The Happy Meal

So, I’m back from vacation and quite happy to report that my fast-food-free mission continues to be a success! There were certainly some challenges while I was off work and out of my normal routine. I’m starting to learn that getting into positive habits is key to saying no to garbage food, and a more relaxed vacation schedule can present some serious challenges. But, I hung in there and stayed true to my commitment.

I was around a lot of kids these past couple of weeks while volunteering at a summer camp. The usual fun camp songs and skits abounded, and what completely shocked me was how many references I heard to McDonald’s or other fast food in the singing, skits, and other activities. I’m not joking… it was pretty much a daily thing to hear something about fast food from these teenagers. We were literally no less than a half hour from any given fast food place, but it was still foremost on the kids’ minds. But then again, why should that surprise me?

The “Happy Meal”. Or, I suppose for a period it was patriotically called the “All American Meal” to capitalize on Americans’ loyalty to our country following 9-11. Either way, it is a unique and innovated product that has certainly cemented its place in the annals of the fast food world. I cannot think of a single kid out there who doesn’t know its name by the age of 3.

 The product, consisting of a “main dish” of a hamburger, box of “chicken” nuggets, a drink, cookies, and a toy has been around my entire life. I can remember when I was a child that a Happy Meal was the ultimate treat. Just feeling the small cardboard M in my hands as my parents handed the Happy Meal box to me in the backseat of our Chrysler station wagon was certainly the highlight of my day, if not week. And, wow… to know that there was a toy in that box of goodness! Of course, usually it was the cheapest item that would break within a couple of hours, but that didn’t matter. Getting that Happy Meal with that wonderful surprise inside made going to McDonald’s the best thing that anyone could have done for me.

Thinking about it from marketing point of view, the kid’s meal phenomenon in the fast food industry is pure brilliance. There are so many business advantages to doing this as a restaurant, such as marketing to the broader audience, using screaming kids in a car to influence the parents to choose your business, building brand loyalty by regularly offering new toys or other gimmicks, and most importantly socializing each new generation to think of your food establishment as the first and primary source of sustenance when they are hungry.

The last point is the most serious one in my opinion. And, I think that marketing gimmicks like the Happy Meal are designed to do just that: to indoctrinate each new generation into becoming dependent on the product. The problem with this situation is that we are training our kids to become dependent on something that is not only unhealthy, but is also expensive and more and more addictive as they shovel the Happy Meals down. I believe the first role of a parent and the rest of the village is to train and educate our children to do good things and live well, but unfortunately it seems that convenience has been put in the driver’s seat with the way we feed our kids. And, the exploding rate of childhood obesity is definitely proof of this.

It’s not just “on the go” eating for our kids, either. Many parents will pack all of the kids up in the car, drive to the fast food place, go through the drive-thru and get the food, then drive back home and sit down at the table to eat all of it. Sure, it’s nice to have a break from cooking from time to time, but for many families this is a daily routine for even more than one meal. The real cooked meal that kids get at school in many cases is the only wholesome food they receive all day.

Sure, McDonald’s has included options for apples and milk to go with the Happy Meal, but let’s face it, very, very few kids actually take those options. The soda and fries are much more inviting, and in fact, they are the options featured on the commercials and advertising. They are what McDonald’s would much rather you choose, particularly because these are the options they will want you to choose as you grow up and become lifelong customers.

It’s really on the adults, not the kids. We’ve done this to our kids, plain and simple. If we are going to break this addiction as a society, we’re going to have to start at the beginning by educating and training our kids about better eating.

So, who's up for some propylene glycol alginate?

So how wholesome is your food? Well, that depends on what you consider to be “wholesome”. In my book, being wholesome is being as pure as possible, offering the best food quality for the quantity eaten in whole nutrition.

Today’s blog is simple: let’s compare the wholesomeness of a home-cooked, easy meal consisting of grilled chicken, brown rice, and broccoli to a McDonald’s Big Mac Extra Value Meal. Here’s the difference in what you’d be eating:

 

Home-cooked Grilled Chicken Meal Ingredients:

Chicken, chicken broth, salt, natural flavors. Long-grain brown rice. Broccoli.

