An article in last week’s New York Times caught my eye. The short of it is McDonald’s is now selling a soda in a new size - the Hugo. The Hugo is 43oz. of carbonated beverage that when filled with Coca-Cola contains a whopping 410 calories and sells for as little as $.89 in some markets. Pretty good deal, eh?
The long of it is this: Say you’re hungry and you are an average American family whose income isn’t that high. You’ve been told that you should eat better, but it doesn’t taste as good as going out, it’s expensive and it’s a lot more work. Instead of making a meal for your family you all jump in your minivan and head down to the nearest McDonald’s. Like I said, you’re hungry so you’re going to order a Big Mac some fries and a soda. After placing your order the cashiers tells you that upgrading to large fries and the Hugo will only cost a buck and some change more, thats like 26 more ounces of beverage and 3.8 oz. more of fries. You’ll feed your family of four for less than $20.

That sounds pretty tasty, but was it worth it? It depends on how often you’d like to eat. According to Shapefit.com a Big Mac has 570 calories, large fries have 510 calories and the Hugo, which I mentioned above, has 410 calories. Say you want to splurge or maybe you’re just really, really hungry and you decide to go with the Big-Xtra, that’s 810 calories with cheese. In just one meal you’ve managed to consume between 1400 and 1700 calories. According to the FDA we should consume 1800 calories a day for women or 2000 a day for men. Talking strictly calories you’ve consumed between 3/4 and 100% of your daily recommend calories in one meal. With that kind of consumption you’d only need to eat once a day!

Sadly people tend to eat more than once a day and often the people who are targeted by these tactics are lower income, under educated consumers looking to stretch their dollar the farthest. McDonald’s dismisses these accusations claiming the market drives the business - consumers are demanding product, they are merely supplying the demand.