15 Horrifying Reasons to Never Let Anyone You Love Near a McDonald's

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



15 Horrifying Reasons to Never Let Anyone You Love Near a McDonald's

By Sarah Irani, EcoSalon. Posted August 15, 2009.

Erectile dysfunction, the truth behind the "special sauce," and a burger from 1996. Keep reading if you dare.




The Golden Arches: the ultimate American icon. Super Size Me taught us that fast food culture brings obesity, heart disease, hypertension and a whole slew of other problems. How bad do you really want that Big Mac? Here are 15 reasons you’ll never let anyone you love get near those Golden Arches.

1. Real food is perishable. With time, it begins to decay. It’s a natural process, it just happens. Beef will rot, bread will mold. But what about a McDonald’s burger? Karen Hanrahan saved a McDonald’s burger from 1996 and, oddly enough, it looks just as “appetizing” and “fresh” as a burger you might buy today. Is this real food?

2. You would have to walk 7 hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fries and Big Mac. Even indulging in fast food as an occasional treat is a recipe for weight gain…unless you’re planning to hit each treadmill in the treadmill bay afterwards.

3. Containing less fat, salt and sugar, your pet’s food may be healthier than what they serve at McDonald’s.

4. In 2007, the employees of an Orlando-area McDonald’s were caught on camera pouring milk into the milkshake machine out of a bucket labeled “Soiled Towels Only.” That particular restaurant had already been cited for 12 different sanitary violations. Though McDonald’s proudly stands by its safety standards, and not every restaurant has such notorious incidents, the setting of a fast food restaurant staffed with low-paid employees at a high turnover rate arguably encourages bending the rules. (McDonald’s isn’t alone in this, of course – Burger King is actually ranked as the dirtiest of all the fast food chains.)

5. McDonald’s supports the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Much of the soy-based animal feed used to fatten fast-food chickens is grown in the Amazon. Are those chicken nuggets really worth acres of irreplaceable trees? (Especially considering how important carbon sinks like the rainforest are to halt global warming!) Fast food supports a completely unsustainable system of agriculture. It’s cruel to animals, unhealthy for humans, and bad for the planet. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/141959/15_horrifying_reasons_to_never_let_anyone_you_love_near_a_mcdonald%27s/

[slackmaster]

1. The food poisoning I got there about 20 years ago has been sufficient to keep me away from McD's

K&R

:kick:

ETA but I must admit that back in the '80s, when McDonald's lowered the prices on their hamburgers to five for $1 in commemoration of some anniversary, it was a lot of fun buying a bunch of them and handing them out to protein-starved Hare Krishna kids in my neighborhood.

[greennina]

4. Was that a joke? I hope it was!

Because otherwise you're a horrible person for causing them to break one of the four regulative principles. Even worse, it was cow! Murdering cows to use as meat is banned in almost all states of India. In some ways, they are so much more progressive than we are.

[hlthe2b]

9. Wouldn't Hare Krishnas (and other Hindu-followers) know this?

and refuse the hamburgers? Why is the one who offers the horrible one? It seems like the oneness is on the recipient to refuse? :shrug:

[greennina]

10. True, but he said kids

That's why I objected. The kids most likely don't understand completely yet why eating meat, especially cow, is wrong.

[imdjh]

16. Giving a burger to a Krishna kiddie isn't the worst thing that is done to him as a Krishna kiddie.

[Hawkowl]

30. Christianity's self loathing in a nutshell

Very good! See the serpent, apple, tree of knowledge, Adama and Eve etc.

[slackmaster]

11. The HK's in my neighborhood got busted for dealing heroin about that time

They broke their own regulative principles all the time.

Every adult HK I spoke with had some kind of story about running away from something - School, the Army, their parents, the police in another state. I viewed it as a criminal mind-control cult where children were malnourished and being indoctrinated. Clearly the parents weren't doing a good job of watching them.

[snake in the grass]

20. I'll take eating beef over...

...widow burning any day.

[chicago legal pro]

22. Yes the caste system is so progressive!

[Hugin]

2. Oh, quit picking on the low hanging corporate fruit!

Someday, we may all need to live on one McMega Meal a day!





























