McDonald's

McDonald's Egg White Delight McMuffin (left) and Egg McMuffin (right)

I take whole milk (or even half-and-half) in my tea and have been known to add an extra yolk to my morning scramble, so to say that I'm not the intended demographic for the latest McDonald's offering — the Egg White Delight McMuffin — is an understatement. Still, I tried to put my bias aside. I snapped up the Gabby Douglas-endorsed breakfast sandwich and sat down with our food team to see if it stacks up to the beloved original. Thanks to a swap of egg whites for the original griddled egg, the Egg White Delight McMuffin has 50 calories fewer and nearly half the fat of its classic counterpart. There's one other subtle substitution — white cheddar instead of American cheese — but the new option is otherwise unchanged.

Though McDonald's has found itself at the center of egg controversy in recent years, the star of the McMuffin is undoubtedly still the egg. How would a switch-up in the sandwich's standout ingredient, we wondered, affect the chain's bestselling breakfast sandwich? Keep reading for the answer and to find out which McMuffin we'd pick.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Rebecca Minkoff is now moonlighting as a contributing editor for InStyle. She'll write an advice column called Ask a Designer for the magazine over the next six months. [WWD]
  

• Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's label The Row has been named one of WSJ. Magazine's Innovators of the Year. "The twin designers display an eye for nearly monastic classicism that's redefining American luxury," the magazine says. [Fashionologie Inbox]
  

• McDonald's is suing the city of Milan, claiming it was forced out of its location there to make way for a Prada store. [Vogue UK]
  

• The massive $20 million class action suit between models and a variety of New York modeling agencies isn't the industry's only big court case. Ford has sued Women Model Management for "poaching" two of its rising stars, Alana Zimmer and Karolina Waz. [NY Post]
  

• In other courtroom news, a lawsuit has exposed the "Aircraft Standards" to which the male stewards on Abercrombie CEO Michael Jeffries's private jet must adhere. The guys on Jeffries's flight staff must wear flip-flops, pop the collars of their polo shirts, and always respond to requests from the boss with "No problem." [Bloomberg]
  

• A few British tabloids have reported that Ben Stiller offered Lady Gaga some $5 million to appear in the sequel to his seminal '90s modeling comedy Zoolander. [Fashionista]
  

• Lovers of colorful staple pieces, rejoice! Uniqlo will debut its online store next week. [The Cut]

At this month's Olympic games, McDonald's — the official restaurant sponsor of London 2012 — is welcoming the world's biggest set of Golden Arches at its 1,500-seat pop-up restaurant in Olympic Park, and the chain has just revealed its world-class menu for the venue.

Read ahead to see the McDonald's Olympics menu.

Contrary to what you might think, you're not getting ripped off at the fast food joint just because the burger in the ads looks so much better than the real-life one. In fact, according to a YouTube video released by the McDonald's marketing team in Canada, they use the same ingredients. But one of the major differences is that the content is pushed to the front. This helps the ingredients look more visible and, yes, even makes the burger look bigger and better.

After the pictures are taken, there's also some photoshop magic that make the burgers look even more appealing. Watch the video below to see how the process works:

Just a few months ago, McDonald's was under serious fire after it was discovered that its main egg supplier was committing severe animal cruelty violations. Now the Golden Arches is taking a step in the right direction by announcing its plans to handle its pigs in a more humane and sustainable way.

Yesterday, McDonald's said that it will require pork suppliers to stop using gestation crates, cages that keep individual sows in very close quarters while they're pregnant. McDonald's is one of the world's biggest buyers of pork, which is used to make bacon, ham, sausages, and McRib sandwiches.

No doubt, McDonald's is bowing to increased pressure from animal rights activists. PETA's fully supportive of the decision, as is the Humane Society, which calls it "important and promising."

The pork industry, on the other hand, is up in arms over the fast feeder's decision, defending the stalls as a "conventional" practice. Where do you stand? Since McDonald's is modifying its animal treatment practices, are you more likely to make a trip there?

If you're willing to clog up your arteries, there's a great McDonald's deal going on at LivingSocial today: $13 for five Big Macs and five large fries. That's 50 percent off the normal value of $26.

You can take a bit of time mulling over whether you should purchase it because you still have 15 hours to decide and the deal is capped at one million voucher booklets. The best part about the deal is that there is no expiration date. Even if you eat at McDonald's once a year, you'll still be able to make good use of it as long as you remember to use it. Keep in mind that although this is a really great deal value-wise, it's up to you to decide if the cost to your health is worth it. Are you buying this deal?

Have you always pooh-poohed those cage-free, organic eggs sold at the supermarket? Well, read ahead, because a new story may have you thinking twice.

A 20/20 special airing today on ABC shows workers at Iowa-based Sparboe Farms — the fifth-largest shell egg producer in the US and main supplier for eggs at McDonald's — burning off the beaks of young chicks; dead, rotted hens being pulled out of cages; and live chicks being thrown into plastic bags to be suffocated. The footage, caught undercover by animal rights group Mercy for Animals, was powerful enough for McDonald's to announce today that it's broken ties with Sparboe Farms for good.

The FDA also issued a warning letter to Sparboe yesterday, citing 13 violations that could potentially contribute to salmonella contamination. McDonald's has issued a statement maintaining this controversy is "not a food safety issue for our menu items," but it's likely this egg exposé will be one for the books. If you have the stomach to watch the video, tell me: does it surprise you?

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced its 2011 nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards this morning, and, as usual, a number of food programs were included.

On the exhaustive list of Emmy nominees were Top Chef for Outstanding Reality Competition (among other nominations); and Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations for Outstanding Nonfiction Series, with a number of additional nods for the series's post-earthquake Haiti episode.

Top Chef and No Reservations were in good company: McDonald's, also a nominee, has been acknowledged in the Outstanding Commercial category. If you were in charge of the awards, which TV shows would you nominate?

Photos courtesy of Bravo