F*CK FAST FOOD / Nobody Ever Held a Gun to my Head

I repeat: nobody ever held a gun to my head.

A week ago, I had the last fast-food meal I believe I'll ever eat. My father was with me. Wendy's was my idea, as he almost NEVER eats fast food. He's a pretty healthy guy- busy, retired, doing Balkan dances with a group twice a week.

I got what was my habit- a combo with cheese, fries and a diet coke. Up until now, I was a good little slave to my sudden lunch cravings. I'm serious. It was SO FAST, cheap, convenient, and to me it filled me up quickly and tasted good. I'd go to McDonald's, too. Even the sandwich names sounded good. From one burger to the next, it was absolutely consistent. Not even the movie "Supersize Me" got to me in the slightest. I rationalized it by saying my fast food was three times a week and half of that was salads. Their being republican-affiliated moved me against it, but not enough.

I need to lose around 15 pounds, or 20, and get my blood pressure down, as I've needed to for a year, and I WILL. Remarkably, my cholesterol was fine last time I checked.

When I bit into the fries that they sell by the POUND, they were hot and crispy enough, but I kept feeling those spurts of grease that I'd become used to but were no longer acceptable. I could smell the grease and feel its viscousness and taste it. I squeezed one of the fries a little and saw the grease leak out. I imagined what my pores must be like.

Same with the burger- fried, slathered with cheese, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and sauce. Why had I not thought of this as GROSS before? Should food really DRIP like this?!? The bigger a combo gets, the nastier. Something clicked when I felt that grease in my mouth, up my nostrils, and I couldn't rinse the sauce off my hands with hot water & soap even after 2 tries.

I realized how much of this CRAP I'd eaten in the past year. Watching the commercials last night, I experienced a new feeling. There were extreme close-ups of pizza, fried chicken, and rotating cheeseburgers; I watched the grease glisten off this crap with their promise of more food for less money. I became pissed and revolted. Angry. I can't believe how much money we pile into those places, and I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH OF THAT CRAP I'VE BEEN PUTTING INTO MY BODY.

I'm sick of feeling tired, having bad skin, my favorite old clothes not fitting, not having enough energy, and I'm sick of feeling SICK. I'm DONE. I've lurked at a lot of fast-food related threads here and been spanked about the fact that there is always time to prepare your own. I want to say THANK YOU to those who knew better, because I've learned a lot here.

man, what an eye opener! I hear ya.

Saw it for free on Showtime. Thought he WAY enjoyed showing fat people and mocking them. They guy bugged me and the whole premise was absurd. Also most of his points were like, OBVIOUS. And this was up against F/911?

Another liberal credo-must hate eating burgers to be liberal? Naw. I prefer Carl's Jrs. Damn, I hate cliches.

his liver and shit and the "addictiveness" factor.

I know what you mean- as I said, I didn't take that movie too seriously myself, because the guy had 3 meals a day at McDonald's. I thought it was a little extreme to be putting oneself through that. Plus, he always got something according to his rules.

If they asked if he wanted to super-size it, he'd always say "yes".

I think he ordered a salad only once.

And homemade ones really are the best, especially cooked on the good ol' Weber.

I am not a big fan of fast food burgers, other than a treat now and then of a Sonic burger, and a once-a-year Culvers burger. (It's probably a good thing there are no Culvers in this state!)

I do, however, like good-quality hamburgers from a sit-down restaurant.

I may eat at Sonic once next year! (BLUE!)

;-)

who knows that the premise was not absurd.

These Fast Food establishments spend a great deal of resources learning how to psychologically influence you.

I love burgers, hot-dogs, and BURRRRRRiiiiitooosss!

But I know that many people are influenced to eat that stuff TOO often.
I believe it is an individual's very own responsibility to keep him or herself healthy, but the psychology these companies use is pervasive and insidious.

Let's look at those fucking actors they use in the commercials, shall we? Nice skin, nice cheekbones. Nice BODIES. That's the BEFORE picture. Fell for it only a million times, only I'm done, baby!!!!!

:)

Ecstatic, elated, liberated, and just a bit pissed off.

:applause:

That's only the tip of the Iceberg - Take a look at the color schemes they ALL use.

Oh, and yesterday, my kids were watching a commercial with a 'Hip' Ronald McDonald in shades and dancing to 'hip-hop'.

I could only shake my head.

but I just look away. You're right about the color schemes, too!


:)

taco keeeeeses!
oh ben!

I'd forgotten that Taco Bell was fast food and not some ethereal heavenly go-to food station.

shit,shit,shit.

:P

Learn to cook italian... use fresh ingredients, and your body and mind will again thank you.

