Harry Kersh: From calorie
count to portion sizes, we wanted to find out
the biggest differences between the UK and US McDonald's. This is what a small drink
looks like in the UK. Joe Avella: This is a US small. Harry: This is what a
medium drink looks like. Joe: This is a US medium. Harry: And this is a large. Joe: [grunts] And this is a US large. Harry: So, with our McNuggets in the UK, the default adult sizes on the menu are a box of six, a box of nine, or a share box of 20. Joe: Nuggets. You can get a box of four, or you can get a six piece, or 10. 20, for "sharing." Or...ahh. 40. And according to the three
McDonald's in the area, they don't have 20 or 40 boxes, they just do them in increments of 10, but this is on the menu. Harry: In the UK, we got
three sizes of fries. These are our small
fries in the paper bag. Joe: Here is the small fry. Harry: These are our medium
fries in the iconic carton. Joe: Here is the medium fry. Harry: And then these are our large fries. Joe: And here is the large fry. Harry: So, we couldn't find
the exact weight measurement for these fries online, so what we're gonna do
is weigh them ourselves. Just out of curiosity, gonna bring our trusty
friend, the scales, back, and we're gonna weigh the Big Mac and see if there is
any difference in size. I'm not sure there will
be, but let's find out. Joe: Hang on, hang on, hang on. Harry: So, while McDonald's
fries might look and taste pretty similar in the UK and the US, in the UK we only have three ingredients, which is oil, salt, and potatoes. Joe: The McDonald's
french fries in America have way more ingredients. These fries are made
from potatoes, obviously; a vegetable oil, which
has canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogeni... hydrogenitated...genitated? Producer: Hydrogenated. Joe: Ha! Thank you. Hydrogenated soybean
oil, natural beef flavor, dextrose, sodium aspid...phosphitate? Phosphifi...phos...phiupp...pyrophosphate, pyrophosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, which is used to maintain the color. Are they that much of a different color than the ones in the UK? Is it worth it? Can we get a side-by-side comparison? Are they that much more bright yellow we need to put sodium acid pyrophosphate or whatever it's called in it? Salt, and I should mention
that a natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed
wheat and hydrolyzed milk as a starting ingredient, and of course I have no idea what that means. Harry: So, the biggest calorie
difference in a Big Mac actually comes from the sauce. In the US they've got about 40 more calories than we do in the UK. We're not sure if this is
because there's more sauce or because the ingredients list in the UK is just a little bit more simple. Joe: Our sauce is made of soybean oil, sweet relish, which is
made of diced pickles, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, salt, corn syrup, all right, two types of corn syrup, xanthan gum, hang on. Calcium chloride, spice extractives? Water. All right, I've heard of that. Egg yolks, distilled vinegar, spices, onion powder, salt, propylene glycol alginate? Garlic powder; vegetable protein, which has hydrolyzed corn, soy, and wheat; sugar; caramel color; turmeric; extractives of paprika; and, of course, soy...lechithen. Leechithen. Lecithin. I don't know which one it is. Harry: So, if you are
trying to eat healthily at McDonald's, it might actually be the drinks that you have to look out for. Joe: That's nothing, guys. Our chocolate shake? 840 calories. That's as many calories as two cheeseburgers and one hamburger. Harry: So, what does that all mean? If you were to walk into a UK McDonald's and order yourself a large
Big Mac meal with a milkshake, it would be around 1,400 calories. Joe: And if you were to
get the large Big Mac meal with a chocolate shake in America, the total here is 1,870 calories. So that's 1,870 calories, the daily calorie allowance
for an American dude is 2,500, OK. So you have 630 left. One McNugget is 55 calories, right? So you could also have 11 more nuggets, and there you go, that's
all you need for the day. Harry: Here's everything you can only get at a UK McDonald's. So, here we've got the
Veggie Deluxe burger, which is a veggie burger that's served with some mayo and some lettuce. Here we've got a Chicken Legend, which is a chicken burger, again served with mayo and lettuce. Joe: Chicken Legend, I don't
even know what that is. Not gonna catch on.
