The pros and cons about fast food

[Timothy Smith]

I got sent home from my high school sleepover early, and there's just half an hour before I go to school, so I thought I'd post the pros and cons about fast food.

Pros:
- Convenience
- Fast service
- Cheap (not always)

Cons:
- Too much cholesterol and trans fat
- Too much oil

[Dreamline]

You forgot overly-processed, full of MSG and HFCS, preservatives, devoid of nutrients vs calories and extremely hard on the environment locally and globally.

Jennifer

[aggie]

i think the price and convenience is the main factor...how many people want to shop, chop, and cook and then clean up after working all day...and then pack a healthy lunch for the next...there are many guides to healthy fast food consumption...but if you don't eat meat it is kind of tough...and you have to watch all the hidden nasties like fat laden salad dressing, etc...it usually just isn't worth it. some burger kings used to carry veggie burgers..saw it last at a turnpike rest stop. subway is not too bad for veggies and they used to carry a veggie burger also...just not much call for it i guess...why are there not health food/vegetarian fast food establishments anyway?

[joelr]

Mcdonalds grilled chicken breast with no mayo is fast and clean. I always get one on the way home from the gym. It's better than a protein bar - less sugar and better BV protein. The companies who say they use "some" whey protein are often pulling a swindle and using mostly lower quality proteins. MM2000 did an article years ago exposing the many fraudulent claims companies make about what proteins they use.

[Gabo]

There are places serving fast food that are still healthy.
Health is always a choice, whether you have time to plan a meal or are on the go.

[Trustme]

pro:
taste - at least for most of us out there

[RobbieInspired]

@Trustme

Mmmm...KFC....

[aggie]

kfc is inhumane in its treatment of the chicken it uses...even if i ate chicken...i would not eat kfc....

[Dreamline]

Originally Posted by Trustme

pro:
taste - at least for most of us out there

The "taste" aspect is the most interesting to me. That's where the MSG comes in.

It is used as a food additive and is commonly marketed as a flavour enhancer.

(Flavor enhancer? Hmm....why would processed foods that supposedly taste so good already need a "flavor enhancer" like MSG added? Because MSG is a chemical that tricks your brain into thinking it's "tasting" when it's really not. So in essense, the taste is not why you are loving fast food. The illusion of taste that the dangerous chemical MSG gives you is what you are really loving. Let's call a spade a spade...)

MSG also has addicting aspects so the more you think you taste of fast food, conveniently for the companies, the more you want.

Front Porch Productions asks if migraines, fibromyalgia, or stomach problems are caused by MSG (monosodium glutamate) or aspartame.

MSGTruth.org

Jennifer

[aggie]

many of us have allergic reactions of varying degrees to msg also...additives in food are the cause of many problems that people are not even aware...i had a very strong systemic reaction to msg once that made me realize how bad some of these things could be in large quantities....

[Dreamline]

I also have bad reactions to MSG, which used to be made from wheat because wheat contains a high level of the amino acid glutamate that makes up MSG.

Interestingly, I am now (for about three to four years) also sensitive to wheat which gives me heart palpitations, head rushes and dizziness, lethargy, headaches and memory loss. Which, also interestingly, are the symptoms that MSG used to give me before it was made of the glutamates found in bacteria.

So I have looked up a list of foods that are high in glutamates, naturally, and many of them give me similar reactions. What is more alarming though are the processed foods that I assumed were wheat-free that aren't. Like McDonalds and BK fries that I used to eat in a pinch if fast food was all I could get. I also always wondered why chewing gum gave me palpitations and it appears that aspartic acid, aspartame or NutraSweet, converts to glutamate in our bodies and that they share common receptors on almost all of our organs which give people the heart palpitations, diarrhea, headaches, asthma, irritable bowel, irritable bladder, etc, if they are sensitive.

(I just peeped a comment from the MSG truth website that KFC is the worst offender for MSG in foods.)

Ewww. There seem to be no safe foods.

Jennifer

[funchy]

You know the old saying "you get what you pay for" ? How good a quality of food can fast-food really be if you're only paying $1 or $2 for a sandwich?

They buy from the cheapest sources possible. This means you're sure be supporting factory farming. Unhealthy animals = unhealthy meat. You're also supporting exporting our jobs overseas, excess pollution, clearing rainforests, etc. And in 3rd world nations, many of the dangerous banned pesticides are still being used, so you have even better contaminants in that animal and his feed.

