Opinions about fast food

[Elvellon]

What do you think about fast food? Is it a problem (health, culture) or is it a good thing?

[Lizra]

It's a good thing if you are a mother who has been making three meals a day for 20 years!!! Plan the food, buy the food, bring the food home, put it away, plan the meal, cook the meal, clean up the meal........Help! The whole culture is rapidly changing, fast food is just another aspect, these things have a life of their own.

[Elvellon]

True, but what about the health issues?

[Lizra]

It's generally bad health wise, but I'm the healthy one in the family. When I talk about eating fruit, veges, grains, etc. they look at me like I'm insane and proceed to eat what they like cause it tastes good! It's a lost cause! I only hope my littlest will come around when he reads up on health issues when he's older. When you tell people to choose something that doesn't taste as good as another choice, they (politely) try to ignore you!

[Sween]

theres so many types of fast food these days we have moved away i think from just greasy burgers from mc donalds. they seem to of cottoned onto people not wanting to be fat

[jerseydevil]

Personally I hate fast food. But it's a free country - I don't care if others eat it and I'll have it if I'm out and I need to get something quick. The last time I had fast food (Burger King) was in December to get the LotR mugs.

People can eat just as poorly with the food they cook - so fast food isn't really the problem.

Many people don't know the BMI that gthe government uses does not work for people that lift weight - but they include these BMIs in the statistics on how many Americans are overweight. I had known about this - but last week World News Tonight had something about it ->Can Fit Be Fat?.

Too many American's are fat - but that's their problem. I'm working at not becoming fat. But I'm still going to eat what I want - and if that includes Burger King once in a while - it's nobody's business but mine. I gain more weight from having 5 course meals at the Ferry House or eating pasta anyway.

[Elvellon]

That is the problem of simple methods and over-standardization it can obtain absurd results. Yet obesity seams to be more frequent nowadays.

Obesity and the quality of products is not simply something we can leave to personal choice only. For instance, what about publicity aimed to kids? Fathers can’t be everywhere nowadays, and fast food is very tempting to kids, should it be regulated?

[emplynx]

I like food. Fast food is generally not healthy. I only eat fast food maybe once a month. SUBWAY!!! I try to eat Subway instead of extremely greasy food. I like food.

[Elvellon]

Subway, makes those long sandwiches right?

Didn’t liked them much myself

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Elvellon
That is the problem of simple methods and over-standardization it can obtain absurd results. Yet obesity seams to be more frequent nowadays.

Obesity and the quality of products is not simply something we can leave to personal choice only. For instance, what about publicity aimed to kids? Fathers can’t be everywhere nowadays, and fast food is very tempting to kids, should it be regulated?

No it shouldn't be regulated - there is too much regulation as is. Fast food has been around for a long time - maybe getting children to play outside and turning off the TV and video games and getting them outside would help. I grew up watching saturday morning cartoons with all the junk food commercials - I was never fat ( and I'm still not fat). To tell you the truth - a lot of times I came home form school and had a salad - but then other times i had doritos or oreos.

Parents don't have to be with their children 24/7 - they never have, never will. But if a parent teaches them properly - then they shouldn't have a problem determining what is good to eat and what isn't.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Lizra
It's a good thing if you are a mother who has been making three meals a day for 20 years!!! Plan the food, buy the food, bring the food home, put it away, plan the meal, cook the meal, clean up the meal........Help! The whole culture is rapidly changing, fast food is just another aspect, these things have a life of their own.

Why do you do all that? First we had to set the table, my mother usually cooked - but my father did a lot on the weekends. We had to clean the kitchen afterward. My brother and I'd switch between doing the sink and table every other night. The sink was the worst - because that included all the pot and pans.

Then I was cooking when I was 12. Like Chicken Cordon Bleu from scratch or homemade spaghetti sauce - so when my mother went back to work - I came home from school and cooked. My mother at first bought Ragu when she went back to work and I told her that I was perfectly capible of cooking everythng that she used to cook and i was not going to eat Ragu. It's also much mofre expensive to buy the premade junk than to make your own anyway.

Also we had to bring the groceries in and then help our mother put them away.

[Elvellon]

Originally posted by jerseydevil


No it shouldn't be regulated - there is too much regulation as is. Fast food has been around for a long time - maybe getting children to play outside and turning off the TV and video games and getting them outside would help. I grew up watching saturday morning cartoons with all the junk food commercials - I was never fat ( and I'm still not fat). To tell you the truth - a lot of times I came home form school and had a salad - but then other times i had doritos or oreos.

Parents don't have to be with their children 24/7 - they never have, never will. But if a parent teaches them properly - then they shouldn't have a problem determining what is good to eat and what isn't.

True, but the purpose of publicity is to sell the advertised product, if it was not efficient It would not be used in the first place. Modern publicity is not so much informative but persuasive, that may be why it needs regulation, specially when it is aimed at kids.

And of course it has been around a lot in the US, but not so elsewhere (or at least not everywhere, even in the West). So I, for instance, was able to see the difference between food habits and their consequences (a lot more fat kids, for starters).

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Elvellon


True, but the purpose of publicity is to sell the advertised product, if it was not efficient It would not be used in the first place. Modern publicity is not so much informative but persuasive, that may be why it needs regulation, specially when it is aimed at kids.

