Burger and fries....

(First of three parts.)

No matter how hard I try, there's just no avoiding the occassional meal of fast food. Freeze-dried french fries deep fried in oil, grilled ground beef served between two slices of bread, topped with processed cheese and a selection of garnishes, tomato ketchup with more sugar than tomatoes, and a drink of post mix soda, all being made by cheap labor with machine-like efficiency.

Just thinking about how it's made turns me off, especially if you think about how "good" the stuff is for your body, which is to say that it's definitely not at all good for you. No good at all, with all the fat, salt, and sugar that all fast food are known to contain massive quantities of.

And yet, the moment we take a whiff of it, the moment we take our first bite, it's already too late. We've already succumbed to the temptation, and there's no stopping until the last morsel is consumed.

And who can blame us? The thing about fast food is that it really tastes good. It was designed and formulated to take advantage of our inherent, hardwired desire for fatty, salty, and sugary foods.

Image hosted by Photobucket.comHave you seen the movie Super Size Me? In it, independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock documents his experiences as he set out to eat nothing but McDonald's products three times a day for 30 days. Needless to say, it wasn't a very healthy experience for him, and nearing the 30 day duration of his experiment his health took a turn for the worse. The movie also shows us an insider's look of how fast food has been slowly infiltrating our daily lives, with the consequent detrimental effects on our health and well being.

Image hosted by Photobucket.comThere's also this book which I read a few months ago which deals with this subject as well. The book is entitled Fast Food Nation, and was written by Eric Schlosser. It not only gives a history lesson of how fast food established a hold in American culture and its food industry (and consequently even our own), but also shares some horror stories about how that juicy hamburger and crisp fries ended up in front of you. Ever wonder where they get all that beef, chicken and potatoes? Read the book. It goes without saying that the growth of the fast food industry hasn't been a walk in the park for everyone concerned. And I mean everyone.

The bottomline is, the fast food industry is a highly lucrative one, and it continues to grow as more and more people around the world experience the pleasure and satisfaction eating fast food brings. However, fast food simply isn't good for you. But we all know that don't we? The irony is, we like eating it just the same. *sigh*

(To be continued tomorrow...)

Comments

rain said…
i love fries! not much about burgers but I buy them anyways because of the fries! hehehe nothing beats fries in my list! Viva le fries!hehe
September 19, 2005 10:22 AM
Ronald Allan said…
Oo nga...lalo na kung bagong luto. :-)
September 19, 2005 5:48 PM
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