Observations

[ShadowDog]

I think that in less than twenty years, McDonalds will run out of skinny people for their commercials and switch to a marketing campaign that basically suggests, "Hey, everyone else is eating here, you might as well, too!"

Seriously, has anyone ever seen an even slightly overweight person chowing down on a Big Mac in their commercials? You will definitely never see a fat kid with a happy meal.

Ignore it and it will all go away.

[ocnblu]

Those new Angus 1/3 pound Mushroom & Swiss burgers make me wanna unbutton my top button and pig out.

But I order them without mayonnaise to save a bunch of calories and fat.

[Croc]

There's this wonderful place in El Segundo (other locations in Irvine) called The Veggie Grill. Think vegan fast food. Now, I love meat, but if I want to treat myself, I order a V-Burger with portobello and avocado, side of Sweetheart Fries (sweet potato fries), and a drink...they only carry flavored teas, sweetened with agave, of course. Soooooo good, and the chipotle "mayo" dipping sauce for those fries? Whoa.

http://www.veggiegrill.com/

[Croc]

McDonald's is gross, and their food makes people fat. Fries aren't that great, though the Filet-O-Fish is pretty decent.

[Teh Ricer Civic!]

McDonald's is gross, and their food makes people fat. Fries aren't that great, though the Filet-O-Fish is pretty decent.

I beg to differ, i lost 40 pounds once and i had McDonalds at least 2x a week.

Of course i put that back on later, but the point of the matter is its not a place that makes you fat, its YOU that makes you fat (or skinny) by your eating preferences.

Blaming McDonalds for making people fat is like blaming your pencil for spelling words wrong.

Edited July 25, 2009 by Teh Ricer Civic!

[Croc]

I beg to differ, i lost 40 pounds once and i had McDonalds at least 2x a week.

Of course i put that back on later, but the point of the matter is its not a place that makes you fat, its YOU that makes you fat (or skinny) by your eating preferences.

Blaming McDonalds for making people fat is like blaming your pencil for spelling words wrong.

You lost 40 lbs...of what? Lean tissue? Just because you lose weight doesn't mean you're getting healthier...it depends on WHAT weight you are losing.

[ocnblu]

Maybe it was simply from dropping the kids off at the pool.

[Satty]

[ShadowDog]

There's this wonderful place in El Segundo (other locations in Irvine) called The Veggie Grill. Think vegan fast food. Now, I love meat, but if I want to treat myself, I order a V-Burger with portobello and avocado, side of Sweetheart Fries (sweet potato fries), and a drink...they only carry flavored teas, sweetened with agave, of course. Soooooo good, and the chipotle "mayo" dipping sauce for those fries? Whoa.

I've had something along those lines in a vegetable patty burger. The uninformed tend to think anything vegetarian must have copious amount of tofu; however, there's so many delicious alternatives to the generic meat product that make my mouth water thinking about them.

McDonald's is gross, and their food makes people fat. Fries aren't that great, though the Filet-O-Fish is pretty decent.

I agree. Their burgers make me thirsty at first bite and their fries are terribly over-salted. If we ever buy fast food, we end up sometimes going to three places. I like Arby's for their marketplace sandwiches or Great Canadian burgers, sometimes A&W for a double-teen burger (incl. all veggies and bacon - a real porker meal), and depending upon which city we're in, Arby's for their curly-fries and A&W for their onion rings. I saw 'depending upon which city we're in' because one town out here over-season their onion rings to the point that it's better to think of them as ordering MSG with a side of rings.

[Teh Ricer Civic!]

You lost 40 lbs...of what? Lean tissue? Just because you lose weight doesn't mean you're getting healthier...it depends on WHAT weight you are losing.

40 lbs of pretty much pure fat.

Anyone who blames fast food for making them fat lacks self control. And any parent that allows their kid to get as fat as in that poster is a pretty poor parent.

Edited July 25, 2009 by Teh Ricer Civic!

[ocnblu]

Agreed, Teh.

[Robert Hall]

Had a really tasty Kobe beef burger w/ carmelized onions, bacon and gorgonzola cheese yesterday at Blu Burger Grille, a local chain. Quite tasty.

Blu Burger

Rob

[FAPTurbo]

I don't eat at Mickey Dee's often, but I do enjoy my Quarter Pounder with Cheese and large fries.

[Camino LS6]

I never eat at any of the chains like McDonalds or Burger King etc. .

Just the smell of those places turns me off.

[Intrepidation]

I get McDonalds every now and then. usually when I do it's a double cheeseburger or 2. I've had the angus mushroom and swiss once and thought it was good.

As for their fries, if they get them right (which is rare) they are terrific...but liek I said, it's rare that you get them fresh and with the right amount of salt. Usually it's either no salt or salt overkill.

