^ Yeah, basically. It's like saying you eat healthy when you buy a McSalad every day, or that when you say you're exercising every day, it's from taking a flight of stairs up to your classroom. Just doesn't quite ring true.

You're comparing steak to hamburgers. While in Irvine, I was able to buy 85% lean hamburger for $1.00 a pound when I bought it in 3lb bulk packages. I could make four quarter pound patties for $1, how many can you buy at McDonald's for that? I also just bought 5 pounds of potatoes for $2.50 today, not on sale, so I don't know why you're spending that much on them.

You should do a more fair comparison. How many steak dinners could you get at a restaurant for the $20 your mom paid?

And I still don't understand this. It doesn't matter if I'm cooking for myself or my family, the cost per plate is still the same; well under $5 each. Usually the cost per plate goes down since I eat more in one sitting than most other people. The only thing that sucks about cooking for a family is there's fewer leftovers.

Even still, you're not making a fair comparison. You're comparing canned tuna to caviar. You need to either compare how much it'll cost you to make burgers and fries at home or how expensive it would be for everyone in your family to go out and have steak dinners with potatoes and a side of zuccini.

How does economies of scale somehow get cheaper for when you're buying fast food but not when you're cooking your own food? If someone eats a larger plate of food normally, wouldn't they tend to eat more fast food which would be more expensive?

Say I make a casserole, $2 for cheese, $3 for meat, $1 for pasta, a few cents for an onion, a few cents for spices, a few cents for maybe some celery or peppers. Now, this feeds me for at least six meals. Let's say I make it for my family instead (which I've done a few times while at home). I eat more than my mom and about the same as my dad. It usually works out so my dad and I get two meals out of it and my mom will get three. Sure, it gets more expensive to feed everyone compared to if I was eating alone, but I'm also feeding three times as many people so you should expect it to get roughly three times more expensive (as you should expect the same thing at a fast food place).

The only style of eating out where I can't see what I've been saying is true is with Chinese takeout since you get so much food one person can never eat all of it before it goes bad and they wind up throwing some of it out.

If you're just eating a big mac, you could easily make a slightly more healthy burger at home on your own. I paid $1 for a pound of beef at Irvine, so let's say I use a quarter pound, that's $0.25. Then there's the bun, I buy the cheap ones that are $0.75 for eight, so $0.10 for the bun. I personally only like ketchup and cheese on my burger, so maybe another $0.20. If you like other toppings on your burger, they're only a few cents each anyway.

You do realize that McDonald's isn't losing money on these dollar menu items, right? In order for them to turn a profit on them, they need to be able to sell them for more than they're paying, and since they're using less-than-grocery-store-quality ingredients usually, you're getting a better meal for at most the same amount of money.

Also, if you want to actually make fast food a decent deal, you stay away from the combos and only eat the main menu item and get water. Sodas and fries are just empty calories and $2 you don't need to spend.

So in order to eat healthy one has to eat steak and organic vegetables (which, if you're actually concerned enough to buy those kinds of veggies, you'll get a much better deal at farmers' markets than what you see in a supermarket)?

The reason why people buy fast food is because it's a combination of cheap and fast. If you want any variety at all in your diet, you'll be paying a lot more at McDonalds than you would be comparatively at the supermarket.

Um, yes.

Cooked At Home = Home Cooking

You may have a different definition, but I'm usually a literal kind of person.

You're missing the point. It's usually both slower and more expensive, once you break it all down. Fast food isn't necessarily about being fast, that's a misnomer on their part. Yes, it's fast once you're there, but that doesn't factor in the driving time. No, fast food is about convenience. People are just too lazy.

As for my Healthy Choice dinners, they are good for you. This was already mentioned by other people, so I need not elaborate. I don't eat frozen dinners every night, though, I was just describing what I had that night.

RacinReaver is absolutely right about cost and such. Oh, and I'd like to add that eating healthy and being a health nut are two different things. You act as if McDonald's food is completely devoid of nutrition, and that simply is not true. It's not as healthy as meals you prepare personally, but they aren't killer. That's why comparing fast food companies to cigarette companies, like these lawyers are trying to do, is ignorant, dishonest, and irresponsible.

Like has been stated several times, you can eat well enough at a fast food restaurant by cutting out the empty calories from garbage such a fries; news flash here, fries are unhealthy period, whether you buy them at a fast food restaurant or cook them at home in a Fry Daddy. Basically, it's like I said all along, it's about moderation. When I eat at McDonald's, I get just a Double Cheeseburger, that's it. I'm not a heavy eater, so that helps me keep the calories down. I intake a lot of protein and I love cheeseburgers and any other meaty item (including steaks), but I also work out heavily and drink protein shakes, as well as using creatine. So by getting up and working on myself, I stay in shape. If I can do it, anyone can, save for those with like those genetic gland problems that can cause severe weight gain; even then, it's not the fault of fast food companies if they get fat, it's because of their body chemistry.

