Results

Here are the results of the analysis. All data is taken from the outlet companies OWN website's nutritional guide. So, if you want to McLibel anyone, McLibel yourself!

Our first category is single, simple burgers. No double layers or fancy extras.

Top Five Best Small Burgers
Outlet Item Kcal Fat(g)
All data taken from outlet nutritional guides Roadside Food Survey 2008
McDonalds Hamburger 250 8
Burger King Hamburger 270 10
McDonalds Cheeseburger 300 12
Burger King Cheeseburger 311 13
Wimpy Classic 337 15.1

Quite a suprise to find that McDonalds has both the lowest calorie and fat content in it's most basic offerings. How much of this has been brought about by the McLibel case would be interesting. For reference US the version of the Hamburger has 1g of extra fat.

What really blew me away was that there is no chicken burger, often considered to be the healthier fat option, in the top five. The nearest is McDonald's McChicken Sandwich with 380Kcal and 16g of fat.

Next up is the bottom five single burgers on offer by outlets in the UK

Bottom Five Small Burgers
Outlet Item Kcal Fat(g)
All data taken from outlet nutritional guides Roadside Food Survey 2008
Wimpy Spicy Beanburger † 594 29
Wimpy Gourmet Chicken Fillet †† 514 13.6
Burger King BK Spicy Beanburger 506 20
KFC Zinger Burger 481 20.8
KFC Chicken Fillet Burger 441 15.6

† Got Vegetarian, eat healthier? Not in the case of the Wimpy Spicy Beanburger. With 595Kcol and 29g it contains 100Kcal and nearly 5g of fat more than a Big Mac.

†† It should be noted that the Gourmet Chicken Fillet is from Wimpy's "Ligher Bites" section of the menu. Whilst we agree that the 13.6g of fat is better than average, at a whopping 514Kcal it is way behind the curve. Double damming given this is paporting to be the healthiest choices.

Quite why vegetarian options should be so badly served to the consumer is a mystery to me. Is it impossible to make a low fat, healthy vegetarian choice?

Next up is our 'Medium Class'