Overall I prefer Wendy's if I'm going to do fast food. Arby's is good but there's only one within like 20 miles. I usually just make my own burger.

Chili's does have some kickass burgers though, so does Fuddruckers.

The best burgers though, are from a place in Miami, OK called Waylan's Hamburgers the Ku-Ku

That Ford is one of their mascots.

[ocnblu]

Cool Fairlane.

[ShadowDog]

... but the point of the matter is its not a place that makes you fat, its YOU that makes you fat (or skinny) by your eating preferences.

Blaming McDonalds for making people fat is like blaming your pencil for spelling words wrong.

Still, that doesn't change the fact that it would be a bad idea for McDonalds to make a commercial with overweight people. I would think that, eventually, they're going to have to.

I recall an article that took a basic look at obesity and fast food. Suggesting you can't have one without the other to such a large degree as seen in North America, it went on to say that it all comes down to the dollar and taste. While one can spend the same amount of money on healthier foods, most would use it for cheap fast food to satisfy their taste craving. Basically, if fast food weren't so cheap, there would probably be less obesity.

Edited July 26, 2009 by ShadowDog

[Robert Hall]

Still, that doesn't change the fact that it would be a bad idea for McDonalds to make a commercial with overweight people. I would think that, eventually, they're going to have to.

They really should..since many of their customers are the obese poor, they should make realistic ads. Their ads showing fit people doing active things (biking, etc) are unrealistic...fit, athletic people don't eat fast food $h!.

Rob

[balthazar]

>>"I never eat at any of the chains like McDonalds or Burger King etc."<<

Same here... well: maybe twice/yr while out on the road & ravenous.

[mustang84]

I get McDonald's maybe once every couple weeks and don't mind it. I usually go for the quarter pounder value meal when I do. But lately I've been cutting back on fast food in general because I'm trying to build up my savings again after spending half of it on my car.

[Teh Ricer Civic!]

Basically, if fast food weren't so cheap, there would probably be less obesity.

Gasp!? Really? And who contributes to cheap, not very healthy food?

[Robert Hall]

A good read on this subject is John Stossel's book 'Fast Food Nation'.

[§carlet §wordfish]

I luvs me a Big Mac and McDonalds' fries are my favorite next to carnival fries. And my doctor said all the salt is actually good for my orthostatic hypotension.

Taco Bell is my fast food of choice, though. Expecially since it's closest and cheapest around school.

[Blake Noble]

I wonder if McDonalds would make a double angus burger dressed like a Big Mac ... ?

Edited July 27, 2009 by YellowJacket894

[ocnblu]

The Secret Sauce would scare me, especially if I asked for something different.

[regfootball]

40 lbs of pretty much pure fat.

Anyone who blames fast food for making them fat lacks self control. And any parent that allows their kid to get as fat as in that poster is a pretty poor parent.

i lost 100 pounds in the last year or so (few months removed) and 'fast food' alone is not the enemy. eating copious quantities of it is.

most places, a burger is one of the best items on the menu. let me clarify that. leave off the cheese, and the mayo. if you leave the ketchup off and use no salt ketchup that helps. look for smaller buns.

most burgers are the lowest sodium items on the menu, sodium is the biggest influence on staying bloated. rid yourself of sodium (stay under 100% daily intake, try 50% if you can, good luck with that) and do 1500 calories a day to lose weight. then maintain at less than 2000. eat monounsaturated fats (nuts, oils, avacado, see 'flatbelly diet') as much as you can. greatly reduce your starch intake. watch fat intake, don't get too obsessed with it. Meats like beef, pork, and chicken are fine. avoid fat added items like sausages and weiners, mainly because their sodium level is so high. there are some good chicken and turkey sausage and brat products.

i actually did and still do eat many various kinds of veggie burgers, but i do so because you can nuke them quick and they taste good.

a 1/4 or 1/3 pound beef patty will have same calories and even likely less sodium than 2 veggie patties. A 1/4 burger at most fast food joints prepared right will be 300-400 calories and not have a lot of sodium. skip the fries and the sugared pop. get a side salad with low cal oil based / vinegar based dressing instead.

lay off the condiments and cheese and such that have salt. make your own condiments to lean out the calories and sugar and salt. look for tomato purees and crushed with no sodium in them for bases to make spaghetti sauces and barbeque sauces. use fresh cut jalapenos instead of sodium laced pickles.

salads are good but lay off high cal and high sodium dressings. Newmans own light and maple grove farms local dressings are the bomb. chicken, turkey, etc. pork beef all great in salads.

