Go to a grocery store and buy a whole cooked chicken. Peel the skin off if it has seasoning on it (usually loaded with msg). Some deli's even have mashed cauliflower, just ask what's in it first.

On average a McDonalds hamburger has bits of 1000 cows in it... Not too paleo.

If you have access to a microwave, there is a plethora of fresh animal and vegetable matter at any local grocery store -- e.g. fresh salmon and a sweet potato and can easily be microwaved.

McDonald's should never have to be a last resort. :-/

EDIT: ehow has a good writeup of how the hamburgers are made. It looks like it is from a frozen state to in the customer's mouth in 90 seconds.

You know, if I was really hungry, searching for the least harmful option available in my immediate vicinity, and someone said, "Why don't you just do an intermittent fast?", assuming I could restrain myself from slapping them, I'd probably say something like "Thanks for nothing," walk away, and have a cheeseburger without the bun.

Some piously paleo people relentlessly push abstemiousness, but I favor a "harm reduction" model. Eat multiple hamburgers without the bun, and/or the grilled chicken, and if you're not lactose/casein intolerant, maybe have plain milk or juice (instead of a shake or "ice cream"), and hope for the best. You can probably get enough calories in to prevent a more loathsome choice until your next proper meal.

Nothing about McDonald's is okay, but if I really had no other option and was desperate, I would do it. Dietary fidelity or perfection is a fantasy. Sometimes you need fuel more than you need anything else. Thankfully our bodies are mostly pretty good at handling challenges and healing. Consider it part of your "hormesis" program, and something that's perhaps not totally pleasant, but will nonetheless reinforce your commitment to doing better the rest of the time.

DON'T DO IT. Anything else is a better option. ESPECIALLY if you have digestion issues (like me). McDonald's burgers (even bunless), canola-fried fries and/or vanilla "frozen dessert" is very, very far from Paleo. I'm not even sure it's food.

To answer the question: their fries are not whole potatoes, they contain wheat flour, and do you really want that deep fried questionnable oil in your body?

God only knows about the source of their dairy and the sugar in the milk... I wouldn't have anything from there...

I understand not wanting to IF, but those options are pretty much on par with any poor vending machine choice...

If there were almonds int he vending machine, I would choose those, even if roasted in canola oil, over the McMeal.

My advice: make the best choices you can for today and take this as a lesson learned: pack your lunch. If you're able, leave some items in your desk or fridge or car for when you forget, always have a backup plan.

Perhaps a good day for an intermittent fast? I do that on travel days to avoid airport food.

Isn't there anywhere else you could pick up some lunch? Of all places I'd go to for a lunch emergeny, I think Mc Donalds would be my very last choice. (Or maybe not, but then I would just call it a very bad cheat and enjoy it. Lack of bun isn't going to make it healthy.)

If anything eat the meat without the bun. Honestly I would just go to wendy's as they are higher quality.

You do know that beef is almost always at least 3 weeks old? After the aging process they make the beef patties and freeze them, also kerrygold is cultured, and even if you choose the uncultured variety it is high in histamine.

Your version of a low histamine diet is a bit weird without the veggies etc. and with meat since meat contains histidine which the body breaks down into histamine, so maybe not the best choice in large quantities?

To answer all of the questions:

The patties are thrown frozen right onto the grill, no thawing at all. I believe most restaurants now have the "clamshell" style grills that cook the patties on both sides at once. If not, they have a "sear" phase where they press a metal puck down on top of the meat to give it a quicker browning on one side.

As for the "ice cream" and the "french fries"... The ice cream contains, among other things, corn syrup solids, guar gum, and cellulose gum. The french fries are not only cooked in one or more of soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil and hydrogenated soybean oil, they also contain hydrogenated soybean oil and "wheat derivative".

What would be better? Go to the grocery store that the McDonalds probably sits in the parking lot of and grab a package of Boar's Head roast beef and a small container of goat cheese, or potentially a tray of Deviled Eggs from the deli counter.

As for better from McDonalds? I'd say your best bet (still not as good as, say, the deli counter at a grocer) would have been a Double Quarter Pounder with no cheese (contains gluten), no ketchup or mustard, extra tomatoes, extra pickles and extra lettuce and a glass of water. Discard the bun.

Doesn't McDonalds make halfway decent salads with grilled chicken? Skip the dressing, bring some oil and vinegar from home- that should get you down the road.