Comments on: McDonald’s – Let’s Be Honest

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 16:16:58 +0000

A new McD’s just opened up around here, with a feature I haven’t seen elsewhere that’s Pure Ruddy Genius: a cash register in the Playplace area. You can take your kids (well, I can take my kids) in, let them start playing, order and pay for your food, they give you a table number, they bring your food to your table – and not for a second are you listening to your kids whine in line about how they want to go PLAAAAYYY, OR breaking the rules about letting them play unsupervised.

McD’s cheeseburger: 7 points on Weight Watchers. Chicken McGrill: leave off the mayo and it’s 7 points too. 6-piece McNuggets: 5.5 points (if you count halves, which I do). California Cobb Salad without dressing: 3.5 points, with dressings starting at half a point for salsa, 1 for Newman’s Own Light Vinaigrette. Fries: a little tougher to get the size of fries one ought to have (remember when they’d sell you the size you can only get in the Happy Meal now?) but my husband and I sometimes split a Dollar Menu-sized one, which gets the portion size to where it should be.

It’s perfectly possible to eat at McD’s and stay within a reasonable calorie range, while making kids very happy (because of the playing, not just the food) and not having to keep hissing, “Sit down! Where’s your napkin?”

But moderation in all things… The kids do have to learn where the napkin goes, after all.

By: Kyda Sylvester

Kyda Sylvester — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 19:35:51 +0000

PPS. How many of you remember when the sign said “Over 1,000,000 sold”?

By: Kyda Sylvester

Kyda Sylvester — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 19:34:07 +0000

PS. Mickey D’s still serves the best fries in town.

By: Kyda Sylvester

Kyda Sylvester — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 19:32:49 +0000

One day while in Paris, we stopped by the rue Mouffetard open air market where we put together a quintessential French meal of roasted chicken, cheeses, fresh berries and, of course, a still warm from the oven baguette. We carried our bounty to Luxembourg Gardens where we were surrounded by Parisiens on their lunch hours eating from McDonald’s bags. Culture shock in reverse.

By: Kevin P

Kevin P — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 18:55:44 +0000

Right Brain:

He did not reveal what is being done to us. He revealed, sort of, what we are doing to ourselves. I would have had no problem with a responsible film done on the poor eating and health habits of Americans. I think we do need to get a handle on our eating habits. What I hate about the movie is that it portrays the customers as victims of the Evil McDonalds Corporation. By making McDonalds the bogeyman it makes the customers into infants who have no control and must have big brother look after them.

By: lrhaughton

lrhaughton — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 18:49:41 +0000

For me, McDonalds was like Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Both were banal and WASPy, so typically middle American. I hated it. I ridiculed those who liked it. Phooey.

Then I had kids. I began to see McDonalds (and Mister Rogers) through their eyes. And before I knew it, I was buying happy meals and singing “It’s You I Like.”

Damn McDonalds for the all cognative dissonance they’ve caused my g… g… g.. generation.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 17:21:21 +0000

Well, as a wiseman once said* “If you’re gonna eat a farmer’s breakfast every morning, you better be prepared to work like a farmer.” Eating double the amount of calories a day that you burn in that day will have one result.

*No, I don’t remember his name.

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 16:10:19 +0000

That was the thing that annoyed me about “Supersize Me”: the fact that you could go into any restaurant on the planet and eat stuff that will make you sick if you eat it exclusively for 30 days. If you try hard enough, you could do the same thing at your local vegan tofu hangout.

By: CoventryKid

CoventryKid — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 15:37:19 +0000

Matt:

40-something, and I can still more or less eat what I want. Wouldn’t want a burger every day, though. Once a week will do.

By: Matt Evans

Matt Evans — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 15:10:45 +0000

When my metabo slowed down in my mid 20′s, McDonalds was the first thing I had to give up. Now, I have a burger from there maybe once a year- Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese- drooool. I wish they’d find some way to make their burgers healthier (the aforementioned double quarter pounder w/ cheese contains more than daily recommended allowance of fat) but I guess the problem is, it tastes good because its not particularly healthy.

I don’t know about the rest of you but as a 30ish person now, having to watch everything I eat is one of the most depression parts of growing older.