I know how to bake. I've worked in 3 bakeries, So I KNOW how to bake, but cook? Let's see..

I can boil water for an egg or spaghetti..

I can nuke the best frozen sugar snap peas you've EVER had

I can heat jarred sauce and add browned burger, some seasoning, and let it simmer for 2 hours. Add water and stir.

There are some other things I can do, but you're RIGHT. I HAVE to GET OFF MY BUTT AND LEARN TO COOK.

(The breakfast sandwich thread on DU also slapped me awake!!!)

cook.

First, "Essentials of Italian Cooking" and then, even better is "Italian Cooking in the Grand Tradition".

Also, one can't survive without "The Joy of Cooking", an ABSOLUTELY essential tome to the art of cookery.

Last, but not least in this technical age, check out Alton Brown online. The man has made the science of cooking FUN and essential. He teaches methods, but in a really really fun way. JUST love him.

I started out as a baker as well, and learned to cook when I realized I KNEW I could make food I liked for myself, in my own home that tasted better than the crap I was paying hundreds of dollars for in fine restaurants. I taught myself the basics of actual cooking with the 2 italian books and am now working my way through Julia Child's book on Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

I love my kitchen.... I love cooking and making my way through a kitchen. Make things you LIKE.... ENJOY!

I'm going to check some of the stuff you've been telling me out this weekend at B&N. Listen, I really didn't know how important some of this stuff was.......you know? I Mean, I feel like I've finally seen the light, and whether I cook something on my own or bring a can of soup to work, at least I'm not contributing to the insidiousness of the fast food places!!!!!!!!

italian is almost non-existent.

They don't do fast food, they walk everywhere, or take mass transit. They relax for their most important meal of the day, and eat fresh, whole, non-processed foods purchased daily from local merchants, not giant supermarkets where foods last for years on the shelf.

It's a much smarter way to live.

I've been to Paris twice. Those people know how to live. There seems to be a formula for well-being there. You're surrounded by your own history (Cluny, Mount Martre, etc.). Public Displays of affection are not frowned upon. People kissing everywhere.

When I studied at the Sorbonne, I'd take a loaf of bread and some cheese and red wine to my dorm room for some good eatin' for 2 days. The fruit stand was next door. City cultures seem to be healthier because of the seperateness of availability. You're forced to go from one place to another for your different needs, instead of having it all there, like Wal-Mart.

I feel a little silly buying lightbulbs and spinach in the same store, so I don't do it!;)

I don't buy my food and light bulbs at same place either. It just feels weird. And I never, ever shop at Wal-Mart. :puke:

The Euros seem to know how to live. A little wine, some good food, good friends and family and they are happy. Not obsessed with acquiring wealth and ruling the world. Maybe that's why the neo-thugs hate them so much.

At one time the Euros were wealth and power crazy and went around starting empires, creating colonies and getting in wars. But they have seemed to learn their lessons and have settled down. Hopefully America will be the same way some day.

You'd think we'd learn from other people's mistakes! If I could afford to live in Europe, I would.

There is one fast-food chain I saw in Paris. I think it was called "Burger Quick" or something like that. My brother wanted to go in, but my father & I stopped him.

Maybe you could have bought a Royal with Cheese with a beer. :beer:

Fries and mayonnaise!!!!!!!!!!

I guess the Euros aren't right about everything.

Man, the sheer amount of damage that shit does! I mean, just read that again...

"High Fructose" - high in fruit sugar.

"CORN syrup" - not FRUIT syrup.

You smellin' what I'm cookin' here? UNNATURAL!

They're loaded with high fructose corn syrup - that makes Ragu and shit like that really bad for you.

Either buy organic, or make your own. A good tomato sauce can be yours in 20 minutes with canned (or fresh) tomatoes, some olive oil, some garlic, onions, oregano, basil, crushed red pepper, and, if you feel like it, some chopped peppers, carrots, celery.

I've always loved cooking as a way to wind down after a stressful day, and there's something deeply satisfying about having a lovely meal at the end of the wind-down.

Get a copy of "Joy of Cooking" - lots of good basic cooking technique stuff in there, and everything you'll ever need to know about food.

And, when you buy anything packaged, make sure you read the ingredients. I'm serious - you'll find corn syrup in places you'd never expect. Avoid it at all costs.

Have fun. You're about to feel SO much better.

Thank you!

However.....What am I going to tell Paul Newman????


:9

If my memory serves me properly, Newman's Own brands don't contain corn syrup.

He is, after all, one of the Good Guys.

