Internal war is going around the world. You hear people talk about it all the time. The cause of it is on every street corner, obesity. It isn’t just about self control, but also stuff like the economy, personal obligation and choices that are available.
Think about it, if you only have $5 to spend during your hour lunch, where are you going to go? Are you going to go to a grocery store and buy fresh produce and cook it just before you get a chance to eat it when your lunch break comes to an end? Or are you going to go to McDonalds? Burger King? Wendys? And get your food cheap and fast.
I can see a lot of people bringing leftovers from home to eat for lunch but how many times are you going to get tired of eating the same meals your wife or mom cooks at home? It’s even worse when dad cooks and he ends up burning everything to a crisp. That will be a nice meal to show off to your co-workers, deep fried charcoal chicken. On top of not having a decent cook around the house, you just saw a commercial for McDonalds last night before you went to bed, $4.99 for 20 piece nuggets?! (tax not included yet) HOLY BACON!! I’m so there!
But wait, can I do this everyday? If I think about it, all those nuggets are going right to my thighs. Oh well… Summer’s just about over, who would see my thighs anyways? Besides, what other choices do I have since I can’t cook? I’m a college student too, man… I don’t roll that deep in money to go to a restaurant everyday.
After a week of this stuff, I’m feeling sluggish and my heart is pumping twice as much just to get blood through the rest of my body. Whew, they didn’t tell me this would happen in the commercial, all I knew was that I was going to be saving money, they didn’t tell me if I kept this up, I wouldn’t live long enough to spend it. More for my kids right? That is, if the money didn’t already go out to my medical bills first to pay for the insulin I’ll need as diabetes start to develop. OH MAN! I’m late for work!
See what I mean? Everyday, we’re face with choices, we can either eat healthy or eat quickly. Most people choose to eat quickly because that’s all the time they have. Not to mention that’s all the money they have to spare based on their salary after paying bills. It’s not just about having self control but it’s also about choices and the economy around you.
Published by: Susana Vuong
3 comments:
The sad thing is that this practice is not limited to McD's, it applies to all fast food restaurants. The other thing is that there are huge groups of people who eat fast food for every meal. They don't go food shopping and they very rarely have a home cooked meal. This is especially noticeable with minorities.
I have heard black teenagers talk about their eating habits and it always revolves around which fast food place will they eat at today. For example I was listening to this group of teens trying to make a choice on what to eat for lunch. No one could figure out where they wanted to go because it was all fast food places and all of them had eaten at least one of the major fast food resturants in the last couple of days and did not want to eat there again so quickly. It was also difficult for them to decide based on the other issue that some of them were going to eat at a fast food restaurant for dinner so again they wanted to make sure they had some variety in what they were going to eat.
I t was very sad to hear this conversation because being in Berkeley you are surrounded by great places to eat and most of the lunch specials for students costs around the same cost as a combo meal at a fast food restaurant. The most depressing part was that one of the teens said that he wished there was still a Taco Bell around because he wanted "Mexican" food. Right across the street from him was Cancun the famous Berkeley Mexican Restaurant.
Good post Susana
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