The bottom line that I'm trying to get across here is that people need to stop laying out blame and take responsibility for their own actions, plain and simple!

Just the thought of seeing a woman who uses creatine grosses me out.

I'm not a freaking bodybuilder! Sheesh! I don't go for the "ripped" look, for the exact reason you said, it's gross! I do like to look feminine, after all . . . Still, I also need strength. How many times must I say the word "moderation"? It's creatine, not anabolic steroids! Good grief . . . You guys say this kind of stuff while calling me stupid? What a joke!

Putting something in the microwave for a few minutes does not equal cooking in my household, but maybe that's just us.

True that.

I can bring a Healthy Choice to work and cook it in the microwave there. How is that considered 'home cooking'. There's absolutely no cooking involved.

Well, it's not very much cooking and it's almost foolproof, but I still consider it cooking. Minimal cooking, but still cooking. Still, like I said, that was my dinner that specific night. Tomorrow night, I'm cooking (oddly enough) cheeseburgers, on my George Foreman. Love those grills!

Just because it's not "traditional" cooking doesn't mean it's not cooking. Extremely simple cooking, yes, but still cooking. I've known people who prepared fresh cheeseburgers in the microwave, and people who prepare bacon in the microwave; is that no longer considered cooking?

Actually, I got a better question. Why is it that so many of you are trying to dodge the issue at hand and focus on me instead as well as all this semantic nonsense? You just can't admit that I'm right about the topic (in that fast food companies are not to blame and these lawyers are being ridiculous in their accusations that fast food is like nicotine) because you have some weird grudge against me.

Whether or not you are right is beside the point. Mostly what people are arguing about is how your arguments are inept and your reasoning is biased and flawed.

This topic is not about Big Tabacco, why do you keep bringing them up? Whether or not fast food is addictive (there are more than physical addictions, you know) is not affected in any way by the actions of tobacco companies. Because it is the lesser of two evils does not remove it from blame.

The main people who eat fast food are people who are unable to prepare food for themselves or their family for whatever reason, be it time/money etc. The companys that do this know that they will continue to make money by putting addatives into their food that will make their food generally more appealing, (and generally less nutritous) and serving products of an inferior quality in order to be able to sell their products at cheaper prices and thus make it easier for people under somekind of restraint to submit to buying their product. They know what are doing and have become very proficent at keeping their customers hooked in someway.

Do you think it is morally right for a company to abuse its power and take advantage of people who have no other option much of the time?

If the fast food companies suddenly disappeared, what would all of those people that only eat there do? Starve?

He beat me to it. Besides, a lot of people here are greatly exaggerating the "unhealthiness" of fast food. I dunno about you, but if I had to pick between starving and eating unhealthy food, I'd eat the unhealthy food, because it's better than nothing.

The reason I keep bringing up cigarette companies is because that's what these lawyers have done. The lawyers claim that fast food companies are responsible in the same way that cigarette companies are responsible, claiming that fast food companies somehow made their products physically addictive. That is a blatant lie and it is very irresponsible for them to spread such false information. That's what this entire topic is about, so I don't see how I can't keep mentioning the comparison when that's what the lawyers are doing!

Lol, Patty, lol. Oh, lol indeed.

So, um, for a week's worth of dinners, you go to a fast food joint twice, you go 'out' (Olive Garden?) an additional two times, and you eat frozen ready meals three times. do you expect you will at any time start making your own meals from scratch, or is that women's labor?

Double Post:
Well, there's two points here isn't there. For one, the issue at hand is something you invented, with your own parameters, which does not exist in the real world. No, I'm sure plenty of lawyers are trying to get McDonalds to be held accountable for fat babies, and I bet more than a few of them made the paralell I stated earlier in that McDonalds aggressively creates a culture of dependance on their product and hides negative health facts as well as they can, like Big Tobacco. You are the only one who said that fast food is addictive as cigarettes, or that fast food is completely null and void in all nutritional value. No one is going to argue on your playground, Patty. Stop insulting our intelligence.

The other reason is, of course, you think a Healthy Choice is home cooking. oh lol :edgartpg:

http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_mar2004/WhatYouEat.jpg

pop quiz: are these kids responsible for their appearance? yes/no/lol Healthy Choice

Double Post:
So how is it convenient if all this driving is so opressive and time-consuming

i mean christ

who drives anymore

Ah, so in addition to being a worthless troll, you're also deaf and dumb, and you don't know how to read. That explains a lot, really.

You see, you're putting words in my mouth now, meaning either you enjoy lying to put down other people, or you're so stupid you can't figure out how to properly read. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the latter.

