salt intake. It’s better not to overdo it, because if you add fries and a soda, you easily exceed half of the ideal daily doses for a balanced diet.
Here is the best burger in Belgium
Alongside the best-selling burgers within these different chains, we looked at the most caloric specialties that appear on the menu. And there, we explode all the counters, like with the Louisiana Grill from Burger King and its 1,210 calories, or 61% of the daily intake. When it comes to fats (84 gr, 120% of the daily intake), proteins (51 gr/122%) and even salt (4.8 gr/80%), we are far from being dietary. The Mega Giant does barely better, while the Maestro Generous Jack from McDo “is limited” to 890 kcal and the Zinger Fire Stacker from KFC tops out at 795 kcal.
So, there’s nothing worse than these monster burgers? Yes, and it’s on the fast-food pizza side that we find these mega-calorie bombs. In the lead: the Savoyard pizza from Dominos Pizza. With 1,692 kcal for the 25 cm model, we already reach 84% of the daily intake. Suffice to say that we will end the day with dry bread and water and that we will skip the garlic bread…
First in Belgium: a 24-hour burger distributor opens in Wallonia
