Most burger joints serve similar menus, and unless you are a real consuir of junk food, a burger is a burger and a french fry is a french fry, but have you ever wondered how they compare on nutritional content? I compared the nutritional value of popular menu items from Burger King, McDonalds and Wendy's.

The information contained here is accurate to the best of my knowledge - the raw data comes from the US Department of Agriculture.

I've tried to compare equivalent products, but not having compared each item side by side all comparisons should be taken with a pinch of salt (pun totally intended).

Please note, all the values used in these comparisons are per 100g of product, not per item! Although, if you intend to use any of this information to influence your purchase decision please look at the per item values. Also please bear in mind that fast food is only bad for you, if you consume too much of it!

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Looks like Burger King have the saltiest fries, with more than twice as much sodium as McDonalds. Do they taste saltier? Perhaps they want you to drink more sugary beverage?

Looks like Burger King win again, for the greasiest fries. Although to be fair there is little difference between 1st and 3rd place.

Again Burger King are the winner here, with a little more fat that the rest.

Burger King in 1st place again, with almost 3 grams more fat in their burgers than McDonalds.

A surprise perhaps! Chicken no longer the 'healthy' choice? McDonalds's chicken offering actually has more fat, and more calories than their burger! Wendy's deserve bonus points for their chicken grill sandwich, which does appear to be a healthier choice.

Conclusions

• Burger King's offerings generally have a little more fat and salt.
• Chicken isn't always the healthy choice.

Its clear that if you eat a burger and fries, you will be consuming a lot of fat and sodium. And you will be using up a big chunk of your reccommended daily calorie intake. If you go for the largers sizes and wash it down with a soft drink you can easily consume a days worth of calories in a single sitting. But you probably already knew that!

Be wary of any assumptions you may have regarding healthier choices in these restaurants. If a menu item really is lower in fat / salt / calories then you can be sure to be bombarded with advertising telling you so. Otherwise, it's probably still junk food.