Now then, I never said I had frozen dinners three times a week, I said I have home cooking three times a week. I know how to cook, probably better than you do, and I do indeed prepare my own meals from scratch occasionally. I don't have a calendar with which I decide meals, though. The numbers I gave were on average, and the information was not specific. Sometimes I might have three frozen dinners, sometimes only one. All the same, when I get fast food, sometimes it's McDonald's, but sometimes it's Wendy's. I do not follow a strict schedule. Do you understand what I'm saying yet or no?

If you don't understand by now, well, I suggest you look into some night school classes or something. Seriously. Learn to read properly, then speak. Until then, just go away.

Well, the news report I saw says you're wrong, and sorry, but they have far more credibility than an internet troll like you. The news report stated specifically that the lawyers in question were planning to go after fast food companies by the same premise as cigarette companies were nailed, and claimed that fast food is an addiction exactly like cigarettes. Those aren't my words, those are their words. The point, and the issue at hand, is that these lawyers are full of shit to push such nonsense.

As for insulting your intelligence, that would require that you have some to insult, wouldn't it?

Their parents are the ones responsible, actually. McDonald's certainly isn't. You're just trying to spread bullshit propaganda here.

it's not difficult to figure out a microwave i mean

there's 'on' and 'off' that's really it

It would've been nice to share this report with us!


You Don't Understand Things.

You think Healthy Choice counts as home cooking because you cook them at home.

I take offense to that as someone who prides himself on his reheating leftovers skills.

Also, Patty, I'd consider frozen dinners as reheating foods, not cooking, since all the food in those things has already been precooked. All you're doing is warming the food up, something I do whenever I bring some Subway home because their soggy buns suck (and it's bullshit when they say oven toasted, it hardly even warms the bread).

Like how my mom will give me a frozen lasagana when she comes out to visit me at school. I don't say I cooked the lasagana when I heat it up, I'm only reheating something that's already been made by someone else. But when I do my tricky ravoli-pasta bake by boiling the pasta, mixing in some sauce, arranging it in a casserole dish, layering the cheese, and baking it in the oven it's home-made.

Greatly exaggerated unhealthyness? For someone who claims to be informed about nutrition, you seem to be ignorant about what is unhealthy for you. Need I point you to some nutritional guides for some of the most popular fast food chains?

McDonalds nutrition facts


Lets say you order a Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal, arguably one of the most popular items on the menu. With Fries and a Coke, your looking at 45g of fat and 1100 calories. A similar meal at Burger King is even worse, totaling to 67g of fat and 1320 calories. How can you possibly say that this is healthy for you, in any way what-so-ever?

This is exactly my point. What if the only reasonable choice to make for a person is to eat fast food? They knowingly provide food that is subpar in quality and nutritional value without disgreard to the effects that it can have on its customers at such a convenience and value that people are unable to stop the use of the product. They are taking advantage of the people who either have the option of eating here or eating nothing. Does this sound like the moral high road to you?

Are you an idiot.

You keep saying lawyers as if they are one group of people united together to fight the same cause. You do know that the lawyers who are representing the anti-tobacco lobbyists are probably not the same ones that are running suits against fast food companies. Contrary to what you are saying, they may not have the same opinion or are any at all regarding tobacco use. Thus any references or comparisons to actions brought against tobacco companies is a seperate issue and not relevant to the current issue.

Fast food has only been around for, at most, fifty years. How did all of these people which are currently stuck on fast food with absolutely no other food options survive prior to the growth of fast food?

The world is a much different place than it was fifty years ago. Many household had woman who stayed home to take care of the children and were there to make home cooked meals. Now a days you have both parents working jobs, running kids around to various sports and activities. You have people who juggle school and full time jobs, who adhere to fast food restaurant because they are much easier and convenient than making themselves bag lunches every day. I know personally that when my days consisted of school related activities from 8am-12pm and work from 4pim-12am, I would end up having to eat some type of fast food during the day. I just didn't have time to cook myself anything.

I would venture a guess that, for the majority of people, this was not the case 50 years ago like it is now.

Yeah, but also in those days people had much more home made meals and cooking took considerably longer. It's not like you need a woman home all day to bake bread, slaughter the chickens, and milk the cows. Nowadays a 30 minute trip to the grocery store takes care of all those things. And cooking doesn't necessarily take very long, just ask my favorite lady.

Hell, when I don't have time to make a meal I eat a sandwich, which is the same thing I'd be buying at a fast food restaurant. On days when I really didn't have enough time, I'd throw all the things I wanted to put on my sandwich in my backpack and make it while I was on my lunch break. Considering you have to wait for them to make your meal at a fast food place nowadays (you know, the freshness thing) it's not any longer for you to throw a few slices of roast beef on two pieces of bread than to stand in line and buy a Big Mac.