Things You Didn't Know About McDonald's Breakfast

You may not have to rush to McDonald's in the morning to get breakfast anymore, but, there was a time when college kids across America schlepped themselves out of bed before 10 a.m. to nurse their hangovers with Egg McMuffins and hash browns. Chances are it was better than your dining hall food, and it was probably cheaper too, given the cost of higher education.

These days you can get Mickey D's breakfast around the clock. This is just the latest addition to their food history, spiced with innovations and controversies alike. Here are some things you didn't know about McDonald's breakfast.

It's been around for a while

Like most McDonald's innovations, selling breakfast items was the idea of a franchisee. Jim Dellegatti, inventor of the Big Mac and franchise operator, wanted to have his restaurant open during morning hours. So in 1970, he started selling coffee and other breakfast items during the four hour window when most McDonald's were closed. By 1971, he was doing 5 percent of his business during this shift.

But it was another franchisee who really put breakfast on the map for the fast food industry — Herb Peterson, who operated a McDonald's in Santa Barbara, California. He asked Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's System, Inc., to come visit his restaurant over a Christmas holiday. It was there that he planned to show Kroc a new item  he had been working on: an egg sandwich served with cheese and a slice of Canadian bacon. According to company lore, Kroc liked it so much he ate two in a row, then brought the idea back to executives. This humble sandwich, which was officially launched shortly after senior management were introduced to it, became the cornerstone of the McDonald's breakfast menu. By 1976 McDonald's had a full, established breakfast menu, years before the competition got into the game.

All day breakfast caused some problems

All day breakfast was a big deal when McDonald's rolled in out in October of 2015, which was no surprise since it was their number one customer demand. Not everyone was thrilled with the roll-out, however, as there were a few hiccups. Some franchisees had to invest a lot of money making their restaurant capable of serving breakfast alongside the standard menu items. Others felt like they were rushed into service, and wanted more time to introduce the new menu. And there was concern about menu items that all day breakfast pushed off the menu, like some McWraps.

In spite of these and other issues, sales have been good, driving an increase in stock prices and company revenue. So at the end of the day, making breakfast available around the clock was, so far, the right thing to do for both franchisees and the corporation.

They're invested in the coffee game

Starbucks, easily the most ubiquitous coffee shop in the United States, wasn't always on every corner. So its fast and fierce success showed there's an insatiable thirst for coffee in the American market, and customers are willing to pay top dollar for it. In this regard, McDonald's was a bit late to the party, in spite of the fact that as of 2006, they sold one out of 10 cups of coffee purchased at restaurants, stores, and coffee shops — that's $19 billion every year.

McDonald's really upped their coffee game when they introduced the McCafe line of drinks in 2009. Featuring drip coffee, lattes, frappes, and more, these drinks rival the stalwart offerings available at Starbucks, though for a cheaper price and faster service. Additionally, they've been changing how they source their coffee beans and work with farmers; by 2020, 100 percent of the coffee they source will be sustainable.

It can be pretty unhealthy

You can't beat the convenience of getting a hot breakfast at the drive-through window on a hectic work morning. But it's prudent to do a bit of research in your downtime as your breakfast can quickly become a fat, salty calorie bomb. Take, for example, the Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit: it has 450 calories, which isn't too terrible, but it also has 24 grams of fat — that's 37 percent of your daily recommended intake. And it has a whopping 1,290 milligrams of sodium, which is over half of your recommended daily sodium intake in one sandwich. Note that this nutritional profile is pretty standard for their breakfast sandwiches; everything served on either biscuits or McGriddles shakes out with relatively similar calorie, fat, and sodium measurements.

But even that's not as bad as their aptly-named biggest breakfast offender, the Big Breakfast, which clocks in at 750 calories, 49 grams of fat, and 1,490 milligrams of sodium. And if you get it with hotcakes? That's literally 100 percent of your recommended fat intake in one sitting. Wash that down with a latte from the McCafe menu, and you've exceeded your dietary fat allotment before lunch.

But there are healthy breakfast options

Like most restaurants, you can find a range of options, from healthy to downright decadent, depending on how you order. And McDonald's is no different; for as decadent as you can get with the Big Breakfast, you can also order a few breakfast items that won't exceed your daily recommended guidelines in one sitting.

