What? Fast Food?

When one thinks about fast food, the first thing that comes to mind is Mc Donald's. The other day I picked up a chicken sandwich. (I just realised, writing about food while fasting is not such a great idea). The speed at which things work at Mc Donald's is mind boggling. Its the exact opposite of what you go through, while accelerating in a Corolla. Picture this. I order my sandwich, take out my credit card, swipe, authorize, sign, get my receipt, put my credit card back. By the time I put my wallet back in, I got my sandwich. That's quite fast unless the cashier could see the future or, I am terribly slow in using my credit card.

In India, the Indian fast food concept wasn't quite working out the fast way. It is fast only because you ordered the food and paid for it, without the help of a waiter. The food preparation time is the same. Indian food doesn't taste the same when frozen, like the American ones. Hence, not an option. The American one's taste the same when frozen or fresh. Which is, hopeless. Coming to think of it, apart from water and salad, nothing you get in this country is fresh.

Looking at the origin of Fast food, I thought it started with Mc Donald's. It in fact, started more than two centuries back in the Roman cities. And then UK started it. US started a century later. What is more surprising is that, UK has more fast food places per person than US. US is almost forty times bigger than the pea sized UK and has five times the population of UK. And yet the Americans outweigh the moon, and not them British. That's because the Americans use more fatty ingredients than any other nation. One order of fries in UK can make you full, but one order in US will make you full and, a million pounds heavier.

Lately, people are not seeing Fast food as a good option, as a lot of Americans are exploding. It's so bad that people think you should start digging your grave, if you have a super sized burger (I am getting more and more hungry now). And once your done eating, jump into it. As a result the Fast Food industry is giving healthier options. They are shopping more in the vegetables section. I mean who would imagine that a fast food chain would actually sell fruits? Its hard for them to actually come up with food which doesn't have to be fried. To make things worse, New York and the nanny state (Cali) made it mandatory to display nutritional info on the menu. Half of White Castle's menu says, numbers too large to display. People look at the menu and decide to eat at home instead.

The other day I saw Coca-Cola giving out free Coke zero soda at a busy street, to promote it. If this was in India, it would been over even before they started. I decided to wait and watch what the people do. The only people who took them were fat. And all the thin one's who picked it up were men. I can come to a conclusion that the people are being conscious of what goes into their system. I can also say that men, fat or thin don't quite care a damn. I did some research and found that the Coke zero has zero sugar and calories. I know of another drink similar to it. Water. I also found that Coke Zero gives Cancer as a complimentary gift. Water doesn't. Venezuela decided to ban the drink. While all the other high sugar and cancer producing drinks continue to sell.

Regardless of what the companies offer, it is ultimately up to the person to choose what he wants to eat. There was a movie were a guy ate only Mc Donald's and put on weight. There was another guy who lost weight by eating only Mc Donald's. Thats shows it's ultimately the persons choice. Don't blame Mc Donald's, but blame the fatso. Nobody forcefully stuffed cheese burgers down his throat. I am health conscious, but I still have junk food once in a while. A sane person knows constant intake of it is not healthy. It's not a coincedence that Bush is from the same state with the highest number of obese people. Having absolutely no sugar or fatty food is also not good, like all the models do. They are going to vanish one fine day.

The answer to these problems, lies in this key word: Moderation. Which, doesn't exist in an American dictionary.