And of course it has been around a lot in the US, but not so elsewhere (or at least not everywhere, even in the West). So I, for instance, was able to see the difference between food habits and their consequences (a lot more fat kids, for starters).

Should we eliminate all advertising? Let the government raise our kids because parents are too incompitent to? Maybe more of the problem is that parents forgot how to tell their kids no everytime they ask for something. I really can't see how parents can't control what their children eat unless they really don't care. In which case - it's the parents fault. I don't want the government constantly telling me what to do nor would I want them telling me how to raise my children.

Adults can't take responsibilty for their own actions and decisions - as the cases of the lawsuits against tobacco companies proves. We've known for decades that smoking is unhealthly and downright deadly.

[galadriel88]

Jerseydevil is right. It should definitely not be regulated! You hit the nail on the head when you said that people can't take responsilbility for their actions. Did you hear about that guy that is suing KFC, McDonald's, and Burger King because he is fat? Hello people, he didn't have to go eat there!! It's his fault!!! Whatever happened to self control?

[Elvellon]

Should we eliminate all advertising? Let the government raise our kids because parents are too incompitent to? Maybe more of the problem is that parents forgot how to tell their kids no everytime they ask for something. I really can't see how parents can't control what their children eat unless they really don't care. In which case - it's the parents fault. I don't want the government constantly telling me what to do nor would I want them telling me how to raise my children.

You don’t have to eliminate publicity, merely regulate it, specially the one aimed at kids.

Well I do agree many parents do not take a very active roll in their kids education nowadays, BUT it is not just their responsibility here. Modern live as taken much of the old family ways, many parents hardly have time to see their kids anymore. And persuasion publicity aimed at such young minds seem, well, somewhat immoral to me.

Adults can't take responsibilty for their own actions and decisions - as the cases of the lawsuits against tobacco companies proves. We've known for decades that smoking is unhealthly and downright deadly.

True, but the Tobacco companies putted the rope around their own necks, by dening, lying and cheating.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by galadriel88
Jerseydevil is right. It should definitely not be regulated! You hit the nail on the head when you said that people can't take responsilbility for their actions. Did you hear about that guy that is suing KFC, McDonald's, and Burger King because he is fat? Hello people, he didn't have to go eat there!! It's his fault!!! Whatever happened to self control?

I have. It's a completely ridiculous claim. I had written on ABC's Finding Fault in Fat: Who Deserves the Blame for Obesity? messsage board - and most people seem to be saying that the suit has no merit.

I'm going to try finding my post on there and paste it here.

[StrawberryIcecream]

what do you class as fast food? just those places which sell their items in polystyrene like mcdonalds? or pizza resaurants like pizza hut?

or is it anything which is fatty? huh? i need to know what you determine as fast food before i comment on it!

[Wayfarer]

Fast food is not nearly fast enough.

[azalea]

I know, I read about that. It's ridiculous -- his platform is that they need to tell the ingredients and fat content, and that he got fat from eating there so much and they never warned him that it was bad for him! I mean, you could say that about anything -- Twinkies, pork chops, etc. Who will be sued next, dairies who sell whole milk?
But I have heard of possible legislation to tax foods based on their nutritive value. For instance, many states either do not tax food or have a lower tax on food items than on non-foods. But the fact that the people buying cookies and potato chips get the "tax break" doesn't bode well with some, because those foods have so little nutritional value, and the foods that should get the break were really meant to be essentials (bread and meat, etc.).
I think that makes some sense, because around here so many poor people are obese from making poor food choices (among other things), and have ended up with diabetes and heart problems. Since they are on Medicaid the taxpayer foots the bill for the expensive medical care. So the ones introing the legislation are reasoning that people who buy the non essential unhealthy foods should pay more into the tax pot for healthcare than those who are buying primarily healthy foods. This would include taxing fast food more I think.
I like Subway, too, Emplynx! It's one of the few fast food places I can get a vegetarian meal (Wendy's is another).

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Elvellon

You don’t have to eliminate publicity, merely regulate it, specially the one aimed at kids.

That's the parents job to regulate it.

Well I do agree many parents do not take a very active roll in their kids education nowadays, BUT it is not just their responsibility here. Modern live as taken much of the old family ways, many parents hardly have time to see their kids anymore. And persuasion publicity aimed at such young minds seem, well, somewhat immoral to me.

Maybe i should sue the Bubbilicious company because when I was little I used to believe that if I chewed their bubble gum - then I could fly into outerspace.

And my parents both worked. We ALWAYS sat down to dinner together - EVERY NIGHT - unless my father was on a business trip. On Sundays - which was our big dinner - we'd sit from 7:00 to about 11:00 or midnight talking. I know families that have only the father working - they go get fast food - bring it and stand while they eat and then all go their seperate ways. I don't buy the whole - families don't have any time - they just don't want to make time as a family.

True, but the Tobacco companies putted the rope around their own necks, by dening, lying and cheating.

So then adults aren't smart enough to know when something is deadly - they actually have to be told that smoking is going to kill them? Isn't when a person first takes a drag off a cigarette and starts coughing some indication that it's bad? I never smoked because I knew it would kill and I can't stand the smell of it. We can't protect the the zero IQs from their own stupidity. And what about parents that smoke aorund their children? Maybe child welfare should come in and snatch them up and drag them to foster care.

I say we lock up everyone that does anything we don't approve of and be done with it all.