I tried fast food over the holiday. Can someone explain why this stuff is so popular?

jjjjjj wrote:

buying groceries and making your food is cheaper even than fast food.

for instance, you can spend $1.60 on 2 pounds of pasta, add a $1.69 can of crushed tomatoes, sautee a little garlic with olive oil, add some parmesan cheese, and you can feed four non-runners dinner for two nights at about $0.50 per person per meal.

Asesome idea, is that your privilege speaking? Must be nice to have access to a grocery store. Some can't afford the bus fare to get to the side of the town where you and your fancy supermarket are.

I agree I think Wendy's has by far the best tasting burgers. I went through a depressed phase where all I ate was fast food and gained 20 pounds (thankfully I have lost it). It may not be addicting one time but if you keep eating it you will crave it like CRAZY. No other food tastes as good. Eventually when I snapped out of it I realized how gross it actually was and haven't had fast food in 2+ years.

jjjjjj wrote:

buying groceries and making your food is cheaper even than fast food.

for instance, you can spend $1.60 on 2 pounds of pasta, add a $1.69 can of crushed tomatoes, sautee a little garlic with olive oil, add some parmesan cheese, and you can feed four non-runners dinner for two nights at about $0.50 per person per meal.

I don't disagree with what you're saying. I know making home made dinners CAN BE more affordable than eating fast food. I get that eating four dollar pasta or 5 dollar Tombstone pizza 7 nights a week is certainly possible.

Be mindful most Americans are living pay check to pay check with limited time/resources. The biggest issue is time. Not everyone has the time to make home cooked meals 7 nights a week especially when the parent(s) are working nontraditional set schedules.

I like the Wendy's jr cb deluxe because it has a lot of veggies and a tiny thin piece of meat. Only downside is how much salt is in or on that tiny burger.

They are especially good after a hard run.

This weekend I stopped at a Culvers and had a CB deluxe with a chocolate/oreo/heath mix-in. Now that was yummy.

this time thing is bs, pasta takes 7 min to make. period. some pasta takes 10 ok. how long is that line at burger king? also maybe you only go to the store 1 time a month, canned tomatos and pasta stay good for a longgg time

jjjjjj wrote:

buying groceries and making your food is cheaper even than fast food.

for instance, you can spend $1.60 on 2 pounds of pasta, add a $1.69 can of crushed tomatoes, sautee a little garlic with olive oil, add some parmesan cheese, and you can feed four non-runners dinner for two nights at about $0.50 per person per meal.

That's great for non-runners that you intend to keep that way. Now just add a 15 dollar steak and some greens and you're talking.

Oddly enough, I've had some of my better afternoon training runs shortly after downing a mcdouble.

It actually takes about 10 minutes tops to prepare any of a number of basic home cooked meals. People are lazy.

Take chicken and put in pan. Rub with olive oil and salt/pepper. Surround with cut up potatoes and veggies of your choice. Put in pre-heated oven(to save time) Cook.

love me some fast food

jjjjjj wrote:

buying groceries and making your food is cheaper even than fast food.

for instance, you can spend $1.60 on 2 pounds of pasta, add a $1.69 can of crushed tomatoes, sautee a little garlic with olive oil, add some parmesan cheese, and you can feed four non-runners dinner for two nights at about $0.50 per person per meal.

Great if I want all carbs and no protein or fat. Refined carbs and salty tomatoes is not a meal.

notquitesure wrote:

this time thing is bs, pasta takes 7 min to make. period. some pasta takes 10 ok. how long is that line at burger king? also maybe you only go to the store 1 time a month, canned tomatos and pasta stay good for a longgg time

You're not putting yourself in someone else's shoes, you're seeing it for it is. I'm sorry, I can't make your brain think from different angles. Let them eat cake right?! Lol

Pop tarts and ravioli for life right? People are so lazy. They just can't make an 8 minute meal. We should shame those who work late hours picking up their kids after 7pm and working 10 hour days and tell them they suck at parenting for having to resort to getting kids or themselves disgusting non nutritional food from those places. What's so hard about making dinner at 8 pm and getting it on the table before 830pm, making sure they're doing what they need to be doing in school, making sure to keep a relationship with their kids, trying to do extracurricular stuff after hours? I mean seriously what is wrong with people. Taking the easy route to save time getting that fast food stuff. I'm so dumbfounded, I just can't wrap my head around it. I work from 7 to 4 and can easily go out for a run and get dinner going, so...? I don't get it! I'm with you guys! :)

not for me wrote:

I travelled for the holiday with some family members who like fast food. They stopped at Wendy's and Burger King, and I decided to try both. Wendy's was okay, but unexceptional. Burger King was downright gross.

WTF makes some people eat this stuff multiple times per week? A food would have to be incredibly delicious for me to eat it with that frequency. While tastes vary, I can't imagine how anyone would consider Burger King to be so incredibly good that it had to be consumed on a daily or weekly basis.

"Stuff dufus hipsters like to say"

Runner2135 wrote:

...

No other food tastes as good. Eventually when I snapped out of it I realized how gross it actually was and haven't had fast food in 2+ years.

So, if it tastes so good how is it gross?

Fast food exists because it is fast and cheap. If you have ever ventured outside your parent's basement for a road trip, you would find that it fits the bill when you are traveling or when you are tight on time. It may not be as good as your mom's meatloaf, but oh well. Enough of the the elitism where not eating fast food some how makes you special or better than others.

It's not that the food tastes good. For some, its the convenience factor - why spend 2 hours on meal prep, eating, and cleaning up when complete satiation is 5 minutes away? For others, it's the context under which it was eaten.

Contextually, fast food was a "reward" given by lazy parents during childhood, and the food was just a byproduct of the experience. Later on in life, when things suck and the person finds themselves unable to cope, they use the food as nostalgic means to try to relive the pleasant childhood experience of going to a fast food restaurant. However, like any person with an addictive personality, they find that the high is short-lived, and they eat more and more to try to keep up.

Psycho-logist wrote:

Contextually, fast food was a "reward" given by lazy parents during childhood, and the food was just a byproduct of the experience. Later on in life, when things suck and the person finds themselves unable to cope, they use the food as nostalgic means to try to relive the pleasant childhood experience of going to a fast food restaurant. However, like any person with an addictive personality, they find that the high is short-lived, and they eat more and more to try to keep up.

I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday... Whenever I was sick as a child, my mom would get me a milkshake from McDonalds to "ease the pain" or something - id usually beg for a burger too.

Nowadays, if I'm ever hungover or sick, absolutely nothing makes me feel as good as a few double cheeseburgers.

Psychology is funny. The brain is an interesting thing.

not for me wrote:

kfkfk wrote:

You did not ask about a business model. You asked about the taste of the food and then insulted that food.

Well, I'll be sure to apologize to the food if it felt insulted. That's really what you're worried about? That I insulted food?

Way to move the goalposts!

Anyway, the obvious inference was that anyone eating fast food is a gross idiot. You can say that's not what you meant, but if that's the case, you should reread your post.

jjjjjj wrote:

buying groceries and making your food is cheaper even than fast food.

for instance, you can spend $1.60 on 2 pounds of pasta, add a $1.69 can of crushed tomatoes, sautee a little garlic with olive oil, add some parmesan cheese, and you can feed four non-runners dinner for two nights at about $0.50 per person per meal.

You are not counting the opportunity costs of time spent on grocery shopping and cooking.