Trouble at the McMerge

General Discussion
81

No, Atkins did not die of a heart attack. He fell on the ice and smashed his head. The family finally released the official autopsy report.

Not that it mattered. Not everyone will follow a diet no matter how good it is. If he decided not to follow the diet he personally developed to eliminate infarctions and diabetes Type II, that doesn’t make the diet bad. It just made him stupid.

I am 74. With the diet my b.p. this morning was 125/76. Average for that age in the USA is around 155, per Guyton and Hall Physiology text book used in many med schools.

On the diet I lost 40 pounds without hunger.

So, do y’all drink booze, ever? I am amazed at the stuff people eat and drink yet find fault with fast food meat what they have absolutely no real basis for. A lot of people just like to feel smarter and better even if it requires making stuff up. Yes, the Whopper is healthy without the bun.

82

I simply stated that fast food places buy what their customers can afford. Your quote from me is out of context.

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83

The post I originally commented was about fast food not being healthy. Which is still a valid statement.

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84

Booze does not count to the alcoholics. Its amazing the stuff I hear people say regarding diets and lifestyle. There is a guy I know of that cannot eat any gluten, this or that, he has a very restricted diet, but he has no qualms about drinking enough each weekend to kill a elephant.

I have a friend, cant eat peppers, cant eat this, cant drink soda everything upsets his stomach, alcohol? No issue.

I knew a girl once that wouldn’t drink milk because it was “dirty”, same with diet soda, but Booze? Ok. Weed purchased from an unknown source? Ok She would smoke and drink just about anything and wasn’t afraid to pop pills, but diet coke? no way, aspartame is bad.

When people want to justify their habits, one excuse is as good as another.

Fast food is cheap, convenient, and this is subjective, but I feel is sometimes tasty. Others may feel differently.

Its just like when some drunken idiot in a pickup truck ( Its always almost a pickup truck round here) kills themselves around here, their drinking buddys and family attribute the crash to everything from the weather, to road design, to the sun and the moon. They make up excuses why the person crashed but will never blame the alcohol, the party they were at, the bar they were at or the person themselves.

One guy which was a known local drunk ran his pickup off the road in a curve and killed himself when he hit a tree, the friends of that guy actually said that he drank alot but he was never drunk, alcohol didn’t affect him, therefore had nothing to do with the wreck. The State Police F.A.C.T. (fatal alcohol crash team) determined he was darn near a .20 and alcohol and speed was the main factor in the crash. But he was deemed superman by everyone because they honestly believed alcohol didn’t affect him. Why did he drink it then? When asked this they said he liked the taste. I like the taste of coca cola, but I dont drink a 12 pack of it every day.

Some people blamed the curve in the road, these drunks think every road should be straight as an arrow so they can have an easier time driving.

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85

I see a lot of new pickups, suburbans, and escalades in fast food drive thrus. They can afford pricier food. But I agree fast food is engineered to a specific price point, and its a very competitive market.

86

Unless you personally know those people, or unless you have had a chance to examine the title to their vehicle, you have absolutely no way of knowing whether they bought it (through overpriced financing or by paying cash–as I do), or if they leased it.

Many people nowadays live well beyond their means simply because their insecurities lead them to want to acquire showy, ostentatious things that they don’t really need, but that make them feel more secure in their own personal image. And, in the process of acquiring those ostentatious objects, they actually put themselves in an even worse financial hole.
In other words, the proverbial “shooting themselves in the foot” scenario.

So…perhaps these people can’t actually afford pricier food.
Perhaps they are only one month away from having that Escalade repossessed.
Quien sabe?
Hmmmmm…

:astonished:

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87

Hmmm. I think we are really stretching here. I can’t believe people go to fast food places because they can’t afford anything else. If I go there it’s because I’m in a hurry or its the only thing open. I can’t recall ever counting my change to see how big a hamburger I could buy (except in school where I could buy a couple hamburgers and fries for a dollar). But then I’m just one person in a sea of millions.

