Building H Index

McDonald’s

INDUSTRY

food

Category

restaurant chain

products Profiled

McDonald’s restaurants

H-Score

35

ranked 11th of 16 within food industry

ranked 25th (tie) of 37 overall

product description

McDonald's is a chain of fast food restaurants, estimated to have over 7,300 outlets across the U.S.(1) It serves meals throughout the day and evening, offering consistent menus throughout the U.S. McDonald's serves burgers, chicken and fish sandwiches, side like French fries, desserts, soft drinks and other food items.

product usage

Customers can purchase food by ordering at the counter, at a drive-thru window (where available), or via a website or app. In recent years, customers can also have McDonald's food delivered via McDelivery, a delivery service in partnership with DoorDash and Uber Eats. Customers can eat inside the restaurants or take their meals away.

influence on health-related behaviors

EATING

moderate to strong negative influence

McDonald's serves fast food, which, broadly speaking, can be unhealthy. Researchers have found 70% of meals served at fast food restaurants (not specific to McDonald's) to be of poor nutritional quality.(2)

McDonald's was found to have a Restaurant Nutrition Quality (RNQ) score of 0.34 in a study by USC researchers that looked at the nutritional quality of the menus of over 500 chain restaurant brands.(3) (The RNQ is the ratio of nutrients recommended by dietary guidelines, e.g. protein and fiber, to ingredients whose consumption should be restricted, such as sugars, sodium and saturated fats, for the median menu item. A score of less than 1.0 means that the median menu item has fewer recommended nutrients than restricted nutrients.) McDonald's’s score places it in the 7th percentile (higher is better) of the chain restaurants that were evaluated.

In terms of calories, a sample of featured breakfast meal combos averaged 582 calories, representing 1.7 times the recommended calories for women at breakfast and 1.3 times the recommended calories for men at breakfast.(4) For their standard menu, featured meal combos averaged 1,042 calories, or 1.9 times the recommended calories for women at lunch, 1.4 times the recommended calories for men at lunch, 1.5 times the recommended calories for women at dinner, and 1.2 times the recommended calories for women at dinner. Approximately 20-30% percent of McDonald's’s sales take place during the breakfast hours, 25-35% percent during lunch hours and 20-30% percent during dinner hours.(5)

McDonald's does not feature or facilitate the choice of its healthier items in its online menus. The most prominent items are those for which McDonald's is most well-known, such as burgers and chicken sandwiches. 

McDonald's promotes additional consumption through the use of cross-selling in the ordering and checkout processes. Customers are prompted to turn their sandwiches into meals, with the default meal sides being fries and the default drink being full sugar Coca-Cola. If you do not select a meal, McDonald’s prompts you to add additional items before checking out.

PHYSICAL ACTVITY

slight negative influence

One way in which restaurants contribute to physical activity is how people arrive at them. Restaurants in walkable locations are more likely to get customers to walk or bike to them than restaurants located in car-dependent neighborhoods. Building H reviewed a sample of McDonald's locations and found that 69% were in either “most walkable” (36%) or “above-average walkable” (34%) neighborhoods. 31% were in “below-average walkable” (28%) or “least walkable” (3%) neighborhoods, using the US EPA’s National Walkability Index.(6)

An additional factor that affects physical activity is the presence of drive-thru windows, which enable customers to pick up meals without ever leaving their cars. McDonald's has stated that nearly 95% of its locations have drive-thru service available.(7)

neutral to slight negative influence

Studies have shown that eating within three hours before bedtime increases the likelihood of sleep disruption.(8)

McDonald's locations are typically open until 11:00 pm or 12:00 am, although 40% of the locations Building H reviewed were open 24 hours. Based on Google data about a sample of locations, it appears that approximately 5-10% of McDonald's’s activity takes place after 9:00 pm.

Note that late night eating does not necessarily result in eating shortly before bedtime or extending into people’s sleep windows as there is diversity in daily schedules (due to reasons such as shift work).

Engaging Socially

neutral to slight negative influence

Eating in a restaurant can be a social experience, especially when one eats with family or friends. It is not clear how many of McDonald's customers eat in the restaurant in groups or take food out for groups.

A Building H analysis of Google data on a sample of McDonald's locations shows that the typical amount of time spent at McDonald's is between 10 and 15 minutes(9), which suggests that most customers are not staying to eat in the restaurant.

Drive-thru service and delivery service would typically involve less social interaction. McDonald's has stated that nearly 95% of its locations have drive-thru service available. It is not clear what proportion of orders are either delivered or picked up at drive-thru windows.  

Getting Outdoors

neutral influence

Providing outdoor seating can positively influence the amount of time that customers spend outdoors. Building H reviewed a sample of McDonald's locations and found that 38% offer outdoor seating.

The walkability of restaurant locations can influence the amount of time customers spend outdoors. The more walkable, the more likely it is that customers walk or bike to and from the locations and thus spend time outdoors. As noted above, 69% of McDonald's's locations were in either “most walkable” or “above-average walkable” neighborhoods, while 31% were in “below-average walkable” or “least walkable” neighborhoods.

The availability of drive-thru service can similarly influence outdoor time by affecting the likelihood of walking or biking. Approximately 95% of McDonald's locations have drive-thru service. 

Return to Building H Index report

1. Based on 2018 data. See Ranking The Top 50 Fast-Food Chains in America. QSR. Accessed February 12, 2022

2. Junxiu Liu et al. Quality of Meals Consumed by US Adults at Full-Service and Fast-Food Restaurants, 2003–2016: Persistent Low Quality and Widening Disparities. The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 150, Issue 4, April 2020, pp. 873–883.

3. Iris Liu et al. A continuous indicator of food environment nutritional quality. MedRxiv. November 26, 2021

4. Based on a Building H review of the top five listed meal combos, as compared with federal data on how Americans distribute their calories across meals (see Eliana Zeballos et al. Frequency and Time of Day That AmericansEat: A Comparison of Data From the AmericanTime Use Survey and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. USDA Economic Research Service, Technical Bulletin Number 1954. July 2019) and federal dietary guidelines for moderately active adults (see U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. December, 2020. P. 140).

5. Based on a Building H review of Google’s “popular times” data for a sample of 20 randomly selected McDonald’s locations.

6. Based on a sample of over 200 locations (data from Yelp and Google). For the National Walkability Index, see U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. National Walkability Index: Methodology and User Guide. June 2021.

7. McDonald’s. 2020 Annual Report. P. 9.

8. Nicola Chung et al. Does the Proximity of Meals to Bedtime Influence the Sleep of Young Adults? A Cross-Sectional Survey of University Students. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Apr 14;17(8):2677

9. Based on a Building H review of Google’s data on how much time people typically spend at a location for a random sample of McDonald’s locations.