McDonald’s Big Mac Extra Value Meal Ingredients:

100% pure USDA inspected beef; no fillers, no extenders. Prepared with grill seasoning (salt, black pepper). Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar, soybean oil and/or canola oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (may contain one or more of the following: sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide), calcium propionate and/or sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin, sesame seed. Milk, water, milkfat, cheese culture, sodium citrate, salt, citric acid, sorbic acid (preservative), sodium phosphate, color added, lactic acid, acetic acid, enzymes, soy lecithin (added for slice separation). Soybean oil, pickle relish [diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), spice extractives, polysorbate 80], distilled vinegar, water, egg yolks, high fructose corn syrup, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, spices, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate (preservative), mustard bran, sugar, garlic powder, vegetable protein (hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat), caramel color, extractives of paprika, soy lecithin, turmeric (color), calcium disodium EDTA (protect flavor). Lettuce. Cucumbers, water, distilled vinegar, salt, calcium chloride, alum, potassium sorbate (preservative). Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*, citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.ative), natural flavors (plant source), polysorbate 80, extractives of turmeric (color). Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors (vegetable source), caffeine.

CHALLENGE ALERT: MOVING DAY!

From time to time I’m going to post about unique challenges that pose an obstacle to remaining fast food-free for one year. Today I’m going to talk about something that popped up and I hadn’t really thought about it as being a challenge: moving day.

So this past week I moved to a new residence. We’ve all been there… the boxes, crates, carefully packing (or just randomly throwing stuff into containers with the hope that we’ll be able to find it all later), dusty tops of shelves, wishing that we did not keep so much useless crap, etc etc. It’s a dirty job, but sometimes we all have to do it. So, why would this be a challenge to me regarding not eating fast food? Well, it’s simple.

At some point during the day when the Uhaul is about half full and we’re starting to get tired, we realize that it’s time to grab something to eat. Well, given that most of the kitchen is secured away inside cardboard containers, it really doesn’t make sense to try to cook something at home. Also, who wants to have to clean up a kitchen right in the middle of a move?

So then, the food options start floating through our head. The ol’ tried and true pizza delivery seems to be the favorite for movers and their unfortunate friends who volunteered to help instead of going to the baseball game that Saturday, but alas, that was not an option for me given this project. So, how about a nice bucket of chicken with all the wonderful processed side items for everyone? Oops… can’t do that either. So, what to do? I can’t cook at home because home is a transitory thing at that moment, and all of the usual quick and easy food options are out given that most of them fall into the fast food category.

So, who came to the rescue to feed me and my valiant moving crew? The ever-reliable family diner! A short distance from the new house was a landmark café in Tulsa and I suggested that we all load up, travel a few blocks, and use the opportunity to avoid fast food to relax and be waited on for a couple of hours. So we headed on down to the corner diner and enjoyed a great meal and a friendly waitress. And, in the middle of it, I learned how much better it is in the middle of a tiring moving day to not have to speak into a speaker to get something to eat. The enjoyment of relaxing in a booth and being taken care of was such a wonderful, welcome break from the day. Plus, the overall tab for our group was cheaper than if we had ordered pizza or fast food. That was the icing on the cake!

I want my... I want my... I want my CherryBerry! (yea you know you want to read this title to that tune)

Week two is complete, and again so far so good. I guess this week I was a bit more aware of what options I had when I got hungry and I wasn’t so quick to think about fast food. But, as this is an ever-evolving project, I did realize that there are still questions about what exactly will qualify as fast food.

As I continue to consider this question, I’ve realized that there is another trait of fast food places that I failed to include in my initial definition. It’s something that ties all of them together, and for a good reason. Fast food places are set up and intended to be “complete meal” establishments.

When you think about it, the goal of a fast food restaurant is to provide the total package, from the beginning of the meal to the desserts, to the drinks that come with it. You see it in their commercials: entire families (skinny ones, surprisingly) all happily sitting around the table at McDonalds, enjoying their family meal together. Ah, what a glorious thought… the fast food industry bringing families back together into the tradition of eating as a cohesive group; children sharing their school stories with their parents as they gobble down charming chicken nuggets, dad instilling wisdom into his younglings as he eats the fatherly item, the Big-Mac. Mom, of course, is so happy to be free of the horrific burden (because of course it would naturally be her job, wink wink) of cooking for the entire family. The entire family meal experience gladly provided to you by a clown standing under a giant yellow M!

