Former NBA player John Salley turned vegan post-retirement, and he is quite skeptical of all these beef burgers sold in fast-food joints. During an appearance on the Stepping Into The Fire podcast, Salley questioned where all these cows are coming from.
“How are they selling 6.5 billion burgers?” Salley asked. “There’s not that many cows. And it can’t just be going to McDonald’s. So it can’t just be meat… Not wanting to mention the company, but when I heard that, I just started thinking about it. It can’t sustain. We can’t eat that much. Or it can’t be beef that we’re eating.”
Host Jamie Blyth hilariously asked if the company’s name rhymed with McDonald’s, and Salley, who chose to go vegan in 2006, declined to comment. The 61-year-old obviously was referring to them, but he got his numbers wrong.
McDonald’s claims to sell about 6.5 million burgers globally every day. That comes to about 2.4 billion burgers a year.
Now, not all of these are beef, but even if they do consider that they are, it’s not hard to explain the number. A standard McDonald’s beef patty weighs 1.6 oz. A single cow, on average, might get you around 500 pounds of meat. If we go by this math, it’s 5000 burgers from one cow. For 6.5 million a day, you’d need 1,300 cows.
Even if you increase the patty size to the biggest one, which is 4 oz, the number doesn’t exactly get outrageous. You’d then be looking at 3,250 cows per day for 6.5 million burgers.
While we can’t say for sure what is and isn’t in those patties, the 6.5 million number is achievable. That’s not the only thing Salley has doubts about, though.
“You would laugh at some of the things Americans would not do,” Salley said. “And they would be like, ‘Oh, I’m not doing that,’ but they have no idea that they would go to McDonald’s and eat a burger that doesn’t decay. So just think about that, think about all the burgers you’ve had. Think about all the cheese, which is a fake thing. Think about all the bread, which is not bread.”
Salley revealed the last time he had a burger from McDonald’s was 23 years ago. He has turned to a plant-based diet and is extremely happy with his decision.
Salley wishes others would do so choose to do so as well and has been speaking about its benefits on Instagram. He claimed his source of protein is the same as that of a cow.
“The same place the cow gets it,” Salley said. “Green leafy vegetables. So you get more protein out of a green leafy vegetable that’s bioavailable to a human body.”
When asked if he was claiming you’d get more protein from broccoli than a piece of chicken, Salley said it would have to be a collard green. Plant-based diets are certainly starting to become more common. It is viewed as a healthier option than consuming meat, especially today, when there are concerns about injections and whatnot.
