Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

hoopoe — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:50:30 GMT

For those of us whose parents ended up both working because of changes in the economy -- and started "outsourcing" meals to Mickey D's and Burger King -- *nostalgia* is a big reason we love fast food. Like any comfort food, that familiar taste reminds us of childhood. Another important reason to keep our kids away from it. I feel a bit of joy whenever we pass by the golden arches and my daughter doesn't ask for junk food ... because she's never had it and doesn't know what it is. :o)

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

alphafem2002 — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:40:10 GMT

I was amazed at how wonderful the food was in France and how the people rarely wanted for anything more. With beautiful choices surrounding you, fast food looks less attractive. Problem is the time to cook wonderfully. I think the services that make food you can pick up or have delivered could fill a niche here.

Interestingly (to me,anyway), when I arrived exhausted at my hotel in France after a long flight and asked where to eat, I was directed to a McDonald's. I think my face said it all even before I wailed "but I'm in france!!!!!" . They redirected me to a cafe but not before I noted them checking out my shoes because that's how you can tell a North American - by the running shoes. Guess I conflicted them!

One good note, of sorts is that the McDonald's had a special each day of the week, with the McCanada Day being a salmon burger and McIndia day having chicken korma on a bun. That said to me that the local populace still likes diversity. And it was the only fast food place I saw in a large town, mercifully. Given NOT given choices,what do people do? When I traveled in the States I often ate at McD's because I couldn't find anything else . Somehow even their salads and grilled chicken and juice left me feeling sick. Takes a talent to provide food that bad.

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

Sandi$gems — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:07:12 GMT

Quit knocking coca-cola!! How else would I get my toilet clean? And what's so bad about white bread? It is the best thing going for getting up those teeny pieces of broken glass that the broom won't get.

Er...you did notice the sarcasm didn't you?! I'm so enjoying this series of posts. For misslizzy, you said:

"Television would make you think that Americans don't cook at home at all. Maybe this isn't true."

Believe it...it's true, sadly. I have spoken with women who admit they never cook; just eat out. The daughter of a friend works at a fast food place and that is the only thing she feeds her four kids. And she can't understand why they all have ADD, always sick and sniffling, and don't do very well either in school or socially. I know a lady who spent $20,000 remodeling an already awesome kitchen and has never cooked a meal in it. But Better Homes and Gardens could do a photo shoot there.

My tiny kitchen is nothing much to look at, but it cranks out a lot of good food...from scratch, organic sugar or home grown honey for sweeteners (stevia extract in my organic coffee), home grown eggs from my darling Arcaunas and...anyone got some good recipes for pumpkins? I still have three from last year's garden stored in my attached greenhouse, and they range in size from 50 to 100 pounds. I'm thinking of slicing a bunch of it really thin, soaking them in sweetened water, sprinkling them with cinnamon and sticking them in the dehydrator for a few hours. What do you think? Could pumpkin chips catch on?

Y'all have a blessed day from north Georgia.

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

virtue — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:40:42 GMT

We need to have more information publicized about what things are free glutamates. I get very ill from glutamates, yet it is only recently that I had much knowledge of what things to watch out for on labels. I find most supplements, vitamins and minerals, are loaded with free glutamates......aspartate, citric acid, soy products, natural flavorings, whey protein, various gums etc. and of course it is difficult to avoid gelatin.

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

jupiter2 — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:07:41 GMT

As another Brit, I agree entirely with the statement that we are top of the league for eating what can only be described as rubbish. One of the reasons is that cookery lessons were halted in many schools in the UK quite a long time ago. These are hopefully now being reinstated. People prefer to sit on their backsides and eat junk foods from the microwave (can food become any lower nutritionally that junk food and microwave) rather than shop for fresh food and stand and cook it. The huge people that can be seen here are just the same people that I see in the supermarket buying multi-packets of potato chips - these should be found under the heading "Heart Attack Food". The thing is, they don't equate this way of eating as anything to do with the fact that they are grossly overweight. I believe that they seriously think that went to bed one night a size 10 and woke up the next morning a size 24! If they shopped properly, cooked a proper meal from beginning to end and did a bit more exercise they would start looking like human beings again. It's truly a shame to see so many children overweight. It's a fact that it is believed that this will be the first generation of children to die before their parents if they don't do something about their weight. Unfortunately, what the parents don't seem to realise is that many nutritious meals can be made in half an hour, and using fresh vegetables and other produce is, more often than not, cheaper than buying ready-made rubbish.

I remember Richard Hittelman (an American who did a wonderful series of Yoga programmes here in the UK in the 1970s) saying, "Never eat factory food." I've always stuck with that and always will.

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

Beccadog — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:16:38 GMT

I rarely eat fast food, and certainly not burgers, fries, pizza, hot and greasy food. Nor do I drink sugar laden or artificially laden beverages. I do drink water, the cleanest I can find and make my own herbal teas.

An extremely over weight young woman was in line behind me with a case of sugared green tea, which she was purchasing because, she said green tea is suppose to be heathy.

I read the label, which cited numerous toxic chemicals and led the ingredient list with sugar and corn syrup. I suggested that this drink was no healthy and listed the reasons. I further suggested she buy green tea in boxes, which is less costly to her health and money output and brew her own without the addition of sugar.

To that she said, "It takes too much time."

