I hate to focus on McDonald's as they do many things right and I respect them as a business. Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars.

The average American spends 90 percent of their food money on processed food, and many wonder why we have an epidemic of chronic degenerative disease.

If these statistics are surprising to you, I would encourage you to read  Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. It is a fascinating read and a great expose on McDonald's.

The following facts are taken from the book:

In 1968 McDonald's had 1,000 restaurants, today it has about 30,000 and opens 2,000 new ones each year. In fact, McDonald's is the largest owner of retail property in the world. The company earns most of its profit from collecting rent, not from selling food.

McDonald's is the nation's largest purchaser of:

• Beef
• Pork
• Potatoes

It is also the second largest purchaser of chicken.

The impact of McDonald's is hard to overstate. The golden arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross.

And if you are a parent, you know all too well that every month 90 percent of American children between the ages of 3 and 9 visit a McDonald's, where they receive massive doses of soda. McDonald's sells more Coca-Cola than anyone else in the world.

More evidence that the promise McDonald's made to find a safer oil to rid its foods of trans fats has been long forgotten.

From a nutritional standpoint, all the chemicals contained in a single French fry may be more harmful to you than smoking a cigarette, which is why fries made my list of the five worst foods you could possibly consume.

Please remember trans fat is one of the worst "foods" you can put in your body and should be rigidly avoided at all costs.

Trans fats have only been around for the last 100 years, introduced as an artifact of the food processing industry. Ninety percent of trans fats are hidden. They are in many of the processed foods Americans eat, not just margarine.

Trans fats lead to a major increase in cancers, arthritis, fatigue and nearly all chronic illnesses. Trans fats are also an enormous instigator of diabetes, which is dramatically increasing.

The recent statistics show that over 16 million Americans have diabetes, and it is becoming an epidemic largely due to the shift in our food choices.

If you want to review a good primer on trans fat, you should read "Trans-Fat: What Exactly is it, and Why is it so Dangerous?" I also recommend the page-turner, "Trust Us, We're Experts," by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber if you are looking for insight on "facts" and "truths" in the marketplace.

With all the unhealthy ingredients used at fast food restaurants, the key to winning the battle against them is to simply not go. You can only fool your body for so long. Thus, it is a virtual certainty that if you subsist on fast foods, you are accelerating the aging process and compromising your health.

If you absolutely have no alternative then you can modify your selections by always avoiding the French fries and soft drinks, especially diet soda. When you choose a hamburger, ask for it without the bun. Many fast food restaurants now offer this as an option.

However -- if you want to really get healthy, you need to spend some serious time in the kitchen preparing your own food, or pay someone to do it for you.