Is "fast food" vulgar?

the question should be: is fast food really food? because, ick...

i had the misfortune of working for mcdonalds for 3 months as a teenager. after that experience i will never eat another fast food burger. ever.

 

Anyone familiar with The Destroyer series and especially the movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins? One scene Chuin is telling Remo about food. He says, "Do you know why it is called "Fast Food?" Because it speeds you to your grave." Then he chuckled.

That being said, I remember reading a nutritionist talking about the dangers of fast food. Then they said, "But if I'm working late I still grab a burger."

 

bloody hell, I clicked the wrong radio button. Subtract one from "no" and add it to "yes". Fast food is horrific. The supply chain from the ground up (pardon the pun) is very industrial, as squid mentioned. I'm also addicted to it, I think. I have a hard time passing up fast food for just about any meal. I eat out every day at lunch and it's always fast food. I know how wretched it is but I find that can't stop eating it. I'm pretty sure it's an addition. I don't know what it is in the food that makes me crave it. Galaxee, any ideas?

 

tripp: fats. the body loooves fats. always trying to put some energy away- an artifact from the hunter-gatherer days.

DH was also a daily quarter-pounder consumer until he started to feel physically ill with no explanation. went to the doc, all tests were normal except his triglycerides (way high). started having apples for breakfast, chicken salads for lunch, and more healthy foods for dinner and he feels much better. i suspect his next cholesterol test will be within normal limits.

 

Best lesson I learned in Junior High:
One day, a doctor came and talked to my class about health and nutrition. He brought along two fast food meals - hamburgers, fries, and a soda. Two “lucky†kids got to eat them. A few minutes later he took small blood samples from the two burger eaters and three other kids. He then placed several drops of their blood next to each other on a hard sheet of white plastic. He stood the sheet up and said, “guess who ate the junk food.†It was quite apparent that the blood samples from the burger eaters were the two that were soon dripping off the edge of the sheet of plastic and floating in a container of some sort of liquid. The other blood samples never made it to the edge, so the Doc dropped a drip of their samples into the liquid . . . they sank.

Ever since that demonstration I would only eat at a fast food joint if it were an emergency (no other place available) situation.

 

Downright gross!

Except of course for White Castle :lol: gotta love those sliders!

 

Frontline did a special on fast food with an emphasis on US beef production. Cows stand crowded in their own waste in feedlots and are then sent to slaughter. According to Frontline investigators over 1000 cows are in every hamburger. This is not quality, it is a recipie for rapid transmission of Mad Cow (BSE), Chronic Wasting, Crutchfield - Jacob and other diseases.

Potatoes deep fried can nutritionally no longer be considered potatoes. They transform to trans-saturated fat laden grease sponges. It is not an individual meal, but the cumulative effect of eating that is a major contributor to obesity, cardiac disease and other health problems.

 

ha!! what a laugh :lol: ... the only time i eat fast food is in my car. discounting high school (it was a tradition to cruise every weekend and hang out at either MacDonalds, Dairy Queen (not open in winter time) or Bob's Big Boy... there was no Wendy's, Taco Bell or much of anything else back then) and little bit during college, i can count on one hand the number of times, i've sat inside a fast food restaurant and eaten.

 

Vulgar? Not quite. You want vulgar, you are talking about a preference for yellow mustard over other mustards, or someone who puts ketchup on eggs or something. Or perhaps someone with a preference for Chef Boyardee or Campbells, because "it doesn't have all that extra stuff in it." Now that's vulgar!

 

Fast food is definately vulgar, and oddly tasty and addictive. White Castle being the exception that proves that rule (unless one is really drunk). I do, on the other hand, put ketchup on my scrambled eggs. A matter of personal taste or lack thereof I suppose.

Unfortunately, the influence of fast food, quick service and chain restaurants has completely revolutionized the entire food processing industry and just about anything you buy at a supermarket has been grown or processed under the same conditions.

So what's a person to do? I suppose one could either try to ignore the problem, or only buy organic, free range food. This isn't at the top of my personal priority list, so I do the former. And I call myself a bleeding heart lib'ral. Shame on me.

 

If you live near a Trader Joe's, you should give it a try. Everything is not always in stock, but there is still a massive variety of delicious gourmet foods (including lots that is ready to eat) and staple ingredients and all at great prices (often less than supermarket prices). My girlfriend and shop there every week for easily 95% of our needs.

 

i often find it comical that its acceptable to put ketchup (or catsup for people who think "K" words are weird) on french fries but not on hash browns. or to put it on scrambled eggs, but its ok to put in on an egg sandwich...

and i agree, White Castle, is not fast food.... i consider it "ready gourmet" food

 

I've been in a McDonald's twice in the last 30 yrs. Once was was on a trip down Whidbey Island. The kids were starved and we didn't know where to go. This was 1990. I had a shake and fries and was pretty sick by the time we hit the ferry. Now, no matter where I am travelling, I won't consider eating there, even if I'm starving. The second time was in India, 2004. Just went in for a looksee and noticed there wasn't any beef on menu. I still didn't try anything. There were so many choices for cheap, good food around that I was surprised to see the place in business, but indeed it was busy.

 

The grass is always greener I suppose. I've eaten at McD's in Paris. Very chic. Beer and wine on the menu and on 3 levels. A class act all around. :lol:

I was very unimpressed with the one I went to in Rome.

 

Must be the ectomorph in me. I guess it's good that I'm playing hockey 4-5 times a week! I'm slowly getting better. At least I'm switching to "healthier" fast food. More arby's, subway, and wendy's chilli in the diet now. Next thing to axe is french fries, those wicked things.

 

Mmm, Fast Food.... ::drool::

Nothing is better than Taco Bell... or Rally's... or McDonald's Breakfast Menu... MMMmmmmmm....

 

ya i hear that chili is high in human proteins

 

I was not shocked to find McDonalds in Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand but there was lots of better food at cheaper prices available on every street corner. Being curious, I took a look. In addition to the things I expected, they also had what they called a Samurai Pork Burger which is a sandwich with a ground pork patty in some sort of barbeque sauce slathered in mayonaise. I was frightened.

One quick service item that I found in Thailand that I liked was at Mr. Donut. They had a box that had three small tuna salad sandwiches on tiny triangular glazed donuts for Thai Bhat 25 (roughly US $0.60 at then current exchange rates). It was very very tasty, though probably not high on the healthy food scale.

By the way, if you are ever in Thailand and with a group of folks daring you to eat insects, try to find dried bamboo worms. They kind of taste like barbeque potato chips. Most of the other insects taste really fishy, in a bad way.

Tuna Donuts and dried bamboo worms - the lunch of champions!

 

I am usually grossed out by fast food and rarely eat it, but after a week in Melbourne, Australia I went to a McDonalds to get some food with taste. What a relief! There were a lot of Aussies there too. They are lovely people but they eat strangly bland food.