Fast Food Nation - anyone who has read that, or abstains from fast food, please read...

[Newbie 0]

I read it 5 years ago, and instantly stopped eating BK, McDonalds and KFC. I have had the occasional Domino's pizza in that time, but i could count those times on the fingers of both hands over the 5 years. I used to eat fast food (usually BK or McD) once every 2 weeks or so, but stopped eating it not because of health issues (i was generally pretty healthy then and now) but because of my disgust at the practices of these companies, particularly McDonalds, at how they went about their business.

I know hating on fast food joints has been flavour of the month for quite some time now, especially with reference to Supersize Me, but i just feel bad because in the last 4 months i have broken down and had BK twice, both times when making the same 300 mile journey on the motorway and having a distinct lack of anything else to eat for a meal.

I didn't really enjoy eating it each time, but i thought "is it so bad to eat this stuff once in every blue moon?". Anyone who has read FFN, what do you guys think? Does anyone abstain (as i had for almost 5 years) from eating this stuff still, since reading that book?

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[artistcalledian 0]

its a main food group to some people... mainly poor people

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drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police

[artistcalledian 0]

oh, and i have a burger once in a while... once every two or three months, i couldn't give a toss about their company practices, as long as i'm nice and full afterwards

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drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police

[speedy 0]

Many people think that eating burgers makes you fat when actually eating tons of burgers and being a LAZY SLOB is what makes you fat.

If the fat bastards would just get of their big fat arses and move it would not matter so much what they ate.

Fast food can be eaten if you do other things that are fast, like running and physical exercise.

An X-Box does not give you a work out.

Dave

Fallschirmsport Marl

[masterblaster72 0]

The most I'll get from a fast food joint is fries and/or a baked potato, and that's when I'm hungry and there isn't much else around. The only way I'd eat a burger or any other meat from BK/McD's/Wendy's etc is if my life depended on it.

But I certainly wouldn't feel bad if I were you -- twice in a few months isn't so bad...some people eat the sh.t daily -- that's something to be concerned about.

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[RhondaLea 3]

I've never read the book, but I just don't eat fast food. I find it disgusting.

When I was a kid, they could get me to eat the fish sandwich at McDonald's as long as it was made with cheese, hold the tartar (which meant it was fresh cooked), and when Wendy's first opened, I ate a burger or two (they were better then), but in a choice between fast food and hunger, I go hungry.

It just grosses me out.

rl

If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

[Newbie 0]

thanks for the comments. I think i should clarify - the reason im feeling bad is after reading FFN i made it a moral standpoint to avoid it if i could. I guess i'm feeling bad because i ate it twice in the last few months, not because of health considerations, but because i sort of feel i went against the whole reason i boycotted it in the first instance.

Does anyone disagree with McDonalds or fast food on a moral level, but still occasionally eat it, is i guess what i'm wondering? And if so, how do you justify that? (genuine question there, not having a go)

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[dropoutdave 0]

Hahaha I know exactly what you mean! I did the same thing, read it a few years ago and vowed never to go again, i've stood by that as far as McDonalds and BK goes but my girlfreind lives 185 miles away and a couple of times i've stopped at the KFC on the M1 because it's either that or the crappy service station sandwiches.

I'm not proud of myself but that KFC chicken skin was pretty tasty!

I'm pretty sure i'll never eat in a McDonalds ever again.

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May Contain Nut traces......

[masterblaster72 0]

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Does anyone disagree with McDonalds or fast food on a moral level, but still occasionally eat it, is i guess what i'm wondering?

Yup. I read the book too. Great read, and it reaffirmed and validated my objection to fast food. I wish the book got more publicity than it did when it first came out, but I guess some advertisers wouldn't have been too happy with that.

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And if so, how do you justify that?

Hunger. It's usually when I'm in a situation like yours, at a highway exit and not much else around...or at some airports where fast food is the only thing available. If I were you I wouldn't feel like such a hypocrite -- after all, you just needed a bite to eat and your choices were limited.

By the way, don't know if you heard. Look for Fast Food Nation: The Movie later this year...

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[artistcalledian 0]

i've never read the book, what moral argument does it put forward ?

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drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police

[Newbie 0]

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Hahaha I know exactly what you mean! I did the same thing, read it a few years ago and vowed never to go again, i've stood by that as far as McDonalds and BK goes but my girlfreind lives 185 miles away and a couple of times i've stopped at the KFC on the M1 because it's either that or the crappy service station sandwiches.

