Me and a buddy from an email list have been talking about the Commonsense Consumption Act that’s floating around Congress. This legislation would immunize the fast food industry from obesity-related lawsuits….
A couple of things. First, a few meals a month at McDonald’s never made anybody fat. While I hate their food, I do enjoy the burgers at Carls Jr., and if I weren’t on this nearly fat-free diet, I’d have a burger and fries there a couple of times a month and not think a thing of it. No kid ever got fat eating a few times a month at the junk food department.
I agree. People even got mad at “Supersize Me”, because no one would eat at McDonald’s every meal for thirty days. That’s kinda like the “studies” where they’ll dose a monkey with 20 joints a day and claim all sorts of harms. Sheesh!
Betcha I could make three nutritious and good-tasting meals for four people with $10. Not gourmet, and maybe not with meat-type protein in each one, but cheese, veggies, pasta, a can of tuna, and so on. Anybody who cooks for a family almost certainly has some cans of something in the pantry that can get scrambled with eggs, added to beans, or mixed with rice.
That’s how I grew up. Lots of “shit on a shingle.” I was eleven before I realized that Hamburger Helper was supposed to have hamburger in it!
Believe me, I know how tiring work combined with kids can be, and I’m not saying that a righteous person never succumbs to fast food. But it’s possible to have your burger & fries and be reasonably healthy at the same time. And it’s possible to feed four on $10 for three nights if it’s necessary.
Luckily my wife was from a family of fifteen! Not only can she cook on the cheap, but it’s always in massive amounts, so there’s plenty of leftovers. I’m so easy to please. My wife can make a miracle out of a chicken breast, some wild rice, black beans, and some bulk WinCo spices.
But not everyone is a cook. Before my domestication, my cooking consisted of whatever I could take out of a box or can and stick in the microwave, or a drive to Taco Bell for cheap-ass bean burritos. Any attempt I made at cooking brought indigestion at best or the fire department at worst.
All I want from the fast food industry are the following:
- Nutritional labels on the food wrappers. If Campbell’s has to do it, so should McDonald’s. I assume they’ll complain that would increase costs, since they’d have to have different labels for Double Quarter Pounders vs. Single Quarter Pounders vs. Big Macs, etc. Boo-hoo. Put the info for all the burgers on the burger wrapper, then people can compare. Besides, if the cost goes up a bit, maybe people will eat less of them and we’ll slim down a bit.
- And no fudging the numbers, like putting a serving size of 12oz on the 32oz Coke cup. Since a fast food meal is assumed to be packaged for individual consumption, the nutritional info should reflect the entire package. So like cigarettesm, once we tell you how bad it is for your health, then the individual responsibility is up to you.
- No advertising to kids. I think that should be a universal rule. Have you ever walked down the cereal aisle in a grocery store? Why does there need to be more than a few flavors of cereal? No toy prizes, no Happy Meals, no cute clowns! (I also don’t think drug companies or lawyers should be allowed to advertise, either. If you’re sick, your doctor should know what drugs to prescribe to you. You shouldn’t be told to ‘ask your doctor’. But I digress again…)
- No pricing designed to entice larger quantities. I’ve encountered menus where buying the supersized combo (burger, fries, drink) is actually cheaper than buying the regular burger and regular fries alone without the drink (I often have my refill mug with me, already filled with Diet Coke.)
- No people at the drive thru speaker with unintelligeable accents. (OK, this one is just my personal pet peeve.)
(I just looked at McDonald’s Nutritional Information. This is scary. My regular drive-thru meal was the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Large Fries, and Large Coke. That gives me 1600 Calories, 660 Calories from Fat, 72g Fat [112%!], 24.5g Saturated Fat [122%!], 165mg Cholesterol [56%], and 191g Carbohydrates [64%]. Geez, no wonder my weight exceeds my IQ…)
“Radical” Russ — the McDonald’s Fiesta Salad, with no sour cream or salsa, has more fat, saturated fat, and calories from fat than the Quarter Pounder…
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