Throw in excessively long shipping & storage time, means the food is as stale as possible. Extra processing means lower nutrition. Add in MSG and other flavor enhancers. Even McD's french fries which were advertised for years as only "potatoes and 100% veg oil" were found to be coated in crap (and McD's lost in a lawsuit when people sued). Expect everything to have salt, sugar, and/or fat added in.

Then make it as a place where people are not paid a living wage or usually provided benefits, so you're happily supporting an industry that keeps people on welfare or medicaid.

Then the food is NOT respectfully and hygienically produced buy these immature, disenfranchised, or undereducated workers. When I was 15 my first job was McD's. The stuff I saw there keeps me out of fast food places! Roaches in the basement were normal. Food falling off the grill routinely tossed back on the buns. Stale condiments were still used (can't throw anything away -- that's lost money). Managers changing times of food in bin so it doesn't have to be discarded yet. Hardly anyone I think washed their hands, and bathroom rarely cleaned. Some workers came in drunk, and one I knew for sure was using coke. Trays were not sanitized, they just had crumbs knocked off of them. Only time the place was cleaned properly when for health inspector or corporate office inspection. And after talking to other friends who worked at fast food, this experience was not so unusual. How much can a worker really care about their job when they're paid min wage and treated as disposable and cheap as the food they serve?

So... pros: cheap and convenient. Gives you the illusion you're eating real food.

Cons: this crap is not food and should not be given to a dog. No nutrition. Support of the worst aspects of the farming & food industries. Even their salads have added sugar & chemicals.

[aggie]

well, once again proof that our country does not want a healthy society....

[Dreamline]

It's proof that though capitalism may be the best economic ideal, it only works if people actually think for themselves and not allow corporations to think for them. They will do what makes them money. It's YOUR job to be smart enough to see that.

Fast food has a purpose: To be a fast source of something to fill your tummy in a pinch. The problem is people now define "in a pinch" to mean every day at lunch hour, most mornings and some evenings.

Caveat emptor....

Jennifer

[aggie]

you are totally correct...the capitalism capitalizes on the fact that there is a lot of laziness and lack of independent thought process out there....you, i, others may take making smart choices for ourselves for granted...but others...they would rather hire a lawyer to say that a fast food place made them fat...what about the family that had the child that had some condition and all she wanted was french fries which exacerbated her condition...so they wanted to sue...unreal!

[ginkgo]

You can go to McDonald's and get their fruit salad. The concept of fast food is a good one and I envision one day where you can get very healthy food from a fast food place. Maybe someday someone will create a fast food store with only raw food.

But here is what it is all about. Drug dealers exist since there are people who want to buy and take drugs. The fast food places are giving people what they want. If the consumers only want healthy food and refuse to buy unhealthy food, then these fast food places would be serving very healthy food since they do not want to go out of business. So people are getting what they want.

Did you know that McDonald's secondary business is food? Their primary business is real estate. They own the best real estate in the country. They own the buildings of all the franchises.

[Lauxa]

There is a fast food restaurant here in Austin called Baby Greens that serves just salads. You can get it in a bowl or wrapped in a tortilla. Check out their menu:

http://www.ilovesalads.com/6/Menu.htm

Unfortunately it's not at my end of town so when the need for fast food strikes it's not an option, but it would be great to see more places like this.

[SomeRandomGuy]

I don't view Taste as a Pro for fast food. The more I eat meals cooked at home, the more I feel let down when I do eat fast food. For me, I settle for the taste of fast food when I want something quick or am on the road. I think that almost anything you can purchase at a Fast Food Restaurant tastes better when prepared at home with quality ingredients.

[invisiblehouses]

Pro: if you eat enough of it, you won't notice how awful it tastes anymore.

Pro: if we, as a species, eat enough of it, perhaps in a few hundred years we will evolve the ability to live on chemicals and non-foods without the ill health effects we see today.

I guess those some are pretty backhanded "pros," now that I think about it...

Hey, how quickly do you think a vegan fast food chain would go out of business? You could call it "Falafel Freakin' Fast" and have a hippie instead of a clown as the kid-friendly mascot. I'd definitely check it out.

[aggie]

me too


worst than fast food: FAIR FOOD

[viru87]

Pros are delicious, convenient, you don't have to spend any time in the kitchen.
Cons are unhealthy, makes tired, fattening, full of preservatives, high blood pressure.

[aggie]

so you get tired and lazy and fat and don't want to move...so you motor through the drive-thru and so the cycle continues......