I'm not proud of myself but that KFC chicken skin was pretty tasty!

I'm pretty sure i'll never eat in a McDonalds ever again.

LOL good to know im not alone

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[Newbie 0]

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i've never read the book, what moral argument does it put forward ?

Well the thing is, it doesn't so much put a moral argument forward, as let you make your own mind up about what you think the state of affairs is on fast food. If you have any sort of moral conscience (not you, but anyone i mean) you will find it hard to eat at the big fast food chains again, notably McDonalds but BK and others too. The book is basically quite simply, 5 years of research into the fast food chain, and the history of it, and it really is rivetting reading, i can highly recommend it if you want an insight into the development of the most well recognised (and perhaps notorious) global corporation and the effect it, and corporations like it, have on the lives of people around the world.

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[rehmwa 2]

god people, get a life

edit: the irony of posting this on DZ.com is not wasted on me

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[masterblaster72 0]

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god people, get a life

Thanks for letting us know you're too cool for this thread.

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[rehmwa 2]

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god people, get a life

Thanks for letting us know you're too cool for this thread.

just a bunch of patting yourselves on the back about how pure your bodies are - put it in the Bonfire love fest where it belongs

edit: since it was so pathetic for SC, I thought a bit of conflict would help. Thanks for biting

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Newbie 0]

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god people, get a life

Thanks for letting us know you're too cool for this thread.

just a bunch of patting yourselves on the back about how pure your bodies are - put it in the Bonfire love fest

It ain't about that (im actually less fit now then i was when eating fast food regularly, go figure).

It's more about whether or not people who choose not to eat it from a moral point can justify eating it at any time (like i could imagine someone who morally doesn't like it, but gives in and takes their kids there to eat and they eat too etc as a simple example).

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[rehmwa 2]

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It's more about whether or not people who choose not to eat it from a moral point can justify eating it at any time (like i could imagine someone who morally doesn't like it, but gives in and takes their kids there to eat and they eat too etc as a simple example).

well, that's an interesting twist to the discussion. I undervalued it. But still not MB

What's the 'moral' point of fast food vs not? (unless fast food really is soylent green, then I'll jump on your bandwagon also and only eat it while traveling)

Edit: What the gist of FFN? Is you argument management practices? When I read 'digust at the practices' I assumed sanitary conditions on a case basis report, etc, but there could be other areas of 'disgust' that are more subjective that could twist into a 'moral' argument for the more effete of the world.

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Newbie 0]

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well, that's an interesting twist to the discussion. I undervalued it. But still not MB

What's the 'moral' point of fast food vs not?

Edit: What the gist of FFN? Is you argument management practices? When I read 'digust at the practices' I assumed sanitary conditions on a case basis report, etc, but there could be other areas of 'disgust' that are more subjective that could twist into a 'moral' argument for the more effete of the world.

Are you calling me a trivial?!

Seriously, the moral point of not eating fast food (or particularly from the bigger suppliers is way too detailed for me to get into fully but here is a brief synopsis from Amazon. It's an informative book, that is factually accurate (most importantly) and is really just an eye opening read, i highly recommend it.

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On any given day, one out of four Americans opts for a quick and cheap meal at a fast-food restaurant, without giving either its speed or its thriftiness a second thought. Fast food is so ubiquitous that it now seems as American, and harmless, as apple pie. But the industry's drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America's diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in insidiously destructive ways. Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé with an introduction to the iconoclasts and high school dropouts, such as Harlan Sanders and the McDonald brothers, who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations. Schlosser wants you to know why those French fries taste so good (with a visit to the world's largest flavor company) and "what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns." Eater beware: forget your concerns about cholesterol, there is--literally--feces in your meat.
Schlosser's investigation reaches its frightening peak in the meatpacking plants as he reveals the almost complete lack of federal oversight of a seemingly lawless industry. His searing portrayal of the industry is disturbingly similar to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, written in 1906: nightmare working conditions, union busting, and unsanitary practices that introduce E. coli and other pathogens into restaurants, public schools, and homes. Almost as disturbing is his description of how the industry "both feeds and feeds off the young," insinuating itself into all aspects of children's lives, even the pages of their school books, while leaving them prone to obesity and disease. Fortunately, Schlosser offers some eminently practical remedies. "Eating in the United States should no longer be a form of high-risk behavior," he writes. Where to begin? Ask yourself, is the true cost of having it "your way" really worth it?