we have tacos all the time. i brown a pound of 93% beef and rinse it and to duplicate the chichis taco meat spice mix which is laced with sodium, instead i put in a can of green chiles, onion powder and garlic powder, and finely minced onions (you could mince garlic if you want too). i will sometimes add some light salt to get the saltiness back. Little bit of cumin. then we cut up sides romaine, cheese (not too much!) tomatoes, jalpenos, sometimes black beans, sometimes we have guac and light sour cream. i stopped using hard taco shells. actually, don't even use typical soft shells. Tortilla shells are loaded with calories and sodium. 3 soft shell tortillas alone can pack 600 calories and almost all your daily salt. that said, i found a whole wheat type lo cal tortilla we buy now with 50 calories per shell that is awesome and its not too salty.

when you go to chipotle, skip the tortilla and get the burrito bol and lay off some of the higher cal options and you are in good. beans have lots of calories so skip 1/2 of the spoonful if you can.

arbys has a few good choices.

fast food kills because people just need to search for the items in the sandwiches and such that have all the calories and fat and salt. chicken sandwiches are often killers because either breading or sodium is terrible.

when i was losing most of my weight, i was frequenting subway a lot. limit yourself to a 6 inch. skip cheese sometimes. no mayo, etc.

pizza and chinese food were my vices, still love em. but i switched to mongolian and truthfully you gorge on a lot of that if the sauces are low sodium and do not have starches in them. mongolian is mostly meat and veggies which if are lean you can eat them without limit and still not get huge.

i have not as of yet been able to make a good lo cal pizza although i have found ways to make them low sodium.

KFC buffet is a guilty pleasure again now that they have the grilled chicken. strip the skin (the best tasting part) and you get a great protein meal with lower cals than you think and the sodium with the skin off is not too bad. then the buffet just gorge on teh cottage cheese and salad items (not a lot of dressing).

back on topic, lets not blame the restaurants, although they should lean up and clean up some of their choices. i have been wanting to try an angus at mcd's now....although i would prob wilt and get a double quarter pounder (no cheese) instead. mcd's side salads are awesome (get two of them and they come with newman dressings). burger king rocks with the whopper and double cheese (skip the cheese).

now i am hungry. veggie burger for lunch!

Edited July 27, 2009 by regfootball

[Drew Dowdell]

Best fast-ish food I found was at Boston Market.

Get the Turkey with no gravy (it's usually juicy enough anyway)

Green beans

Corn

Skip the corn bread.

Have ice water to drink.

Works out to about 9 grams of fat and 380 calories.

Your basic Whopper with cheese small meal is 61g of fat 1250 calories.

[fightingbee]

Overall I prefer Wendy's if I'm going to do fast food.

Checkers isn't too bad either.

Culver's is really good fast food, but their still only in the midwest AFAIK.

[Croc]

Pretty much the only thing I wish were in CA that isn't is Jimmy John's. I can live without Steak n Shake, because I have found better shakes out here. I can live without White Castle, though it would be nice if the frozen sliders weren't the only way to get them from time to time...but I miss me some Jimmy John's. Good food, super low calorie, especially if you get it lettuce wrapped.

[Intrepidation]

White Castle makes McDonald's look like the best, highest quality food on earth.

[Justin Bimmer]

Pretty much the only thing I wish were in CA that isn't is Jimmy John's. I can live without Steak n Shake, because I have found better shakes out here. I can live without White Castle, though it would be nice if the frozen sliders weren't the only way to get them from time to time...but I miss me some Jimmy John's. Good food, super low calorie, especially if you get it lettuce wrapped.

We have a Jimmy Johns in Clovis!

The owner moved out here from Chicago and opened a franchise!

[Croc]

White Castle makes McDonald's look like the best, highest quality food on earth.

Disagree. McDonald's is overprocessed and lacks flavor. White Castle and the onion-steamed meat has lots of flavor. Quality-wise, I think the nod goes to White Castle, not only because their fries are real potatoes without flavoring, but also because their low-quality beef is at least beaf, and not the soy-loaded crap McD's serves mixed with beef.

[Croc]

We have a Jimmy Johns in Clovis!

The owner moved out here from Chicago and opened a franchise!

They need to go national, or at least go to LA. LA and JJ would be a match made in heaven.

[Croc]

They need to go national, or at least go to LA. LA and JJ would be a match made in heaven.

Nevermind, looks like they slowly are. And one franchise is looking to expand into SoCal within the next 5 years...sweet.

[fightingbee]

White Castle makes McDonald's look like the best, highest quality food on earth.

Disagree. McDonald's is overprocessed and lacks flavor. White Castle and the onion-steamed meat has lots of flavor. Quality-wise, I think the nod goes to White Castle, not only because their fries are real potatoes without flavoring, but also because their low-quality beef is at least beaf, and not the soy-loaded crap McD's serves mixed with beef.