I will say that I actually don’t think it’s cheap compared to a family restaurant. Often it’s just a few dollars shy of what you can buy a decent meal for at a restaurant. They are called “fast food” joints not “cheap food” joints. Then if you compare it to what it costs to actually cook a meal at home, it’s priced sky high. Even higher if you cook the way our grandparents did with ingredients instead of food in a can.

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88

+1
The belief that fast food is “cheap” is a fallacy.
I can get a sandwich or a salad at Whole Foods, that is–at a minimum–300% healthier than what is sold at the typical fast food joint, but I will probably pay no more for that healthy, tasty lunch at WF than I would have paid at a fast food joint.

(Full disclosure–I am a long-term holder of stock in both McDonalds and in Yum Corp, the owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. I long ago recognized the importance of capitalizing on how the public spends its money, and I might as well make a few bucks from those trends. Likewise, my investment in Destination XL–a chain of stores that sell clothing for overweight men–has also done well. And, if you don’t think that there is a connection between the public’s addiction to fast foods and its need for XXXL clothing…think again…)

:smirk:

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89

I have one engineer that works for me who visits fast food joints every day for lunch. He makes well over $120k. And at over 350lbs it shows.

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90

I refer to the whole posting but don’t want to quote it all. A mile or so from my house is a long, straight stretch of paved highway. This is a quarry town, so dumped along the highway are some gigantic rocks, I’d estimate 10 or more tons. Someone quarried them, and the factory rejected them, so the trucker probably dumped them off to save on fuel for the return trip.

A few years ago, three young men were out in a Lobo. That is an F-150 with a large V-8 motor. They crashed into one of those rocks and the rock won. Their speedometer was allegedly stuck at 160 kph (100 mph). (I don’t actually know if speedometers really stick in a head on collision. If they don’t, can someone set me straight on this? I have always heard about the mechanical speedometers sticking and have had no way to verify it.)

What are the odds those guys had a 0.00 blood alcohol? Pretty much 0.00.

@Mike
I am curious. You said twice, unless I mis-read, that Whoppers were not healthy without the buns. But, you gave no supporting data.

If that is your opinion and you do not wish to be bothered with defending it, just say so and I’ll let it go.

IF you have data, I would sure like to read it. I know everyone takes pot shots at the hamburger places, but I have been doing research with books used in med schools. So, if you have any real data, I’d sure like to read it. I do know it’s part of the US culture to attack large companies.

If Mike chooses not to answer others feel free.

What does it mean, unhealthy? So many people a year go into convulsions when they eat whoppers without buns? People who eat two whoppers without buns a week die of heart attacks? Whoppers without buns have high levels of mercury?

Is there something in them that harms you? Is something missing in them and the absence of it takes you down and out fast or noticeably shortens your life expectancy?

As far as the claim you can get higher quality meat, maybe; maybe not. That will depend upon where you are.When I drive into the city, I need to eat something before I get home at 7pm. If I stop at a restaurant, that in Mexico is viewed as a social event, and an hour would be very fast. And, there will not be many choices as low as $3 USD. At BK, no tip required. I eat fast; 12 minutes after I place my order, it is already eaten and I am off on my shopping expedition. I take the buns home and toss them in the freezer so my wife can decide what she wants to do with them when she comes back from the States. She may choose to fry a Wal-mart Hamburger and pop it in the buns or just give the buns to the uncle’s dogs as a treat.

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91

The whopper is extremely high in fat. Also very high cholesterol and sodium. Not to mention very high calorie content. I’d love to see the healthy person who eats a whopper every day.

If you think high fat and sodium and calories is healthy - then you need to learn a little about healthy eating.

I’ve been a health nut for over 40 years. There isn’t an article or nutritionist I know of who ever thought the whopper was anything but unhealthy.

If it’s as healthy as you say it is. Then it should be very easy to show me one article not written by Burger King that agrees with you.

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92

So eating this every day will keep the doctor away . . . ?!

:hamburger:

:laughing:

93

Yes…But not the mortician.