It takes too much time to boil on water. Time and laziness is why the world is hooked on garbage food and drink, in my opinion.

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

Beccadog — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:47:40 GMT

Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most? articles.mercola.com/.../britain-consumes-the-most-fast-food.aspx

“These two nations also had the most respondents who said they would be unable to give up fast food.

“Some 45% in the UK agreed with the statement "I like the taste of fast food too much to give it up", while 44% of Americans said they would be unable to give up their burgers, pizzas and chicken wings.” news.bbc.co.uk/.../7165990.stm

While there will always be a certain percentage that don’t agree, it’s interesting that the higher figures were left out. That is, 55% in the U.K. and 56% in the U.S.A. would NOT agree with the statement “I like the taste of fast food too much to give it up.”

The BBC also uncovered other geographical variations: “Saudi Arabians and those from the United Arab Emirates were among the top consumers of low-fat food products, meal replacements and food supplements.

They were also the most interested in weight-loss courses, gym memberships and home exercise equipment. “

So it would seem, as the BBC pointed out that “people in the UK and the US were the most likely to nominate ‘no self discipline’ as the leading factor in obesity.”

For myself, I know that two things have contributed to my weight gain over the past decades: too much consumption of food (not necessarily fast food), and too little exercise. For that reason, I've increased my exercise in the gym and pool, in addition to consuming less rich foods including meat and nuts.

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

Nice Nice — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:09:23 GMT

"Happy Meals " are dinners that are homecooked and sat down around a dinner table. Not some crap that comes out of a box!!!

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

cremi — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:20:16 GMT

I work and live in Australia at the moment. Few months ago, I started a new job, and I was terrified by the fact that almost everyone there eat Mcdonalds, Subway or some other local fast foods. Literally every day! There is a drink machine in the office and everyone is drinking coke or similar drinks everyday too. Between "meals" they eat sweets, cakes, popcorn or chocolate. I really didn't believe that it could be so bad. In the same time, not all of them are fat, some are even skinny, but have bad posture and look in general unhealthy. A colleague had a medical checks last week and said that he had high sugar level and high blood pressure. I told him to immediately stop eating sugar and soft drinks... and guess what - 20 minutes later he was drinking "diet" coke. Everyone is wondering why I never eat any cakes and always have my own lunch, and even try sometimes to make fun of that. I'm trying to speak to them about food and so on, but I have met little understanding so far... It's sad, because they all are nice people and seeing them constantly devastating themselves make me very sad.

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

Susan_ House — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:22:57 GMT

Agree with the MSG phenomena. My body became MSG sensitive about 15 years ago and it has a wonderful benefit of teaching me to read labels (including that all inclusive descriptor Spices). I was never a big fan of fast food but my body has taught me to stay away even more as i will pay a physical price.

Side effects for me include H/A, dizziness, flushing, confusion and sleepiness. Finally some companies are taking this ingredient out but my label reading has already taught me homemade, fresher better.

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

Rhino — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:00:38 GMT

I for one am not amazed that Britons love fast food; British food is terrible. It is not Americas fault, the Brits can make up their own minds

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

mosskat — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:37:07 GMT

I have no idea why Americans like their fast food... I made the mistake of buying a Burger King over there and it tasted like PLASTIC. I'm not fond of burgers overall - Wendy's aren't bad but I stopped eating them some time ago - made me feel like vomiting 10 minutes after finishing one.

Oh and speaking of burgers, McDonald's think they have everyone brainwashed but I'm proud to say that Jamaica (my little island) can probably hold the record for sending McDonald's packing out of the country. Why? Their food tasted like crap, crap with lettuce and mustard. What in god's name do they make their meat with? Anyway, within a year they shut down and a Patty shop was put up. LOL they also lost a legal battle with local resturant called McDonalds that had been here for about 60 years. Damn bullies.

One fast food in Jamaica however rules supreme and that's KFC. I think it's because they use local chickens - completely DIFFERENT taste from the so called chicken I tried to eat in Virginia - which cut the roof of my mouth when I bit into it. And can someone please explain to me why the meat under all that crust is yellow green?

I don't think the fastfood epidemic has quite got it's in hands around our throats because Jamaicans LOVE their local dishes and will pass up a shitty burger for a good old plate of rice and peas an chicken. There's also the factor that fastfood is expensive as hell - almost 6 US for a combo meal and when the average person is only making about 300US a month... (no - not joking and some make less)...

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

Dr Rik — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:33:43 GMT

I have been providing Diet Diary with Evaluation and Report (Part I Nutrition with recipes, Part II Supplements) as long as I have been practicing. Periodically, someone will tell me "don't talk to me about food, I go to McDonalds every day and that's it!". It's a free world :~

My kids used to say that they could tell which aisles I had already been in the grocery store, because they could see one each of many of the items turned around to read the ingredients list. You would think that would be the standard?...guess not.

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

fruitgirl07 — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:12:24 GMT

Interesting article! I thought the US was the most fast food eating country out there!

And why is Britain spelled Briton? Ew!

re: Which Country Loves Fast Food the Most?

Mr.AK — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:11:35 GMT

Everyone knows about the high fat and sugar content. Why is there no mention in the story about fast foods' most important ingredient - MSG? That's what gives fast food it's great 'taste' and makes it addictive.