Never had White Castle. Seems to have quite a following with some people though. Here in the south we have Krystal which is essentially the same thing though and its OK, their tiny chicken sandwiches are much better than the sliders though IMO.

[Croc]

Ehhhh...Krystal =/= White Castle. Krystal is a knockoff, but the menus are pretty different.

[Intrepidation]

Disagree. McDonald's is overprocessed and lacks flavor. White Castle and the onion-steamed meat has lots of flavor. Quality-wise, I think the nod goes to White Castle, not only because their fries are real potatoes without flavoring, but also because their low-quality beef is at least beaf, and not the soy-loaded crap McD's serves mixed with beef.

I don't think it's beef so much as road kill. I think they are the most vile, disgusting, pathetic excuses for "food" in existence.

But to each their own.

Now as far as burgers go, Sonic has good burgers, although they tend to go heavy on the mustard when you ask for it. Closest one is in PA though. I also enjoy Red Robins...they have awesome onion rings as well. Too bad none are around here.

Spangles is good too.

[Croc]

Roadkill? It's onion-steamed beef...hyperbole, much?

[Intrepidation]

Yep.

[fightingbee]

Red Robin is good, but a tad pricey IMO.

[Teh Ricer Civic!]

If y'all want healthier foods, stop government subsidies of corn. There i said it.

[Croc]

I can't think of very many places in fast food that even use corn. Most "Mexican" places use flour tortillas becaue they're cheaper than corn ones. Taco Bell uses corn for the fried taco shells, but that's it.

[regfootball]

If y'all want healthier foods, stop government subsidies of corn. There i said it.

yeah. even grass fed beef is better. high fructose corn syrup is worse for you than aspartame IMHO.

we subsidize ag though, so it never becomes outsourced, like all our other industries. big money would start growing all our food overseas and then other countries would have us by the nuts.

conspiracy theory. there is a 'consortium' of sorts sponsored quietly by the big ag mafia in this country and the world that seeks to manipualte the genetics of food and its distribution to keep the third world man down. they keep all the master seeds and genetic control like up in iceland or some remote freaking place. they are trying to breed foods that require the distribution of the genetic material to be controlled by 'the man' (apparently includes the ag conglomerates and folks like the rockefellers and stuff).

i gotta find that book, its on amazon. some web sites about it too.

there is a new burger chain here called SMASHBURGER that is supposed to be the bomb.

Edited July 28, 2009 by regfootball

[Drew Dowdell]

I can't think of very many places in fast food that even use corn. Most "Mexican" places use flour tortillas becaue they're cheaper than corn ones. Taco Bell uses corn for the fried taco shells, but that's it.

He was referring to high fructose corn syrup.

Pepsi is selling Pepsi "Throwback" I think it's called, where they use actual sugar instead of HFCS. Waaaaay better than regular Pepsi.

[the_yellow_dart]

You can always rely on Satty to make you wonder if you've suddenly stumbled into /b/.

[Lamar]

He was referring to high fructose corn syrup.

Pepsi is selling Pepsi "Throwback" I think it's called, where they use actual sugar instead of HFCS. Waaaaay better than regular Pepsi.

I've seen the Pepsi one but haven't gotten it yet.

The Mountain Dew Throwback was pretty disappointing though. Not only did it not have the HFCS (which I can deal with), it didn't have the orange flavoring that gives it that extra... something.

[Robert Hall]

there is a new burger chain here called SMASHBURGER that is supposed to be the bomb.

We have that chain in Denver. Excellent burgers. I like Fatburger a lot also.

Rob

[Intrepidation]

You can always rely on Satty to make you wonder if you've suddenly stumbled into /b/.

If you've ever had the misfortune to actually come across /b/ you'd know that this is nothing compared to it.

[Croc]

He was referring to high fructose corn syrup.

Pepsi is selling Pepsi "Throwback" I think it's called, where they use actual sugar instead of HFCS. Waaaaay better than regular Pepsi.

Oh, HFCS. Well, everyone knows how I feel about that from another thread.

I actually have been drinking Pepsi Throwback since April, and even though it's out of production, one gas station still carries it. They also had Mountain Dew Throwback, which was the same deal, except they also used an older recipe...and man MD suddenly became drinkable again!

[Croc]

The Mountain Dew Throwback was pretty disappointing though. Not only did it not have the HFCS (which I can deal with), it didn't have the orange flavoring that gives it that extra... something.

Well, they used the original (or one of the original) recipes for MD Throwback, from the early 80s before they added the orange juice concentrate. All I know is I cannot drink standard MD because after 2 sips it's far too sweet and syrupy. It tastes "heavy" and the Throwback tasted "clean" and "fresh."

We have that chain in Denver. Excellent burgers. I like Fatburger a lot also.

Rob

Fatburger is damn good. More places need to offer egg on burgers.