That can stay in the UK. Harry: We have a range of wraps
that you can get in the UK. We have a wrap of the day. Here we've got the fajita
crisp, which is some chicken, along with some veg and
some spicy fajita sauce. Here we've got some Veggie Dippers. These were actually introduced
at part of Veganuary in 2020 in the UK, but
they're stuck on the menu. So, these are Vegan Society-approved, and they're sort of like a
fried-bean-patty sort of thing. Joe: [sighs] Like, pick a more unappetizing thing to get at McDonald's. Veggie Dippers. Harry: And then finally we've
got some Mozzarella Dippers, which are just kind of
mozzarella sticks, really. Joe: Well, sucks to be in the UK, 'cause everything you see
right here is USA only, baby. Haha, USA only! So, I'm gonna talk about
the coffee drinks real fast. Here in the US, we have
all the same coffee drinks they do in the UK, but every coffee drink has an iced version and also a caramel and/or French vanilla
and/or mocha version, depending on what you're getting. So, we in the US, of
course, have more variety. Shamrock Shake. The Shamrock Shake is, like, it's like vanilla and mint shake. Strawberry Sundae. This has recently been
discontinued in the UK. Sorry, guys. Still got it in the US. My favorite as a kid, the Caramel Sundae. Fruit and Yogurt Parfait,
maybe it's healthy, I have no idea, probably not. Those were the cold items I
wanted to get out of the way as they slowly melt under these lights. Got a lot more to go through. Harry, bear with me here, buddy. Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich. Yo, I think this was introduced when the chicken-sandwich
wars were really heating up when Chick-fil-A started taking over. Let's see what's under the hood. Look at that. Look at this. Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe. This is your fancy Quarter
Pounder with Cheese. This is for Sunday dinner.
When you have company over. Ah, there's so much. Sausage Breakfast Burrito. Even after it's, for a while, it's, like, still, like, glowing yellow. [laughs] Now, these are the Buttermilk
Crispy Chicken Tenders. These smell amazing. I wanna
just bite into these so bad. I wanna just take a big bite. Wanna talk about sauces real quick. OK, I'm at McDonald's, and I
go get me one of everything. I've heard from Harry and
the team over in the UK that some of these they don't have, including sweet 'n sour, honey mustard, what else don't you guys have? I don't think you guys have
ranch either, or buffalo. I gotta say, though, the
sauces are everything. Harry: We've got a couple of sauces that are kind of unique to the UK as well. We've got a sweet curry dipping sauce, and then we've also got
a salsa dip as well, which I didn't know existed until today. Joe: Oh, yes, Donut Sticks. These Donut Sticks also come
with a chocolate dipping sauce. Another thing I'm certain
they don't have in the UK. Yo ho ho ho ho ho ho! Breakfast is served! Look at this. Oh, yeah. Who's ready to start the day? [claps] It's McGriddle talk. [audience applause]
[jazzy music] So, for those of you in the UK who don't know what a McGriddle is, the United States McDonald's
had this genius idea: What if we took breakfast sandwiches, replaced the buns, and made them pancakes
and somehow injected some sort of syrup
flavor into the pancakes? And the McGriddle was born. And, I have to say, they're fantastic. This one right here, the bacon,
egg, and cheese McGriddle. This is the sausage. Yeah? Hi! Hey, hey. This is the sausage, egg,
and cheese McGriddle. American food engineering at its finest. Look at that. In the UK, you guys call
biscuits cookies. Here...no. So, in the UK, biscuits are cookies, what we call cookies. In the US, biscuits are what we call... uh... I don't know what else you can call them. Like, you bake them, and
they're from the South, and they're dry, and I
don't know what they are. Much like the McGriddles, we have a version of
every breakfast sandwich that instead of the regular
bun bread, it's biscuits. Not the cookie biscuits
like you guys have. These biscuits. Harry: Joe, you were so close on the whole cookie-biscuit thing. What you guys call biscuits, we would actually kind of call scones, or scones, depending on where you're from, and the thought of putting breakfast food in between them is kinda weird. They're usually reserved for cream and jam for an afternoon tea. Joe: Last, and, in my opinion, least, is this thing. The Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad. Producer: Yeah. Joe: Oh ho ho ho ho. Harry: Can I eat now? Yeah? Yeah? K, cool. I don't care how many calories,
it's just really good. Mm-hmm.
That calorie count for a pretty standard McDonalds meal is insane in both cases.
Most people could probably have that as their sole meal of the day with a light breakfast and break even, the 2500 calorie a day guidance seems too high for our sedentary populations.
WTF on all the ingredients for the UK versus the US fries? That is insane!
This video has done Britons a grave disservice by telling them that biscuits are like scones. They absolutely, unequivocally are not.
The American guy was so annoying, and why would they have somebody be a presenter for their show if he can't read a teleprompter?
Who on earth actually needs or wants a litre of milkshake or coke with a meal
The US doesn't seem to make as big a distinction between savoury and sweet as elsewhere. The idea of syrupy pancakes combined with red meat is bizarre.
Really wish they had actual food scientists listing the ingredients and what their purposes and pronunciations are. This is just 2 laypeople reading ingredients and adding absolutely no insight.
Pretty good analogy for our countries as a whole.
The video is pretty interesting for the 1st half where they get to the comparisons I would actually want to know about like portions, calories, and ingredients.
Then it goes completely off the rails into irrelevant bullshit about exclusives to the US, which aside from the shamrock shake and maybe the buttermilk chicken are not actually exclusive to the US at all.
I suppose it's an accurate representation of america mentality though. Hoarding and lording over a pile of garbage while trying to convince yourself that it somehow make the US exceptional.