:)

AFTER LAST WEEK, I will read the rest, now. The whole idea disgusts me. A person KNOWS when she's overdosed, and when she's had the last of something. This was definitely a habit. I'm breaking it because I feel like I've seen something I haven't before.

:)

I loathe how easy it is to get. I am unhappy with my laziness and willingness to look past what I know about the industry.

Doesn't help that my pad doesn't have a real kitchen, either!

known about the industry and not had the gumption-or whatever-to give it up. That's what kept me eating fast food-the ease with which I could get it. There's a grocery store near all those places I went at lunch, with salads. I go there now.

I think the thing that finally got me was: You know how good those fries and that burger are HOT? If you wait, like 2 seconds, they get COLD and the only thing you can say about them is "GROSS".

Good food is good, luke-warm, cold, whatever! Your own pasta. Your own sugar snap peas.

Also- if you look very closely at a french fry, like I did, and squeeze it a little, and imagine where that grease is going, and think of your skin, you may hear little alarm bells.

Thank you so much for your input,Zhade! :)

I avoid fast food places as much as possible. I never craved McDonalds more than I did while reading that book! I'm just an animal.

Maybe that's why I never read the entire book! I was going through the "should I break up with this man?" phase.


:D

and you'll feel a difference. When the SO and I were both working long hours in crappy jobs, the Friday night fast food was our trip to the bar: an emotional panacea for an empty work life. We'd eat enough from Taco Bell, Burger King, Arby's, Krystal, and Papa John's for three or four people. For the two of us, we at times would have a $15 order from Taco Bell. We assessed our eating habits and gave it up. After a month or so, we suddenly had more energy and less stress and fatigue.

I've been off it for a week, sweet,and I SWEAR, my skin looks better, my chin's a little firmer, and, my god, I can actually think a little faster!!!!!!!!!!

:bounce:

and I'm not out of breath when I go to the mailbox!!!!!!

the experience, because that must have made it a little easier. If you and your SO can look at each other and say, "we care about ourselves & each other", and realize you're just sick of everything being so neat and easy to a bad end, You've got it made.

The store I work for has a pre-prepared Sushi bar, it's all I've been eating for lunch for the past three weeks.

I still go for fast food on weekends, or anytime I'm on the road, but why not try a decent, moderately priced restaurant instead...

Just my 2 on-hundredths of a dollar.

making some at home for dinner tomorrow night..I'm so excited!

Got the nori sheets, brown rice, brown rice vinegar, umeboshi paste, thin carrot sticks, and avocadoes. It's California Sushi!

When my best friend Dani and I want to a sushi place, she started a RIOT!!!!! It was just her legs, actually. See, everyone was sitting on cushions on the floor. She was wearing the short, black mini-skirt. Well, I'm more inclined toward males but SHE has the best legs I've ever seen. Next thing you know, the asian men were knocking over Sake. One actually slapped himself in the face, and another upset an entire tray of sushi. We don't understand Japanese, but everyone else did. They stared and started shouting and chanting and carrying on. My friend giggled and was way too drunk to understand it, but I knew it was she that had started the riot!!!!!!! I don't really like sushi until I've had 4 drinks.

Of me and my best friend Suzanne eating sushi on the balcony of a Holyoke restaurant on a spring day about a year ago, drinking peach wine, and talking about weather Dean, Clark, or Kerry would be the better choice for presidential canidate...

Those were happier times...;(

"grilled, medium-well." (Saw that one coming, didn't you?)

Redstone

Nothing better than slimy fish sliding down the back of your thought...

I love seafood!

:9

You know, at this point I'd rather take my chances on a puffer fish (I forgot what they're called-but undercooked-they're deadly, and overcooked, they're deadly) than to stare down another big mac.

McDonald's - first time in 4 years. Yes no fast food in 4 years.

What disgust me was that I smelled the grease in/on my body for 3 days.

This crap must be taken out of our schools along with soft drinks.

Ok parents - healthy children vs fast food/fast soft drinks.

and that is one of the most REPUGNANT things a person can take.

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

I got horrible food poisoning from eating Taco Bell a few months ago:puke:and now my partner can't get me to eat out anymore.

account of greasy non-food! I gave it up a LONG time ago but sometimes when I see commercials muted with all that burgery food something deep and dark inside me feels deprived that I can't eat that way any more.

Congratulations for coming to that conclusion and may you be on a fortunate healthy journey!

They're like an assault on your senses; maybe I'm too sensitive. But there's a point at which my viscera yells "BASTA! That's all, folks!" And I simply cannot take another second of it!!

....and I don't miss it.

The change I noticed the most was my adult acne has all but disappeared.

