This. Having a Big Mac once a week isn't going to kill you, and if you have to eat fast food a lot (I travel for a living, so I do — it's literally a choice between fast food or not eating much of the time), there are ways to be smart about it. A lot of places have calorie counts on the menu now, that makes it a lot easier. If you're willing to expand the definition of "fast food" beyond "McDonalds-style burger joint" then you can find some stuff that's downright healthy. I buy food from Cibo Market a lot; they sell salads and wraps that are pretty tasty and filling without being drowned in dressing or anything, so they're reasonably good for you. Hell, this week I've been eating at this place on the corner called Fresh & Co, which I'm not even sure if it's a chain or what. It's like Moe's or Chipotle, but for salads instead of burritos — good stuff.
It's certainly possible to abuse fast food, and people should continue to push for legitimately healthier options at fast food restaurants, but it's not like fast food needs to be treated as inherently harmful or anything like that.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.It's not just WHAT you eat, but HOW MUCH of it you eat folks.
I still can't see how eating fast food will automatically means weight gains...But then again people will use any obscure excuse to justify there point nowadays...
edited 12th Dec '14 4:02:37 PM by RabidTanker
Answer no master, never the slave Carry your dreams down into the grave Every heart, like every soul, equal to breakAmericans eat fast food a lot because: 1. It's cheap. 2. It's fast. 3. It tastes decent.
Americans seem a lot less concerned about health than Europe for some reason. It's okay in moderation; Mc Donald's is pretty popular in Japan, yet they have a very low obesity rate.
What pretty popular means? And how expensive is fast food in Japan?
I ask because, over here in Brazil, fast food is "pretty popular" also. I can find a Mc Donalds or a Burger King rather easily and they are usually full. They are, however, not actually cheap. I can eat a decent meal in a average restaurant for the price of a combo mean in the Mc Donalds. As a result, most people over here don't actually rely on fast food for their daily meal. They are too expensive for that. I imagine if Japan is not similar.
I know that for example, in the U.S, the government subsidizes the shit out of corn growers. So corn fruictose to make the sweet sodas like pepsi and coca cola being subsidized a lot ,can be afforded at a lower cost by the companies and hence their products are also cheaper.
Cheaper in fact, than other healthier options such as water.
Maybe Japan is something like that?
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
I know. I've been there. I was pointing it out to show comparing between different countries is tricky. No one here would eat every day in a Mc Donalds or other 'fancy' fast burger place because they are not fancy enough to warrant it. We do so once in a while, sure, but we pay just as much in a 'kilo restaurant' for a much greater variety of food.
Unless prices have drastically changed since I was living there, fast food in Japan is about the same price as it is in the states, relative to everything else. Japan's cost of living is a hell of a lot higher than in the US, but the prices at a McD's or KFC were about what I expected. But both were generally slightly higher than finding a ramen place, for the same amount of food; yet much lower than an actual restaurant.
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - SilaswWant to add my two cents on this. Fast food is fine in moderation as many have already said. It's very easy to say fast food is the source of the obesity problem due to how many people eat at said fast food joints and the fact that the food is cheap and there's so many joints around. People can also order take out from other places or grab a box or two of donuts, so the obesity problem branches out a lot farther than most people would like to believe.
Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.I think what a lot of people do, is use fast food for exactly the reason Native Jovian doesn't: they're not going anywhere. They don't travel; they're not active.
Fast food is great when travelling. It's great for lots of reasons. It's not actually great for saving money, if you think about how far you can stretch your cooking budget. And that's just it: people use fast food as a three-meal-a-day habit on purpose — even if it costs them money — because they don't want to -cook-.
At the very least, that's an indication of a -lifestyle- that'll bloat you up like a damned space whale.
VALENTINE. Cease toIdor:eFLP0FRjWK78aXzVOwm)-‘;8It's bad and not just for health reasons. Ugh.
Even if too much calories did not cause health problems, people do not need that much calories. I think... it's... one typical American meal is already a day's worth of calories? So meaning, 66% overconsumption of (empty) calories that's just going to make you crave for more (empty) calories.
Which means 60% overproduction of food. Add the... maybe 20% of food that's just thrown away, and we're talking about the Food Industry wasting over 50% of resources, which is not good for the environment. Of course, we could use that overproduction to feed the starving masses, but hah... that's just not going to happen cause Capitalism.
Then, there's animal abuse...
Plants are aliens, and fungi are nanomachines.'Empty calories' are not, and have never been, a serious health concern, unless you factor in that the alternative to eating a whole bunch of 'dry, empty CARBZ (le gasp!)' is to get the same required nutrition from low-calorie foods like eggs, meat, dairy, etc...
...You know, the kinda stuff that -actually- accounts for the unhealthiness of fast food.
Fun fact: Your body needs a certain amount of energy each day to keep functioning. This energy is called calories. Now, either you get them from something called carbohydrates, or you get them from various fats, proteins, etc. Well, that or you get sick and eventually die.
The latter are essentially compressed versions of the former. Your body can, slowly and over time, 'UnRAR' these fats and proteins into carbohydrates. Thing is, your body can only do this so quickly. And remember, it needs a certain amount of energy from these carbohydrates every day.
Carbohydrates in excess of the amount it uses are converted to weight-gain. This much is true. You still need to meet this requirement, however, otherwise you start -losing- weight and yea.
Now, tell me, which is a healthier source of that energy...
Four pieces of bread, and one slice of pork...
...or six slices of pork, and one piece of bread?
Remember, you still need enough calories each day, either way, regardless of where you get them from. It has been the long-held and correct belief of humans, from time immemorial, that a diet with a proportionally-high amount of meat is the simplest method of gaining body weight.
I mean, it would be. It's meat. It's -made- out of body weight.
edited 1st Mar '15 11:08:02 PM by Preta
VALENTINE. Cease toIdor:eFLP0FRjWK78aXzVOwm)-‘;8
Did I say you should not eat meat?
Sharing this cause it sounds awesome.
A device which tricks the body into thinking it's full (without requiring surgery).
We need all the help we can get to counter food mega-corporations using every trick in the book to make people feel hungry, thirsty, etc.
edited 2nd Mar '15 12:51:21 AM by probablyinsane
Plants are aliens, and fungi are nanomachines.
Well, if "empty calories" were literally empty, like they just pass through the body without leaving stuff behind, it would be less of a health problem.
Unfortunately, "empty" calories isn't actually empty.
As for meat, I just want to make it crystal that I do not care how much meat strangers eat so long as the meat comes from a sustainable source obtained without needless cruelty.
It's been too much of a pattern for other people to assume that being "environmentally conscious" + "concerned about animal abuse" to immediately mean that I'm a vegetarian.
No, I like to eat meat, and I'm selfish because I want to eat meat without having to worry about whether the animal the meat comes from wasn't caged up all of its life, died screaming in agony because the slaughterhouse employees are overworked (and underpaid) and whether or not it had to be pumped full of antibiotics because of poor living conditions.
Let's just say if big food corps. do not even care about their customers' health, it would be extremely naive of me to expect them to care about their employers or about mass-produced animals.
Plants are aliens, and fungi are nanomachines.

What are you guys's opinions on fast food? Is it a harmless convenience or is it the cancer that is killing American diets?
I think it's okay in moderation. A lot of it is really high in saturated fats and assorted yummy-but-not-healthy things, and you really will get fat if you eat it three square meals a day. And unless you're ordering off the value menu at Mc D's it can be more of a money hole than cigarettes. Still, when I'm out traveling and I don't want to wait until I get home to cook something, I'm about as likely to swing through the drive-thru as anyone else.