Fast food and me.
When I was a little girl my mother and father never took me to a fast food joint. It was a once in awhile treat. I don’t know if it was too expensive, or if they just didn’t like it. Maybe twice a year we would go o McDonalds or Taco Bell. In my early teens, McDonalds had the .20 cheese burgers and $2.00 bucket of fries. My allowance wasn’t that much, so my friends and I bought a lot through the next few years. Then every fast food place came up with a “value menu” or “dollar deals”, so it was not only easier to eat fast food, but now it was cheaper. As I got older I ate more and more fast food. I kept eating fast food even when I moved on my own. I lived in a house with 15 people and there was one kitchen. There weren’t a lot of home cooked meals in that house. When I moved to Oregon I had to learn to cook. Veneta is the town I lived in, and the only fast food place was Dairy Queen. I really don’t like Dairy Queen. Even then, I would find an excuse to go into town at dinner time. Nuked hamburgers were definitely a lot tastier then my burnt cooking. Then I got food stamps, and sadly McDonalds doesn’t take food stamps. So I for the first time had to buy food to cook for myself. I grew an appreciation for the burnt taste, and now like my food “well done”. I got cook books and started experimenting. Found out very quickly that I like baking more than cooking. My taste for fast food faded as I stopped going to fast food restaurants. My life style had changed at this point, and I was now cooking for a family. I look back, when I was a child. Maybe that’s why we didn’t eat out much. It was too expensive for an entire family to eat out. One meal is a lot less expensive than five.
My lifestyle changed again, and I found myself cooking for one. For awhile all I ate was fast food. Three meals a day were fast food. Until one day I asked for a nutrition sheet from McDonalds. I was shocked to find out how many calories are in a salad at McDonalds. The snack wraps aren’t any better, and they’re supposed to be the healthy option to fast food. Now I try to stay away from it, but it’s impossible. There are situations that come up when you need to eat and there isn’t much of an option. Your miles away from home and your kids are hungry. Or your on vacation and don’t have access to a kitchen. That is what the industry is looking forward to. I don’t know how everyone would survive without the assistance of the fast food industry. So the convenience is good, but the nutritional facts aren’t. If only they could make healthy, cheap, and fast food. We would have a healthier future.