Mark Bittman can't stomach McDonald's idea of oatmeal:
Incredibly, the McDonald’s product contains more sugar than a Snickers bar and only 10 fewer calories than a McDonald’s cheeseburger or Egg McMuffin. (Even without the brown sugar it has more calories than a McDonald’s hamburger.)
Yglesias counters:
I see the McDonald’s oatmeal saga as in some ways optimistic. The first piece of good news about McDonald’s oatmeal is that, as a marketing strategy, they clearly think there’s money to be made in selling people food that they perceive as healthier than the existing McDonald’s options. The second piece of good news about McDonald’s oatmeal is that, as a matter of corporate policy, McDonald’s discloses extensive nutritional information about the food they sell. Thanks to the second piece of good news, we know that the promise of healthy McDonald’s oatmeal is a lie. And thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more extensive and aggressive calorie information will be coming.
Serwer adds important context:
Bittman doesn't actually tell you exactly how many calories McDonald's oatmeal or hamburgers have throughout the entire piece, which is a bit odd considering that he's trying to tell you how bad it is for you. The truth is that at 250 calories, McDonald's hamburgers aren't particularly caloric by themselves. The two varieties of oatmeal on their nutrition list weigh in at 260 and 290 calories respectively, and while I wouldn't eat it, the fact that they are more caloric than a hamburger doesn't really mean all that much.