Three reasons people eat fast food

[Bsuds]

G2G @ 5 Guy's!

[Dizzy1]

The funny thing is that in many cases, you could eat fresh food for the same price of processed food. Take salsa for example, for the same amount of money it would cost to buy a jar of El Paso, you can buy some tomato's, an onion, a couple of Serrano peppers and a lemon and make it yourself in about 10 minutes.

Having limited funds has very little to do with not eating processed foods ... its yet another excuse by society to point the finger at "big companies" for their lack of personal decision making.

The only difference between buying/eating good food vs. buying/eating junk food is that the junk food is an easy fix.

[Always Sunny]

1.) I'm hungry
2.) It's fast
3.) It's food

[Dizzy1]

1.) I'm hungry
2.) It's fast
3.) It's food

Bingo!

[Captain Awesome]

I wouldn't call it food, but if there's nothing else available, it's better to eat that than go hungry and eat nothing through out the day and wait till dinner. I enjoy an occasional Whopper once in a while or greasy breakfast. Just as long as it's in moderation.

[Dizzy1]

Just as long as it's in moderation.

Shhhh ... not the "M" word. That would be too much personal responsibility for the anti-big food crowd. We certainly can't expect them to start pointing their fingers at individuals now, can we? What fun would that be?

Its much more fun pointing the fingers at evil, sinister corporations for manufacturing poor quality food then it is at the people who constantly purchase their product. Much more fun blaming them for "brainwashing" people by promoting their products or offering a Hot Wheels for the kids then it is to blame the parents who just can't say "no" to their kids.

[Thinktank]

why couldn't they sell hamburgers with cheese, onions, pickles, tomatoes and lettuce
and without the 22 chemicals?

anyone know?

[Dizzy1]

why couldn't they sell hamburgers with cheese, onions, pickles, tomatoes and lettuce
and without the 22 chemicals?

anyone know?

Given the quantity of food they go through, they need products with a longer shelf life as opposed to fresh. Fast food places strive on consistency ... a Teen Burger here has to taste the same as a Teen Burger in Halifax. The only way to achieve this is to source your core products from a handful of suppliers that deliver the same product and in some cases, it can take days or even a week before the product gets to the restaurant from the supplier which doesn't even include the time it takes from the manufacturer to the supplier. Given the sheer volume of people they feed a day, they can't go out and buy fresh everyday. The logistics aren't there.

You want a burger without "22 chemicals"? Get off your lazy *bleep* and make one yourself at home. If you want a quick burger as a treat now and then? Grab a Quarter Pounder.

[rustled]

why couldn't they sell hamburgers with cheese, onions, pickles, tomatoes and lettuce
and without the 22 chemicals?

anyone know?

Given the quantity of food they go through, they need products with a longer shelf life as opposed to fresh. Fast food places strive on consistency ... a Teen Burger here has to taste the same as a Teen Burger in Halifax. The only way to achieve this is to source your core products from a handful of suppliers that deliver the same product and in some cases, it can take days or even a week before the product gets to the restaurant from the supplier which doesn't even include the time it takes from the manufacturer to the supplier. Given the sheer volume of people they feed a day, they can't go out and buy fresh everyday. The logistics aren't there.

You want a burger without "22 chemicals"? Get off your lazy *bleep* and make one yourself at home. If you want a quick burger as a treat now and then? Grab a Quarter Pounder.

Check your pickle jar, cheese wrapper and bun bag for ingredients and your home-made hamburger may not sound chemical-free either. You might have to start totally from scratch to avoid all those scary chemically-sounding names, including milling your own wheat.

Or you could research the scary, chemically-sounding names and see what they really are. For example, that first one in the image of the very badly made burger is a derivative of milk and plants, and it's used to improve the texture of the dough using less fat and sugar, which one would think could be a positive.

At the molecular level, all the food we eat would sound sinister. The chemical composition of natural milk would cause fright in those who choose to be scared.

Reacting to sensationalist hyperbole and going through life afraid of everything we don't understand is probably just as bad for our health as eating the odd fast food burger.

[GordonH]

All fast food (including pizza + all processed foods) contains far to much soduim. Diet high in soduim will lead to high blood pressure / the silence killer. Will never know if you have hypertension until its checked regularly.

[rustled]

All fast food (including pizza + all processed foods) contains far to much soduim. Diet high in soduim will lead to high blood pressure / the silence killer. Will never know if you have hypertension until its checked regularly.

True. It's already present in so many foods, we've quit using it entirely when cooking, baking, and at the table, and look for reduced sodium in any of the canned or prepared goods we use. (Tried using unsalted butter for a while but it was a bad idea in summertime.) Ditto for sugar: we seldom add white sugar (or its many substitutes) to anything, except when baking, and then only a fraction of what the recipe calls for.

I used to find restaurant food tasted too salty, but lately it seems less salty than it used to. Either my taste buds are wearing out, or the restaurants have reduced the amount in their seasonings in response to consumer expectations. I wonder how the sodium in today's teenburger compares to that of yesteryear?

[Phoenix Within]

Ditto for sugar: we seldom add white sugar (or its many substitutes) to anything, except when baking, and then only a fraction of what the recipe calls for.

Try using coconut palm sugar. Same ratio (1:1 substitute) but much lower glycemic index.

[oneh2obabe]

True. It's already present in so many foods, we've quit using it entirely when cooking, baking, and at the table, and look for reduced sodium in any of the canned or prepared goods we use. (Tried using unsalted butter for a while but it was a bad idea in summertime.) Ditto for sugar: we seldom add white sugar (or its many substitutes) to anything, except when baking, and then only a fraction of what the recipe calls for.

Baking is a science - each ingredient listed in a recipe has a specific function. Yes, you can slightly reduce certain ingredients but the end result won't be the same.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... istry.html

[rustled]

Guess it's not that much of a science at my house!

I've been baking since the seventies (less now than when the kids were home, since there's no one around most of the time so it just gets in my mouth). Haven't ever had anyone turn down the cookies, cakes, bars, desserts, biscuits, etc. that I've made with significantly reduced sugar and no salt. Nobody's ever complained about the vegetables, noodles or rice cooked in unsalted water, or that a sauce was missing its sugar or salt, etc. (I am a little more circumspect with breads because the yeast has certain needs, but even there you can cut back some without ill effect.)

Granted, most of my cookbooks hail from a less-sugar-and-salt-aware era, but even when "modern" recipes call for salt, I ignore them.

[rustled]

Ditto for sugar: we seldom add white sugar (or its many substitutes) to anything, except when baking, and then only a fraction of what the recipe calls for.

Try using coconut palm sugar. Same ratio (1:1 substitute) but much lower glycemic index.

Thanks, Phoenix, I'll check it out. Might be a good way to cut down even further!