The Egg McMuffin clocks in at 300 calories, 12 grams of fat, and 730 milligrams of sodium. And while that's a bit high in fat and sodium, you do get 18 grams of protein. Still, the healthier option is the Egg White Delight McMuffin, which has 260 calories, eight grams of fat, and 730 milligrams of sodium. And it only has two grams less protein than the regular McMuffin.

Cage-free eggs are on the horizon

One of the most central ingredients on the McDonald's breakfast menu is eggs. You'll find them either fried, folded, or scrambled in many items, such as the breakfast burrito, breakfast sandwiches, and the Big Breakfast. In fact, they use so many eggs that McDonald's uses more than four percent of all eggs produced in the U.S. That's a lot of eggs!

What's surprising is that McDonald's has pledged to use only cage-free eggs in their North American restaurants by 2025, an ambitious undertaking for sure. But with more and more customers demanding that livestock be treated ethically, it's a wise move for business. Still, it's going to be a while before this is fully implemented.

That problem with their pork

Nearly all of the meat in McDonald's breakfast items is pork: the sausage, the Canadian bacon, and of course the standard bacon. In fact, the only non-pork breakfast meat is the steak in the Steak, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit, if you can get it in your area.

McDonald's found itself in some hot water back in 2011 when Smithfield, a company who supplies McDonald's with pork, were accused of lying to shareholders by the Humane Society of the United States. According to the complaint made to The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Smithfield made claims about animal welfare that were untrue, as they confined breeding sow to gestation cages — spaces so small that during their entire lifetime, they couldn't even turn around. In response, McDonald's pledged to have its U.S. pork suppliers phase out the use of these crates, though officially, this won't happen until 2022.

So even though they're making the effort to source humane pork, it's no guarantee for the time being.

Why Greek Mountain Villagers Have Healthy Hearts

Scientists have pinpointed one reason why people living in isolated villages in Greece may enjoy long and healthy lives.

They found a new genetic variant, common among villagers, which appears to protect the heart by lowering levels of "bad" fats and cholesterol.

Despite a diet rich in animal fat, the people of Mylopotamos in northern Crete do not suffer from cardiovascular disease.

And they really love their cheese.

What's special about these Greek villages?

The isolated villages of Zoniana and Anogia are high up in the mountains on the island of Crete.

Few people move in or out of the villages and the inhabitants are known for living well into old age.

Heart problems, heart attacks and strokes - all types of cardiovascular disease - are rare, and that's despite a diet which includes plenty of lamb and local Cretan cheese.

There is a cheese festival held every year in the villages, by the way.

Unhealthy, then?

Well, this kind of diet would normally be a recipe for lots of health complications.

That's because eating foods that contain saturated fats raises the level of cholesterol in the blood, and high levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the blood increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

The villagers do get type 2 diabetes at the same rate as the general Greek population, but they don't seem to suffer from the usual consequences, such as diabetic kidney disease.

So what's different about their genes?

That's exactly what researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute wanted to know.

Was there something in the villagers' genetic make-up that protected their hearts against disease?

Their research, published in Nature Communications, identified a new genetic variant which has heart-protecting qualities.

It is associated with lower levels of "bad" natural fats and "bad" cholesterol - which are important for lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The variant appears to be virtually unique to the population of the two mountain villages.

Out of thousands of Europeans who have undergone genome sequencing, only one other person in Italy possesses this variant, the researchers said.

How do they know?

To solve the puzzle, they sequenced the entire genome of 250 villagers.

That means they took blood samples, extracted the DNA - the operating instructions for each one of us which determine how we look and who we are - and analysed a string of three billion letters which make up their human genome.

Then they used the results to get a more detailed view of more than 3,000 villagers who had already been through genotyping (a shortcut to acquiring some genetic information).

What does this mean for me?

This discovery isn't a reason to go out and eat your weight in animal fat and cheese.

That wouldn't be recommended at all - because the rest of us don't possess this genetic variant.

But scientists say they can use their discovery to work out which genetic variants play a role in causing complex diseases.

This can give clues as to why some people develop heart disease and some don't.

In this study, using this isolated population, they found a genetic variant no-one had seen before - and it's linked to the most common cause of death worldwide, cardiovascular disease.

But there's still much to find out.

Scientists can't tell why the variant is present - it could be to do with how the villagers live their lives, the environment they live in or it could have been passed down the generations.

So isolated populations are useful?

Very. Other research teams are looking at different isolated populations, such as the Amish in the United States, the Inuit in northern Greenland and the Orkney Islanders, in Scotland, to see what else they can discover about the secrets to staying healthy.