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The value is more than the price cooked versus DIY. To me it's a bargain because I'll eat something way worse for me if I'm in a rush and there's nothing avail

The value is more than the price cooked versus DIY. To me it's a bargain because I'll eat something way worse for me if I'm in a rush and there's nothing available. We don't want to stop at McDonalds because I'm running late from work, my wife and daughter had an activity until 6, and we already ate everything in the fridge. Boom, chicken. EDIT: I don't want to entirely rag on McD's. I lost a bunch of weight when I was in consulting and ate every meal on the run. Of the fast food chains, they have some of the most reasonable items with easy math on the calories. Pro tip: Egg McMuffins and regular cheeseburgers are 300 calories each. I'm not saying it was healthy, but I did control my calories and lose weight. I am likely partially embalmed from the trans fat and sodium though. Hopefully we can agree a supermarket rotisserie chicken is a superior option :)

lintiness 10y ago
rotisserie chickens are pumped full of sodium.
- deegles 10y ago
  There is no longer an official upper limit on cholesterol intake, and (for most people) sodium intake being harmful has also been debunked. Saturated fats also have been shown to have no link to heart disease. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/02/25/new-dietary-guidelines-fat-cholesterol.aspx http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/02/2... http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-th... http://www.eufic.org/page/en/show/latest-science-news/fftid/Study-no-association-dietary-saturated-fats-cardiovascular-disease-risk/ http://www.eufic.org/page/en/show/latest-science-news/fftid/...
  - muxxa 10y ago
    I thought the big risk with salt was strokes, not heart attacks: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782060/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782060/ "Results There were 19 independent cohort samples from 13 studies, with 177 025 participants (follow-up 3.5-19 years) and over 11 000 vascular events. Higher salt intake was associated with greater risk of stroke (pooled relative risk 1.23, 95% confidence interval 1.06 to 1.43; P=0.007) and cardiovascular disease (1.14, 0.99 to 1.32; P=0.07), with no significant evidence of publication bias. ... The associations observed were greater the larger the difference in sodium intake and the longer the follow-up."
    - wahern 10y ago
      Same phenomenon. AFAIU, recent research suggest that the variance seen in such studies is caused by subgroups with impaired kidneys or other issues that interfere with blood salt homeostasis. It's not controversial that sustained salt concentration is bad for cardiovascular healthy, or that higher salt intake correlates with worse cardiovascular health in large populations. The issue is whether healthy _individuals_ should care about salt. Or to put it another way, salt isn't like sugar. A high sugar diet leads to insulin resistance, which leads to higher blood sugar concentrations, which leads to higher rates of related ailments. It was once thought that a high salt diet directly led to hypertension, etc, etc. But that doesn't appear to be the case. Healthy people seem to have no problems clearing an excess salt (in amounts significantly greater than thought) from the body, even if sustained over their entire lifetime. And, somewhat contentiously, some research suggests that the recommended salt intake might be detrimental for some people, with the negative effect being masked by the subgroup who benefit from lower salt. That's my understanding of things, anyhow. It's probably a little like acidosis--a rare condition that gave rise to fringe concepts like the "alkaline diet". Consuming acidic foods is never going to cause problems for healthy individuals. The mechanisms for maintaining blood pH (calcium, rate of respiration, etc) are just too robust to even be minimally taxed by acidic foods (excluding extreme scenarios). If acidic foods cause or contribute to bad blood pH, you already have other serious problems. The difference is that a substantial fraction of the population does have trouble excreting excess salt, and this readily shows up in epidemiological studies of dietary salt.
  - G43nm45ji 10y ago
    I wouldn't link to Mercola. He is a pretty well known quack and pushes a lot of pseudo-scientific nonsense.
- serg_chernata 10y ago
  To add, when experimenting with diets such as keto, uptake in salt and electrolytes is a requirement. When you drastically cut down on carbs your body does not retain salt / water as it did before and thus supplementation above "norm" is required.
- johnward 10y ago
  What's wrong with sodium? I actually need to consume more of it.
- EpicEng 10y ago
  Drink more water
koolba 10y ago
> The value is more than the price cooked versus DIY. To me it's a bargain because I'll eat something way worse for me if I'm in a rush and there's nothing available. We don't want to stop at McDonalds because I'm running late from work, my wife and daughter had an activity until 6, and we already ate everything in the fridge. Boom, chicken. Yes these are awesome for that perfect blend of fast, easy, and not quite junk food. I wouldn't recommend having one 7 days a week but you can pick one up in place of fast food and feed you and your kids guilt free. > EDIT: I don't want to entirely rag on McD's. I love McD's and the mere existence of the McDouble[1] proves that the human race is doing just fine. [1]: http://nypost.com/2013/07/28/the-greatest-food-in-human-history/ http://nypost.com/2013/07/28/the-greatest-food-in-human-hist...
- ajford 10y ago
  We'd normally pick them up on grocery shopping days. After shopping for the next two weeks, it was usually late enough that cooking meat would take too long. Rotisserie chicken shredded makes a good meat for a chicken alfredo pasta, or on a pizza for BBQ chicken pizza, etc. And the difference in price with a raw whole chicken (usually less than 3 dollars) was well worth it for the savings in time and avoiding the fast-food stop when the kids were losing their minds in the back seat. We lived about 30 mins from the grocery store, so munching on chicken was a good way to keep the kids (both less than 4yrs old) calm and happy.
  - munificent 10y ago
    > Rotisserie chicken shredded makes a good meat for a chicken alfredo pasta, or on a pizza for BBQ chicken pizza, etc. Also, you can take the leftover carcass and use it to make wonderful chicken stock. Just throw the bones and bits in a bag in the freezer. When you have a few carcasses and some free time on the weekend, follow any recipe and make stock. You can then freeze the stock and use it whenever you like.
- robertcorey 10y ago
  Please not that McDonald's is only able to offer that type of kcal to dollar ratio because of the massive subsidies the usa has for meat production.
chirau 10y ago
True! This article ignores an important aspect of time. I earn about $90 an hour. So between cooking and doing dishes, let's say i remove the wait times and stuff where i could do other things, I am still using up about 10 to 15 minutes extra preparing a fresh chicken. I understand I don't work 24/7, but still, even my downtime matters so even if I cut down that price per hour in half, I'd still rather get a pre-made chicken especially during the week when time is of the essence.
- pc86 10y ago
  You've made an excellent argument for outsourcing your entire meal prep and having food delivered to your house (or paying someone to shop for you) and having someone cook it for you. The "I make $___ an hour" claim only holds weight if your alternative to whatever activity would be to actually charge money for that time. Presumably you're going to make your own dinner most of the time so your hourly rate at work is largely irrelevant.
  - carlisle_ 10y ago
    This is an oversimplification. If the time I'm spending not working is contributing to my ability to make $90/hr it's entirely valid. There are so many things that can fall into this category too, like the need for people to have recreational time, or professional development (e.g. reading journals), etc.
    - fbellag 10y ago
      Then you are not making 90$ an hour, but whatever is the prorated fare accounting for your not-billing hours.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
    I enjoy cooking and baking but even I would say that the only argument needed for "outsourcing your entire meal prep and having food delivered to your house" is "I don't feel like doing it myself." I'm not posting this just to be a jerk; rather, I think that too often we spend time trying to justify a behavior that is not at all damaging, but somehow seems "bad." If you don't like doing X and you can afford to pay someone to do it, then go ahead, do so and get on with Life.

