Organic Salad vs Big Mac

85% organic salad

A couple of times a week I make myself a big salad like the one pictured above, which I am eating as I write this post. As I build this dinner, layer upon layer – organic spring greens, organic grape tomatoes, organic tofu, organic sprouts, organic vidalia onion, organic almonds, organic avocado, and non-organic walnuts — drizzled with vidalia onion dressing and then topped with a sprinkling of fresh ground pepper –  I wonder at what point it reaches the caloric value of a Big Mac. This question has plagued me for years. (I think the avocado half might tip my salad over the caloric count of the Big Mac…)

I believe my salad is healthier than the Big Mac, but I’m not sure about that.

While caloric value and health value of my salad vs the Big Mac are measurable (here’s more than you probably want to know about the food served at McDonalds), the overriding thing that keeps me eating the salad – its taste – is not measurable since that is a personal preference.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the Big Mac is delicious.* But the salad wins out for taste, probably because it takes longer to eat, so the taste pleasure is longer-lasting!

* This statement is base on eight-year old memory, as that’s the last time I ate a Big Mac. It was in 2005 that I switched to a gluten free diet and had to say goodbye to the Big Mac and the Whopper Junior (my burger of choice at Burger King). Is it possible that out of deprivation necessity I’ve convinced myself the salad is tastier!?