(Disclaimer: I have a large stock position in MCD.)

[trumad]

3. Super Size Me was all it took for me to say no more Mickey D's.

[Eric68601]

5. Ever seen this?

Ever seen this video?

EWWW GROSS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyDXH1amic

[hlthe2b]

6. Good reminder... though I've not been to McDonalds in years

I still occasionally give in to Taco Bell and even less frequently Burger King... Fortunately, stories like this are very reinforcing to stay clear.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Ever been in the kitchen of your favorite...

mom&pop restaurant or diner? Ever see a nutritional analysis of their food? Or where the ingredients come from?

Them Golden Arches are an easy target, but at least you know what you're getting. Some of the worst horror stories have been in your "nice little places."

(I still cringe at the memory of the time I installed a kitchen printer in one locally famous place, and when I put a small nail in the wall, hundreds of cockroaches swarmed out. Three weeks later, I got a call about the printer jamming-- it was clogged with roaches.)

[DemReadingDU]

14. Eeeeck

[TrogL]

28. My previous partner was a chef

As part of the practicum they'd get sent out to local restaurants to work. Most were OK, but the stories he told about a local rib joint (no, I'm not naming names primarily 'cause I've blanked on the name) made me never want to eat there again.

[stray cat]

8. Grow and cook your own food - the only true regulation

of course you may starve to death - but at least no one else has messed with your food. You take your chances on anything else.

[Orrex]

19. Entirely feasible for people living in a sixth floor of an apartment with one window

[PLR_Writer]

I hear you, get produce at the store

wash it good, and learn to cook. That is what I am doing. Just by learning the 5 basic cooking techniques, I am turning out masterpieces. It is so easy and so much better on the digestive system.

[Catch22Dem]

12. It's pretty rare for me to eat fast food, but I'm not going to stop eating it

I'll never stop getting the occasional burger and fries, or breakfast item. Simply stated, it tastes good when you're in the mood for it. There's nothing about McDonald's that makes it worse than BK, Wendy's, or any other fast food joint.

Like everything else, it's fine in moderation. Same with alcohol, same with weed, same with any other vice I can think of. You're not going to kill yourself if you're someone like me who runs a 5K every morning before work (ok, I occasionally skip Mondays) and eats a very healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes we're in a rush, and will grab some fast food. That's probably about once a month though. Then again, sometimes I want a big, greasy fuckin' burger. I have no regrets about it.

[Mopar151]

13. It is hard to beat an Egg McMuffin

A fresh egg, an English muffin, slice Canadian bacon, slice of cheese.

Approved by my nutrtitionist/diabetes educator, far better for me than a bagel (high glycemic index). and available, freshly made, in a hygenically designed kitchen,at 5 AM in East Jockstrap.

[TreasonousBastard]

15. And often on sale, and ...

I hate to say it, but after all the hype I was surprised that their new coffee is actually pretty good, too.

And, yes, vast sums were spent to make the kitchens easy to clean by minimum wage kids, as opposed to ancient diner kitchens being cleaned by people who speak little English making minimum wage.

(And it's so much fun to watch meat and vegetables being delivered to the diner in beat up, unmarked vans and station wagons.)

[Mopar151]

24. Mc Donald's has a system or a spec for everything

Most of the others, less so. Local joints may vary - A LOT! I've been served trash in fine hotels, and I'd take the President to the Miss Lyndonville.

[JI7]

25. their breakfast is better than the regular food

[imdjh]

17. The best complaint about Mcdonald's is that it sucks. Consistently.

I confess that I have a weakness for the sausage biscuit when I am on road trips. But everything else they do sucks.

[Orrex]

18. Two minor points that I'd contest

1. I call bullshit. I've seen McDonalds burgers that are easily visually distinguishable from "fresh" burgers cooked later the same day, so the claim that a burger from 1996 is identical to a fresh one is directly contrary to my personal experience. Additionally, here are a few relevant comments from foodfacts.info to which the OP's cited article links:

Read her F&Q revised blog - the burger and bun were separated and put on a plate in her cupboard for a year.
It simply dried out. Take a "healthy" organic burger and bun - place them on a plate in the air. They will look the same

Had she put the hamburger on the bun right into the plastic container - yes - it would have gotten moldly.

and

Anyone who believes this pile of tripe would have to qualify as one of the most gullible people on the planet. I used to work at McDonalds while in high school, and trust me, after a few days, the buns grow mold. Also, on more than one occasion I had to sweep a moldy beef patty out from under something. PATHETIC.

