Fast Food For Thought

This is for all those of you out there who every once in a while crave fast food which seems to be readily available in almost every corner of the US now. I realize that many of us here reading this are all ready aware of this knowledge and among the converted so to speak, but this week, I felt the need to rant and put all my thoughts on in together in one place.


Matter cannot me created or destroyed, it only changes form. One of the simple laws of physics. Think about that. The fried chicken or the burrito is not destroyed it changes form. That oily deep fried gooey mess of what was once an animal in a crowded cage changes form. You ingest its energy. That stress of that chicken not even having enough room to turn around in its cage becomes part of you. All that oil in that hot instant deep frier, that cooking oil is ingested. That batter mix that is ground out by machine and produced in bulk, that whole process becomes a part of you. You justify it by saying, well I get my chicken grilled not breaded, well guess what, they add sugar and glaze over the chicken before it even gets to the restaurant, to make it more satisfying. They also put oil on the grill to make sure that you get plenty of that as well, so don’t think you are saving much ( other than the breading) by getting the grilled chicken. It still becomes you, that oil, grease, extreme yang protein makes up your blood.

The sour cream, powdered avocado guacamole, the tortilla with sugar added to make it more addictive and get that short term sugar rush all becomes part of you. Not to mention the meat ground to a pulp and taken in only the cheapest parts that they can get away with coated in sugar and spices to make it more addictive. The energy in that burrito is the stressed out employee at Taco Bell that had to produce it in less than four minutes to make sure that their timings were correct, so that they can keep their job. The energy in that burrito is from the countless machines that milked the cow, that pasteurized and separated the milk, and then from the cow itself, injected with hormones so that it produces more milk and for longer. All that energy going into your food and then becoming your body.

And who really cares if they use trans fats or not? That is just the tip of the ice berg, what with all the other energies, oils etc. Oil and fat is a more concentrated form of energy, thus it is higher in calories, harder to break down, and harder to store. So who cares trans fat, low fat, non fat (more sugar to make up the taste) it’s all the same in the end. You thought the cigarette companies knew what they were doing when they change their formulas of tobacco to make / keep customers coming back for more. The fast food companies have that nailed to a science. That is what it is the science of fast food. Frozen pre-prepared, quick prep, all made and out the window in less than six minutes, and by McDonalds standards, six minutes is a failure. Their goal is to serve you and have you on your way in less than one minute once you stop at the pick up window. Cooked, wrapped, bagged and out the window. You don’t even have to leave your car isn't that great? Or is it really....

All of that fast food, stored in cysts, tumors, hardened arteries, anywhere your body can pack it away for years and years until suddenly you have worked so hard, that you can’t do it anymore. Here we’ll give you cancer and wrap it up in a neat little convenient package for you.

And don’t even get me started on the soda companies.

When I was describing my former diet coke addiction to someone they said to me “What is it about Diet Coke that makes people drink like 8 cans a day? Everyone I know who drinks it drinks a lot? " This got me thinking. Everyone I knew that was into diet coke was really into diet coke to the point where they almost always had a can in their hand. I had stopped when I was pregnant, (mainly because caffeine started making me nauseas) but what was it that made diet coke so wonderfully addictive. Was it the cute Santa packs that come out November 1 of every year to get us thinking about Christmas? This being my first non diet coke year I know when I saw the Santa 12 packs, I really wanted some. What is it about that shiny silvery can and those snow flakes? Is it the aspartame? Probably not, because almost all diet soda has aspartame as a sweetener. Is it the ritual? Well ritual plays a part in any sort of dependence, but this was overwhelming. Or is it something in the proprietary chemical formula that made me want to drink it all the time. This is my guess. It is also my guess that coke-a-cola tests their formulas on mice or some other hopeless animal to see which formulas the mice keep going after and drink the most of. Otherwise how would they know? There has to be some sort of study that says this formula over this other one that is not as addictive. There was an article recently where Pepsi and Coke agreed to stop directly funding animal testing for their products to test perception and support their health claims, except where they have to test for product safety (and whose to say that while they are testing for product safety they can’t also compare the various addictive properties of specific formulas).

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/bu...31testing.html

Does anyone remember when big tobacco used to do research to promote health claims in the 1950s???? It’s simple we moved on from poisonous highly developed chemically and genetically modified tobacco addiction to poisonous, highly developed, chemically modified soda addiction. Oh and one very special ingredient that is in most cola type sodas ( not to that mention their pH is in the 2-3 range higly acidic)….. Phosphoric acid and do you know what that does? It eats your bones pure and simple, the calcium leaches right to that phosphoric acid bonds with it and leaves your body leaving you weaker than you were before you drank it, but still craving and wanting more.

Many food companies similar to many cigarette companies engage in abusive, sado-masochistic behavior (here this is really bad for you but you are going to love it, and be begging for and craving more of it). Is that what you really want to do to yourself? Engage in a behavior where over time you repeat the behavior you are destroying yourself from the inside out. No wonder we don’t have any self esteem anymore. No wonder we are so depressed as a culture and on Prozac. We are not loving and caring for ourselves with our food and what we drink. We are destroying ourselves.

Think back to the pioneer days. Was there a taco bell around the corner or did mom / dad prepare whatever food they had in the cabin? It was prepared with love; it was nourishing and life affirming. Did those meals conform to the USDA food pyramid and were the vitamin fortified? Probably not. Were those meals made and created out of love / concern / the necessity to survive? Or were they created out of the need to sell more products, to gain and retain customers, and to give a customer a temporary sugar high? You be the judge.

Morgan Spurloc proved all of what I am saying in a very personal way in his movie Supersize Me, where he ate nothing but McDonald’s food for 90 days. The backlash was that people justified where they were eating by saying for a while, well, I’ll eat at Burger King instead, because that was McDonalds, or I don’t eat at McDonald’s all the time, I eat at Taco bell some also. Much like Dirk relates that Steve McQueen justified cheating on his diet while losing his battle with cancer, we as a culture justify our ongoing habits however we have to feed our chemical addiction to this food. This now genetically and chemically modified fast food that gives us immediate convenience and gratification in exchange for ill health, depression and cancer in the long run.

Love yourself, heal yourself, from the inside out. You don’t deserve a break today, at least not the one McDonalds tried to sell everyone in the 1970s, you deserve to nourish yourself and make and create your own food from organic ingredients. The only thing we need a break from today is the cycle of commuting from one drive thru to another. So do yourself and your kids a favor build self esteem from the inside out, with that fresh pioneer style food cooked with love

Cheers Hope Faith and Love
SS