It’s a nice thought, but what usually happens is the lone person is sitting in the drive thru, shoveling hot fries into their mouth before they pull back into traffic. The hamburger may or may not make it a few blocks before disappearing and the massive coke will quickly be on its way to becoming a stop at QT later on down the road.

Fast food places are set up to provide whole meals. So what about other types of convenience or quick food? Let me get to the point: what about my CherryBerry?

Ok, so for those of you who know me, you know that CherryBerry and me have a thing. And, I mean, it’s not just a summer fling. It’s a long-term relationship. I absolutely love the stuff. For those who don’t know or haven’t had the opportunity to have your community blessed with one of these houses of frozen worship, CherryBerry is a self-serve frozen yogurt (the best one ever) shop. But, as heart-wrenching as it may be to “go there” for me, I do have to be fair and ask the question whether CherryBerry should be considered fast food.

I am going to say no. Here’s why: this new thought I’ve had about what the packaging goals of the fast food industry are have made me realize that while food may be good and convenient, it shouldn’t necessarily be considered fast food. Yes, while I can easily make an entire meal… aw hell…. every meal out of CherryBerry, it really is a treat and is not meant to replace total nourishment that a meal is supposed to provide. You don’t see CherryBerry being advertised as a “meal” type restaurant, and it seems that they are marketing to a different purpose.

Part of the push in fast food is to make it appear that their product can be a complete diet for you and provide everything your body needs. They may say, in tiny lightly-colored fine print on the back of some obscure sign in their lobby, that their fast food is only meant to be “a part” of a healthy diet, but let’s face it, they’d be happy to feed you three times a day, every day, for the rest of your life. And if they could do this realistically, they would advertise to make it happen.

Just because a food is from a restaurant and is quick, or even self-serve, doesn’t make it fast food. Something like CherryBerry is not meant to be a complete meal for you or replace a normal, healthy diet. This is a central goal of the fast food industry and part of why it is causing so many problems for us. CherryBerry just doesn’t fit this definition. And, the fact that (yea this is a bit of a plug) it is much healthier than regular ice cream and is a very good choice if you are wanting something sweet, makes it an even better option than a molten-lava processed pie from McD’s.

French Fries on the Brain

Is it impulse, instinct, or just plain ‘ol conditioning? Either way, I’ve come to realize that my draw towards fast food is something I’m going to have to keep in check every day.

Week one is finished, and so far so good. No fast food for me. But, it wasn’t nearly as easy as I thought it was going to be. I found myself often reverting to the old habits of automatically assuming that I had a variety of drive-thru joints to feed myself with. It would usually happen in the evening, after my workout. I’d stop and think of how hungry I was, and the thoughts of going to McDonalds, Wendy’s, or any other fast food place would just hit me without warning. I really had no idea how much of a “habit” eating fast food was to me until I tried to make a conscious decision to go without.

It really got me to thinking about how much we’ve trained ourselves to go straight for the fast food when we’re hungry. I had to catch myself several times this past week from “going there” in my mind; not as some type of temptation contemplation, but more of how my brain just automatically started flipping through the fast-food rolodex when my tummy started growling. It was as if I had been “programmed” to consider fast food as my first protocol when entering hunger mode.

Where does this instinct come from? Well, certainly a lot of it is just habit. I’ve eaten quite a bit of fast food in my life. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve talked into a speaker to get food, I’d just buy my own KFC and get it over with. I’m just used to eating fast food when I’m hungry, particularly when I’m on duty during graveyard shift. It’s easy, fast, convenient, and although barely considered nutrition and edible, it gets the job done. Suddenly choosing to remove the option from my diet has certainly left a void in my overall menu, so that will be a challenge for me to fill.

I also tend to think that we’ve been conditioned to a certain degree to automatically think of fast food when we’re hungry. Billions have been spent in advertising for the fast food industry, and the science and research behind the marketing is incredible. We’re not just being “advertised” to; we’re being conditioned to think. Habituated exposure to this industry is probably part of the reason that our brains like to “go there” when we are hungry. Most of us don’t like to think of it as such, but in reality we’re programmed to consider fast food as our first food option.