Really, those two comments say it all. Fast food in general is rightly the subject of much criticism, but claims like "artificial permanent freshness" (my paraphrase) are simply fear-mongering. Very similar to claims that a penny will dissolve in a glass of Coke after 24 hours. Totally false, but widely disseminated as truth.

4. The results are skewed by the size of the sample relative to the number of stores in the chain. Hardee's has somewhere under 2,000 stores nationwide, so a sampling of 100 stores equals 5% of the overall chain. Burger King, in contrast, has more than 7300 in the US, so the sample represents about 0.13%. If the samples are truly representative of the respective chains, then there's no problem. However, we'd need to see the study itself before we could assess its validity in this regard. The article itself disclaims that some of the restaurants "were inspected just once, some more often during" the time frame that they examined; however, they don't indicate how often particular restaurants or chains were inspected. A store with a history of infractions is more likely to be subject to frequent inspection than a store that passes with flying colors, so the same store may yield multiple violations and thereby give the appearance that the chain as a whole is less clean than is truly the case.

6. "Even Prince Charles, while touring a diabetes center in the United Arab Emirates, commented that banning McDonald’s is key to health and nutrition." Well, so what? Prince Charles is hardly an expert, and he's made some pretty wildly unsubstantiated claims on other health-related issues. The inclusion of his opinion is an example of an appeal to authority even though the authority has no expertise with the subject at hand.


Again, I'm not claiming that fast food is good for you or that McDonalds is blameless, but the article makes several sweeping statements that are, at best, poorly substantiated.

[depakid]

21. I can't even stand the smell of the place...

[imdjh]

27. Ever had McDonald's money in your wallet and wondered what the smell was?

I've had this happen a couple of times- smelling McDonald's inside my car or house, only to find out that it's the money.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

23. Yet another reason why I am a vegetarian n/t

[paulsby]

26. more stupid mcdonald's bashing

look (most food choices) at mcd's are junk food. duh.

so what?

the company is a great american success story, nobody is forcing anybody to eat at mcd's, but it never ceases to amaze me the visceral hatred mcd's engenders among some. fwiw, one of Mcd's most successful markets per capita is france. fun fact. they know a good thing. :)

julia childs said it, and i agree. their fries are good.

i am a contrarian. the more people bash mcd's, the more it makes me want to eat there. just because i think it's STUPID.

the two apple pies for $1 is a good deal. egg mcmuffins for $1, ditto (they have this special frequently).

i'll continue to eat there occasionally. i am a weight classed strength athlete (although right now, i am recovering from surgery and not training ), and certainly wouldn't make it a STAPLE of my diet. but once in a while? sure.

[yurbud]

29. a simpler test: how do you feel after you eat there?

Usually I feel like I'd taken a straight shot of mop water used lard, and feel groggy instead of energized.

[Jakes Progress]

31. Yes the food is fattening and not good as a steady diet, but

you don't need sensationalist clap trap and lies to bash it.

Try reading the nutritional guides for any restaurant. From the four star to the hot dog at the local gas station, you should not expect nutrition or health to be on the menu. Most food inspectors will tell you that fast food chains are usually cleaner than the best restaurants. Simple. At the chain, it's frozen or it's being cooked. The fancy places have more ingredients and less preservation. I have many friends who have worked in high end kitchens and they will warn me about almost all of them. Just don't order the "special" on Mondays and order your iced tea without the lemon slice.

As far as the sameness of McDonalds. That is what it is founded on. The developer wanted to start a chain where travelers - usually salesmen like himself - could get a meal where they knew what it would taste like.

I eat their breakfasts when on the road. Then I'm bloated and full afterwards and keenly aware of the nutritional disaster I just ate. But the options are not good either. I don't like taking chances with places I don't know anything about.

[DU GrovelBot]

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