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94

I would say that your statement is correct.

One thing that comes into play is the nearest WF to me is 54 miles. We go there a few times a year, I wish we had one close by. The nearest Mac Donalds and BK is 4.5 miles from my door.

WF also does not have a drive up salad window, that eliminates at least 50% of the people looking for “convienence”.

All in all with a little planning we can have healthy lunches at a cheap price if plan ahead and make lunch at home, but many people dont.

A good example of how I get sucked into the drive thru happened last night. I got called into work because we had a storm and they needed help and almost no one was available that wasn’t oncall, so I went in. Well we worked for about 5 hours and I was completely soaked, tired and hungry so I went thru the mcmerge on my way home and ate it in the parking lot.

My wife had food in the fridge from dinner, but I have learned that when a storm rolls thru if you have free time to eat, do it and do it quick. If I would have went home it would be possible to get called out again and I would have had to skip dinner. Its happened before. So within 5 minutes of leaving work I had a fresh tasty quarter pounder in my hand. I used the drivethru because I was filthy and tired. I was thankful for the drivethru last night.

95

Of course it is correct!
I have a very good memory, and I do a lot of comparison pricing, and I can tell you that a carefully-selected lunch at Whole Foods can wind up being no more costly than a fast food lunch, and I think (or, at least I hope) that most people would recognize the vast difference in “healthiness” between those two choices.

While I am at it, I also want to point out that the oft-repeated “whole paycheck” characterization of Whole Foods is not entirely accurate.
Yes, their prepared foods are quite pricey, but if you avoid those items, you can readily find many foods that are no more expensive than they would be in a typical supermarket, and–in fact–there are a number of items that I buy at WF on a regular basis because they are cheaper than they are at the so-called “bargain” supermarket down the road.

Just like with so many other things in life, people tend to repeat inaccurate statements on this topic without ever actually researching the matter for themselves.

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96

It does serve a purpose, as in your example.
The trick, if one is to remain healthy in both body and in the wallet, is to strictly limit visits to fast food joints.
As the ancient Greeks said, Everything in moderation.

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97

I think drive through foods are a staple, many I know never pack a lunch and eat junkfood or microwave popcorn and a diet soda for lunch. people may not know how to cook, had an borderline obese former neighbor, nice lady, we offered her some basil and tomatoes and she said no thanks, everything I eat comes out of a box.

Was picking some pears, offered some to a person walking by, no thanks, if it doesn’t come from a grocery store I don’t eat it.

98

Plus, you have saved the atmosphere a few grams of CO2 (and other things) that the people in line are spewing out of their tailpipes.

99

…and by NOT sitting on one’s butt instead of simply walking into the establishment in question, it is just possible that some beneficial physical exercise has been accomplished in the process of actually getting out of the car/truck/SUV for a few minutes, and using the legs that God gave us.
:hushed:

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100

Not to say that any Whopper/Big Mac/any other flagship offering is particularly healthy, but they all contain food products (including fat), which are processed by our personal digestive systems. It has recently been acknowledged by the food industry that fat, per se, is NOT unhealthy. It is an essential part of our diets, as long as it is proportional to the rest of our diets. In that respect, these burgers are out of balance, with more fat than we need (much more, when fat intake from the rest of our diets is factored in), and there may be (read: are) other ingredients in the recipes that may be unhealthy in excess quantities. But our bodies have a pretty sophisticated factory that is very good at extracting the stuff we need and disposing of stuff that is useless or possibly harmful. It also keeps track of the number of eating events that occur, their intervals, and quantity of material put in. In other words, If you are in the middle of a famine, your body will compensate by, among other things, retaining every microgram of energy in fat stores. The problem with that is that when we go on a diet, the body tries to minimise energy expenditure, even if we are exercising. That is why (partly) we can’t lose weight when dieting and exercising.
Now that I am way OT, let me just say that fast food is not ideal as a regular diet, but drive throughs are not to blame. There, now we’re talking cars again!