lintiness 10y ago

rotisserie chickens are pumped full of sodium.

deegles 10y ago
There is no longer an official upper limit on cholesterol intake, and (for most people) sodium intake being harmful has also been debunked. Saturated fats also have been shown to have no link to heart disease. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/02/25/new-dietary-guidelines-fat-cholesterol.aspx http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/02/2... http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-th... http://www.eufic.org/page/en/show/latest-science-news/fftid/Study-no-association-dietary-saturated-fats-cardiovascular-disease-risk/ http://www.eufic.org/page/en/show/latest-science-news/fftid/...
- muxxa 10y ago
  I thought the big risk with salt was strokes, not heart attacks: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782060/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782060/ "Results There were 19 independent cohort samples from 13 studies, with 177 025 participants (follow-up 3.5-19 years) and over 11 000 vascular events. Higher salt intake was associated with greater risk of stroke (pooled relative risk 1.23, 95% confidence interval 1.06 to 1.43; P=0.007) and cardiovascular disease (1.14, 0.99 to 1.32; P=0.07), with no significant evidence of publication bias. ... The associations observed were greater the larger the difference in sodium intake and the longer the follow-up."
  - wahern 10y ago
    Same phenomenon. AFAIU, recent research suggest that the variance seen in such studies is caused by subgroups with impaired kidneys or other issues that interfere with blood salt homeostasis. It's not controversial that sustained salt concentration is bad for cardiovascular healthy, or that higher salt intake correlates with worse cardiovascular health in large populations. The issue is whether healthy _individuals_ should care about salt. Or to put it another way, salt isn't like sugar. A high sugar diet leads to insulin resistance, which leads to higher blood sugar concentrations, which leads to higher rates of related ailments. It was once thought that a high salt diet directly led to hypertension, etc, etc. But that doesn't appear to be the case. Healthy people seem to have no problems clearing an excess salt (in amounts significantly greater than thought) from the body, even if sustained over their entire lifetime. And, somewhat contentiously, some research suggests that the recommended salt intake might be detrimental for some people, with the negative effect being masked by the subgroup who benefit from lower salt. That's my understanding of things, anyhow. It's probably a little like acidosis--a rare condition that gave rise to fringe concepts like the "alkaline diet". Consuming acidic foods is never going to cause problems for healthy individuals. The mechanisms for maintaining blood pH (calcium, rate of respiration, etc) are just too robust to even be minimally taxed by acidic foods (excluding extreme scenarios). If acidic foods cause or contribute to bad blood pH, you already have other serious problems. The difference is that a substantial fraction of the population does have trouble excreting excess salt, and this readily shows up in epidemiological studies of dietary salt.
- G43nm45ji 10y ago
  I wouldn't link to Mercola. He is a pretty well known quack and pushes a lot of pseudo-scientific nonsense.
serg_chernata 10y ago
To add, when experimenting with diets such as keto, uptake in salt and electrolytes is a requirement. When you drastically cut down on carbs your body does not retain salt / water as it did before and thus supplementation above "norm" is required.
johnward 10y ago
What's wrong with sodium? I actually need to consume more of it.
EpicEng 10y ago
Drink more water