Another reason is that our entire food industry is completely saturated with fast food. Everywhere you go you can find fast food, and if you miss your turn to get into line at the McDonalds, you’ll find another one just a few blocks away. We can’t even go to the shopping mall, Wal-Mart, airport, Target, or any other retail establishment without being offered fast food. It’s amazing that traditional sit-down restaurants even have a chance in this market.

So, I guess the lesson for the first week is that I shouldn’t underestimate how socialized eating fast food is in our community. It’s all around me, and I even start to consider fast food as meal options without trying. It just pops into my mind. Abstaining from fast food will not only be a physiological feat for me, but it will clearly be a psychological one as well!

And so it begins... - May 1, 2012

IT CAN'T BE DONE!

This is the most-common thing I hear when I talk to people about my idea of giving up all fast food for an entire year. They tell me that I'm crazy and that I can only last a few weeks doing this at most. They say that our entire food system in this country is too dependant on fast food and that I will run out of options quickly. They tell me that I will  go insane and start randomly eating small animals that I come across. They tell me that they don't want to see me for the next year because I'll be an angry person. In short... they don't believe it's possible. I plan to prove them wrong.

I believe that it is not only possible, but easy to do. I believe that giving up all fast food will not only be healthier for me, but also that it will result in a higher-quality diet made up of better food, that it will make eating a lot easier for me, and what may seem surprising to some, that it will actually save me money.

We do love our fast food in this country. And it shows! Not only in our ever-increasing size, but also in our wallets. We've been advertised to by this industry for most of our lives to see fast food as a part of a "balanced diet"... as an inexpensive way to feed our families.... as an oasis in the desert of hunger that materializes to bring nourishment to our bodies. I call bullshit.

Fast food is among the lowest-quality, worst-made, least value food for your dollar. We've become satisfied paying top dollar for garbage that only makes us fat, only increases our cholesterol and blood pressure, and leaves our bodies craving real nutrition. Your typical extra-value meal has little usable nutrition in it and is mostly made up of synthesized fillers that don't even exist in nature. Why do we keep scarfing it down?

We keep gorging ourselves on this crap because we've been very carefully socialized to think that it is a normal way to eat. We think we can't get by without it. We believe that it will sustain our bodies. We believe it's cheaper than eating a nutritious diet. Again, I call bullshit.

This blog is going to chronicle the next year of my life, from May 1st 2012 to April 30th 2013, of living without eating any fast food. I'll be doing weekly updates on how the project is progressing, what obstacles I'm encountering, and what surprises I discover along the way. I'll examine why fast food is not only so bad for us, but also why it is such low-quality food to begin with. I'll also show how I'm saving money by not eating fast food. Most importantly, I'm going to show how much better I will be eating and how my overall satisfaction with food will be much higher without fast food.

The Ground Rules

The biggest question I get from people is "what do you consider fast food"? This is truly a complicated question to answer. I've spent some significant time thinking about it and have come up with these guidelines:

- If the majority of food business at a place involves speaking into a sign to order and getting your food through a window, it's fast food.

- If most of the food options on the menu are arranged into preset meal combinations that take less than a few minutes to get, it's fast food.

- If the food is something that I would not usually be able to walk into my kitchen and make myself, it's fast food

- There are, of course, the obvious culprits: McDonalds, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut (yes I'm including pizza delivery), Braums, Wendy's, Jack in the Box, KFC, Krispy Kreme (a hard one to give up given that I'm a cop), etc. There are several on this list that are obvious.

- Simple beverages are NOT included in this project, such as coffee, Diet Coke, etc. This is about food quality, and basic fluids are easily something that I can get at home anytime. So, yes, Starbucks will remain a part of my life, but I will have to hold off on the snacks that I typically get with my dark roast.

- Cafe-style (Denny's, IHop) or Cafeteria places are NOT considered fast food as the food is typically more fresh and the options are more akin to home cooking than fast food.

- Sit down restaurants are NOT considered fast food. This is for the same reason as the point above.

- In any situation where I face a "gray area" I'm going to default on the side of abstaining to make sure I do this thing the right way.

So... Off I Go!

So, here I go on this journey! I'll keep everyone posted about once a week about how it's going. Wish me luck!