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[masterblaster72 0]

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just a bunch of patting yourselves on the back about how pure your bodies are

That's BS and you know it -- read through this short thread and you'll realize no one is boasting about how pure their bodies are. Poor attempt to justify being annoyed by opinions that differ from yours.

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well, that's an interesting twist to the discussion. I undervalued it.

It's not a twist, it's what the discussion is about.

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But still not MB

So you don't approve of what I post (as if that's news) -- that just ruins my day.

Keep 'em comin', sniper, I appreciate that you sweat my posts as often as you do.

As you said,

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Thanks for biting

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[rehmwa 2]

Sorry, sounds like quasi-intellectual self stroking by the author to me.

If you don't like fast food or think it's unhealthy? Don't eat it. It's simple. It's neither noble or ignoble, though.

There's always a group of people out there that seem to think that even their simple decisions require some higher reason to justify all their decisions and they go out of the way to find them, rationalize them, or just make them up.

Really, it's just privileged, over rich children of the 1st world nations and economies looking for a vaguely undefined cause that they can rally against without having to miss their everyday hobbies and vices.

This 'fad cause' is as good as any other and we can be really zealous in pursuit as long as the victims of the pursuit remain faceless - or at least socially acceptable targets.

maybe I'm being a bit contentious. but there's been a lot of examples of that lately and it's hard not to join in...

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[rehmwa 2]

I throw a friendly poke at you and you get all wierd and pissy.

Or maybe I don't get your humor. If that's the case, my bad.

In any case, I'm enjoying exchanging with Newbie, he's well spoken and it's interesting to trade perceptions on this stuff - particularly when our points are so diverse - he's serious about it, I think it's tripe. What's wrong with comparing those positions in a friendly way? Disagreement doesn't always have to equal angry contention. That's only how kids (and pro/anti activists in guns and abortions and religion) deal with things and I've never thought you were a kid posing as an adult here.

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[GTAVercetti 0]

SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

Why yes, my license number is a palindrome. Thank you for noticing.

[Newbie 0]

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Sorry, sounds like quasi-intellectual self stroking by the author to me.

If you don't like fast food or think it's unhealthy? Don't eat it. It's simple. It's neither noble or ignoble, though.

There's always a group of people out there that seem to think that even their simple decisions require some higher reason to justify all their decisions and they go out of the way to find them, rationalize them, or just make them up.

Really, it's just privileged, over rich children of the 1st world nations and economies looking for a vaguely undefined cause that they can rally against without having to miss their everyday hobbies and vices.

This 'fad cause' is as good as any other and we can be really zealous in pursuit as long as the victims of the pursuit remain faceless - or at least socially acceptable targets.

maybe I'm being a bit contentious. but there's been a lot of examples of that lately and it's hard not to join in...

If you read the book, it clearly sets out many of the victims - the poor, the marginalised, the recent immigrant, the young - and it's by showing you how they are affected that leads to the desire amongst many to stop greasing the wheel of the corporations who feel they can do what they want to these groups and get away with it.

Anything "faddy" can be tagged with those who jump from one moral cause bandwagon to the next (and you don;t have to be rich to do that, trust me), but trying to maintain any sense of ongoing committment to these issues is not really a fad is it? This is where the moral conflict arises - if you are committed to a cause, is there any time when there is justification for backing out of it, or are you then just a bandwagon jumping moral crusader with no direction whatsoever?

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[rehmwa 2]

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SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

MOM, he's on my side of the car seat!!

lalalalalalalalala, not listening

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[masterblaster72 0]

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I throw a friendly poke at you and you get all wierd and pissy.

I don't see much friendly (and maybe that's because I don't get your humor either) -- but not hostile either -- from your direction, and there's nothing weird and pissy in what I wrote. You certainly don't piss me off.

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What's wrong with comparing those positions in a friendly way?

Nothing at all. I think you'd have a different opinion if you read the book, and that blurb that Newbie posted about the book does it little justice. I'm not railing against fast food or people who eat it, and I'm not backing a "cause" to take McD's to court. As you said, if you don't like fast food, don't eat it. And I don't -- for reasons detailed in the book. It really is a great read.

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.