The fast food commercials I see now gross me out too. Welcome to the club :)

When what you have is a HABIT, and you're too myopic to even notice, the slap awake is powerful! If I went to eat at McDonald,s now, esp. after posting this, I'd feel utterly stupid!

So, I've trapped myself, but in a good way!

There are plenty of quick, easy foods that you can cook at home (or mostly cook, or stir and heat, even) that are steps above what you get when you eat fast food. You don't have to go 100% natural and healthy right away; it's overwhelming. But there is lots of info out there and lots of helpful people here on DU, if you are serious about making a major change. Your body will thank you, many times over! :bounce:

I gave up Fast Food a couple of years ago; but it must be 25 years since I've eaten Bologna.

I just looked at it one day at lunch, and asked myself "WHY am I eating spiced fat on bread?" Then I tossed the rest of the sandwich in the trash and never looked back.

Congrats to you. You won't regret it, and you won't turn back; I can hear the conviction in every sentence. You're there. :)

especially since it was so similar to my response to the burger and fries I was eating. All I did, in that milisecond, was LOOK at it. The words "habit" and "consistency" come to mind, don't they. For example, bologna, every time you look at it-SAME SHADE OF PINK.

Chemicals and is so sweet it literally hurts... however, eat one a day for a couple of days and they begin to taste good... strange.

I stopped eating cereal once a long time ago for several years and was going to try to eat it and I thought I was going to puke. It was nasty. I still don't eat much cereal. Every once in a while my family and I will eat out. Mostly on weekends and every once in a while my Mom will buy lunch out for us. I don't like McDonalds anymore because they're so greasy. There are other good restaurants out there. Try a buffett bar and then you can try to get some healthy food too. Here we have a restaurant named "Ryan's" and "Golden Carrole (sp?)" and they have a lot of healthy stuff that you can get and it's fast too.

I had been sugar-free for about a week (my username is pertinent to me partially because of my response to sugar). Anyway, I had this big mac, and it tasted like it was MADE of sugar! EEK! How can something that's supposed to be some sort of "entree" taste like dessert?!?

One of the big concepts that resonates at CureZone.com is to eat raw foods. There is an expression worth typing here-"It is not the food in your life, it is the life in your food."

I am in my 50s now and my biggest diet thing is to eat more raw foods. I t is going to be a summer of garden eating. Young tender vegetables really are a delight.

Taco Bell has a 99 cent bean burrito special, that I find acceptable, but every other fast food is something to avoid in my book.

Lettuce tells the story of American food. It is not worth eating and it really has no taste. I will be planting cilantro and give up lettuce completely. Cilantro will be much more popular in the future as it removes heavy metals from the body, has taste, and gives a tasty coriander nut/seed.

you will find exquisite, sweet, crunchy lettuces and vegetables.

When we went organic, I made the mistake of buying regular (non-organic) carrots at a local supermarket. They tasted like soap. I couldn't believe how awful they were. Yet, that's what we ate for years.

Tonight, our dinner was steamed artichokes with garlic vinaigrette, raw sugar snap peas, and homemade sweet and sour cabbage. It was great.

I was on a budget and I realized that buying a full meal at the fast food joints cost as much as it would if I went and bought "real" food. I haven't missed it at all, not to mention those new Burger King commercials are just plain creepy...

Welcome to the Slow-Food Club! :toast:

it's so gross. it made me sick to see those fries, nuggets, and burgers swimming in grease. it makes me want to barf right now.

the only fast food i eat is Chipotle.

chain that's outstanding. Nothing frozen, all fresh, etc.

"Super-size Me" was sort of effective, but what if someone went in there and did a documentary on the interior of those places? Has someone, or will I be the first?:P

There was a tiny snippet in the movie "Reality Bites" that was VERY well done. The attitudes prevailing at BK were as disgusting as the food. I remember being in traning, sitting on an upside-down pickle bucket in the back room, the smell of dirty bleach filling my nostrils, watching a training video meant to look like "Top Gun".

Yeah-only in a fast food joint can bleach be dirty!

Not because of the taste or health reasons, just because as you get older you lose your taste for that sort of thing.

and now's a good "resting place"

I generally have fast food about once a week but I'm trying to cut it down to once a month. It's hard because I like greasy food but the health consequences are too great for me to ignore.

Congratulations on your new eating lifestyle!

The grease just got to me after a while. I remember being at the state fair and ordering cheese fries, and mamaging to eat like 3 or 4 before saying,"this is just nasty!"

Good luck kicking the fast food habit. I still eat at fast food joints on rare occasion, but I cut down a lot after reading Fast Food Nation. They truly are very destructive.