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The offal truth: Shocking number of calories in your Burns Supper – as it’s revealed haggis, neeps and tatties contain more than a large McDonald’s cheeseburger meal

By 5 Mins Read
The offal truth: Shocking number of calories in your Burns Supper – as it’s revealed haggis, neeps and tatties contain more than a large McDonald’s cheeseburger meal

With Burns Night finally here, Scots around the world will be looking forward to diving into a hearty plate of haggis, neeps, and tatties. 

Consisting of a savoury pudding made from offal, mashed potatoes, boiled turnips, and a whisky cream sauce, you might think the meal is fairly healthy. 

However, the Daily Mail has revealed the offal truth about the calories in the classic Burns Supper. 

According to our calculations, a serving of haggis, neeps, tatties and whisky cream sauce comes in at a whopping 944 calories. 

That’s even higher than a large McDonald’s cheeseburger meal, which clocks in at 896 calories. 

Unfortunately, the results are almost as bad for people opting for vegetarian haggis, which is made from vegetables, oatmeal, and pulses.

‘Burns Supper has many nutritional benefits,’ explained nutritionish Dr Laura Wyness in a blog on her website. 

‘But be mindful of the portion size of haggis due to the high fat, saturated fat and salt content.’

With Burns Night finally here, Scots around the world will be looking forward to diving into a hearty plate of haggis, neeps, and tatties

The Daily Mail’s calculations are based on a standard Burns Supper meal, consisting of 200g of haggis, 200g of mashed potatoes (tatties), 200g of turnips (neeps), and 100ml of whisky cream sauce. 

According to Macsween, 200g of haggis comes in at 570 calories, while 200g of vegetarian haggis is 546 calories. 

Packed with meat, haggis tends to be high in saturated fat, as well as salt.  

However, Dr Wyness points out that the Scottish pudding is actually very high in several nutrients. 

‘One of the main ingredients of haggis is liver, which is high in vitamin A, vitamin B12 and folate,’ she explained. 

‘Heart and lungs will provide some iron, zinc and selenium and the oats included in haggis will contribute to fibre intake.’

Depending on the amount of butter and cream in it, a 200g serving of mashed potatoes is roughly 176 calories, according to MyFitnessPal. 

‘Mashed tatties (potatoes) provide potassium, magnesium, folate, vitamin C and vitamin B6 as well as dietary fibre,’ Dr Wyness added. 

A large McDonald's cheeseburger meal clocks in at 896 calories - 48 fewer than the Burns Supper

A large McDonald’s cheeseburger meal clocks in at 896 calories – 48 fewer than the Burns Supper

The calories in your Burns Supper

  • 200g haggis: 570 calories
  • 200g of mash: 176 calories
  • 200g of turnip: 88 calories
  • 100ml of whisky cream sauce: 110 calories

= 944 calories

Neeps (turnips), are the lowest calorie item on the Burns Supper, with 200g coming in at just 88 calories. 

Finally, 100ml of whisky cream sauce is around 110 calories. 

In total, this means a standard Burns Supper meal clocks in at 944 calories, while the vegetarian version is around 920 calories. 

To put that into perspective, the Daily Mail turned to the fast food giant, McDonald’s.

Using the chain’s nutrition calculator, you can see that a double cheeseburger is 452 calories. 

Pair that with a large portion of fries (444 calories), and the meal comes in at 896 calories. 

That’s 48 calories fewer than the Burns Supper meal – and just about enough for you to add a 25ml BBQ dip (49 calories) to your McDonald’s meal. 

The news comes shortly after experts called on meat lovers in Scotland to have less haggis and more neeps and tatties. 

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh say that cutting down on beef, lamb, and pork could help to curb climate change. 

If everyone ate no more than the dietary recommendation of 70g of meat per day, Scotland could reduce its total red meat consumption by 16 per cent, according to the researchers. 

Professor Lindsay Jaacks, Personal Chair of Global Health and Nutrition at the University of Edinburgh, said: ‘There is no question that we need to change our diets to reduce our impact on the planet.’

WHO WAS ROBERT BURNS AND WHY IS HE CONTROVERSIAL?

Robert Burns was born 25 January 1759 and died 21 July 1796 and was widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland.

He was  a high-ranking member of the Freemasons and much of his popularity stems from the fact he was a farmer’s son who could speak to the common man.

But he also led a varied social life which exposed him to different sections of society.

In his poems, he often used small subjects to express big ideas and he is often thought of as a pioneer of the Romantic movement.

For instance, in ‘To a Mouse’, he draws a comparison between the lives of mice and men. 

He was a source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism after his death.

Burns has a national day named after him on the 25th January each year. 

At New Year, his poem ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is still sung to this day.

For 200 years his birthday has been celebrated with suppers in his honour. 

The poet Liz Lochhead outed Robert Burns as a sex pest, highlighting a 1788 letter written to Bob Ainslie in which Burns implies he raped his pregnant girlfriend Jean Armour.

He bragged of giving his lover a ‘thundering scalade [a military attack breaching defences] that electrified the very marrow of her bones’, and said he ‘f****d her until she rejoiced’.

Lochhead described his letter as a ‘disgraceful sexual boast’.

‘[It] seemed very like a rape of his heavily pregnant girlfriend. It’s very, very Weinsteinian’, she said.

‘Not only did Burns make Weinsteinian claims in his correspondence, his poetry abounds with physical violence against women’, writes Daniel Cook, senior lecturer in English at the University of Dundee in The Conversation.

‘Not published until after his death, Merry Muses of Caledonia is stuffed with the bawdiest songs you’re ever likely to read’, he writes.

However, Dr Cook says these works can help us to reconsider human concerns.

‘After Weinstein, the time is right to reevaluate how we respond to literary traditions’, he writes.

‘Rather than using literature (or private correspondence) to out so-called sex pests, though, we can use it as a vehicle for understanding the long history of sex pesting.’

 

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