koolba 10y ago

> The value is more than the price cooked versus DIY. To me it's a bargain because I'll eat something way worse for me if I'm in a rush and there's nothing available. We don't want to stop at McDonalds because I'm running late from work, my wife and daughter had an activity until 6, and we already ate everything in the fridge. Boom, chicken. Yes these are awesome for that perfect blend of fast, easy, and not quite junk food. I wouldn't recommend having one 7 days a week but you can pick one up in place of fast food and feed you and your kids guilt free. > EDIT: I don't want to entirely rag on McD's. I love McD's and the mere existence of the McDouble[1] proves that the human race is doing just fine. [1]: http://nypost.com/2013/07/28/the-greatest-food-in-human-history/ http://nypost.com/2013/07/28/the-greatest-food-in-human-hist...

ajford 10y ago
We'd normally pick them up on grocery shopping days. After shopping for the next two weeks, it was usually late enough that cooking meat would take too long. Rotisserie chicken shredded makes a good meat for a chicken alfredo pasta, or on a pizza for BBQ chicken pizza, etc. And the difference in price with a raw whole chicken (usually less than 3 dollars) was well worth it for the savings in time and avoiding the fast-food stop when the kids were losing their minds in the back seat. We lived about 30 mins from the grocery store, so munching on chicken was a good way to keep the kids (both less than 4yrs old) calm and happy.
- munificent 10y ago
  > Rotisserie chicken shredded makes a good meat for a chicken alfredo pasta, or on a pizza for BBQ chicken pizza, etc. Also, you can take the leftover carcass and use it to make wonderful chicken stock. Just throw the bones and bits in a bag in the freezer. When you have a few carcasses and some free time on the weekend, follow any recipe and make stock. You can then freeze the stock and use it whenever you like.
robertcorey 10y ago
Please not that McDonald's is only able to offer that type of kcal to dollar ratio because of the massive subsidies the usa has for meat production.

chirau 10y ago

True! This article ignores an important aspect of time. I earn about $90 an hour. So between cooking and doing dishes, let's say i remove the wait times and stuff where i could do other things, I am still using up about 10 to 15 minutes extra preparing a fresh chicken. I understand I don't work 24/7, but still, even my downtime matters so even if I cut down that price per hour in half, I'd still rather get a pre-made chicken especially during the week when time is of the essence.

pc86 10y ago
You've made an excellent argument for outsourcing your entire meal prep and having food delivered to your house (or paying someone to shop for you) and having someone cook it for you. The "I make $___ an hour" claim only holds weight if your alternative to whatever activity would be to actually charge money for that time. Presumably you're going to make your own dinner most of the time so your hourly rate at work is largely irrelevant.
- carlisle_ 10y ago
  This is an oversimplification. If the time I'm spending not working is contributing to my ability to make $90/hr it's entirely valid. There are so many things that can fall into this category too, like the need for people to have recreational time, or professional development (e.g. reading journals), etc.
  - fbellag 10y ago
    Then you are not making 90$ an hour, but whatever is the prorated fare accounting for your not-billing hours.
- HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
  I enjoy cooking and baking but even I would say that the only argument needed for "outsourcing your entire meal prep and having food delivered to your house" is "I don't feel like doing it myself." I'm not posting this just to be a jerk; rather, I think that too often we spend time trying to justify a behavior that is not at all damaging, but somehow seems "bad." If you don't like doing X and you can afford to pay someone to do it, then go ahead, do so and get on with Life.