The Fast Food Industry's 7 Most Heinous Concoctions

those kfc bowls are heartattacktastic

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What a stupid article telling us what's bad for us. All these foods are tasty and they rock. I think I'm gonna have some more of it. This author deserves to have a pie thrown in his face ! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !! LOL !! MORE FOOD !! MORE TAX CUTS !!

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Their basic business engine relies on whole-sale volume sale to pump up those profits. They will resort to almost any method to seduce as many people as suckers as they can. Faking health consciousness is only one of their many schemes and they'll do it as long as it keeps their profits coming. The first thing I was taught in my basic finance course was "whole sale volume sale good for the economy, quality production not important and not good for the economy". At least that's how the textbook and the professor would frame it. What this means is regardless of the damages to the environment and your health, all they care about is money at all costs. That's why I never trust the fast food giants no matter what new design or flavor of whatever comes out.

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for a broker 'Merka

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Most heinous thing the fast food industry has come up with was Ronald McDonald. Using children to suck in entire families.

FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

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*hackbarfretchspew*

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These snarky food articles are getting out of control. When did eating high-calorie food become such a political act?

If a liberal or progressive gets caught making biscuits and gravy, having a barbecue, or making cheesecake in the privacy of her own home, will she be kicked out the club?...Or only if she gets caught eating at a chain restaurant?

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have overly aged brains. Overweight people have brains that are aged about 8 years more than normal, obese people have ones aged 16 years older than normal. Fat appears to lead to brain degeneration. Think about what a steady diet of the dishes in THIS article would do for you. I suspect one poster already is on a steady diet of them, as his post obviously indicates a muddled mind.

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The aim of life is to serve the Rich and the Aristo masters.

What will happen to the USA if the majority of people lose weight and start thinking???

If they dont want to be victims anymore and demand health care and good salaries and a quality life?

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There is something about the description of the KFC Bowl that makes me think of food put through the Cuisinart so it can be given to the patient directly through his feeding tube.

BTW in one of Rita Mae Brown's foxhunting murder mystery novels, which often delve into Southern culture, the glazed doughnut-based ice cream hot fudge sundae is mentioned. Brown says it's a Southern thing. Wouldn't surprise me.

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Some of these dishes would damage a dog's health.
On the other hand, people stupid enough to pay for and eat this crap perhaps get what they deserve. Its one way of reducing the moron population by natural selection.

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with all my recent research into America's unhealthy eating habits because reading all about these new "delicacies" thought up by the fast food companies actually made me feel a bit sick to my stomach...

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The price of two KFC bowls could get you the ingredients to make an excellent dinner at home. One part of the problem is that people have become so used to instant gratification of hunger, entertainment and "have it done yesterday" work on the computer that they have forgotten how to cook, if they ever learned.

The food channel is entertainment, not informative. Somehow, watching people make healthy food while eating your Thick Burger and waiting to eat your Oreo Pizza is a "nice evening of relaxing at home." Ouch!

For healthy information related to the calories discussed in the article;
Adult man requires approx 2,000 calories per day to maintain healthy body weight (after he has lost the fast food eating habits and attained a healthy weight).

Adult female requires approximately 1,500 calories per day (as per above healthy weight).

A healthy diet (defined as healthy eating as a lifestyle--literally you life) breaks down to:
20-20% Protein (4 calories/gram)
15-30% Fats (9 calories/gram
55-50% Carbohydrates (4 calories/gram)
Alcohol (7 calories/gram)

To learn the number of calories you, at your present height and weight need to maintain your current rate Mayo Clinic Website Calorie Calculator.



To learn more about Calories and nutrition List of calories per gram and nutrient list. All of these tools are more difficult to use when sitting on the couch watching the commercials for KFC/Burger King/Rotten Ronnies, etc.

Thinking is required to eat healthy and save medical costs; more Americans (home of fast food) and others in nations with growing obesity rates need to think more and cease to mindlessly eat for "entertainment."

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Your sheep are sure lucky to have you, telling them what to and what not to eat. I wish they would all follow you over the edge, like all good lemming's. It's called personal responsibility,but most people don't know about that.

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that there really is little difference between the end goals of liberals and conservatives. Each want to control your lives by restricting your freedom to choose for yourself how to live. The just have different ideas of what the restrictions should look like, and neither wants you to question the central control.

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Sunday last I attended Blue Dog US Representative Leonard Boswell's health care insurance reform town hall. Congressman Boswell, by the way, is for the public option and, as a twenty-year veteran of the US Army and recipient of government run medical care, would support a single payer system if it were politically feasible. but I've digressed.

One of the "questioners" in the audience was a doctor, whose name I do not recall, who announced to one and all that he had "Republican" suggestions to improve health care: first, tort "reform," i.e. capping damages and setting time limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, a stupid idea Congressman Boswell has fought in the House; secondly, personal responsibility.

Let me tell you, this guy pissed me off. First of all any doctor who says he is for tort "reform" is signaling, he is an incompetent. The state of California tried tort reform twenty odd years ago and premiums for physician's medical malpractice insurance still went up, it doesn't work. But the real problem is that the medical profession does a piss poor job of weeding out quacks. If doctors policed themselves rather than acting like the Mafia taking an oath of silence every time one of their fraternity screws up, tort reform might not even be an issue.

But what this priggish physician said that really p.o.'d me was his personal responsibility pitch. I wanted to ask him if he knew what stocks were in his portfolio. If he has a diversified stock portfolio I'm sure he has holdings in Yum Brands, Inc, Pepsico, or Burger King. I know, much to my chagrin, that my little IRA holds stock in some of those outfits.

And here's the thing that sticks in my craw, at the very time in our history when the medical profession is hooting and hollering about a obesity epidemic the fast food choke-and-puke chains are in a nuclear-arms race to turn out bigger and better and more deadly heart attack pills!

People used to joke that doctors must own stock in fast food restaurants to drum up business. Well, you know what, for some physicians I don't think that's all that far from the truth.

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So, the lib-con relationship seems to be this:

Libs are the parents - thinking twice, not self destructive in nature, concerned, actually compassionate (instead of faking for the cameras), open to suggestion, not liable to commit acts of self destruction on a dare and constantly with the "tisk, tisk" because generally libs have to clean up after the cons who have recently puked fast food all over the new sofa.

Cons - Are the churlish, narcissistic, self serving, lying, thieving, pugnacious, probably on probation, beater wearing thugs that buy this stuff just to "show you" that Americans deserve every balloon catheterization we get! They are probably NOT your kid, but your mate's spawn from a previous marriage.

This is the steady diet of Homer Simpson smothered in sweet creamery butter!

The fact that India originally denied KFC a license on the grounds that their food was not nutritious enough for the public market should speak volumes! Not good enough for STARVING PEOPLE!

Dude! WTF?

See SuperSize Me. Read Fast Food Nation. Seriously!

God will not protect you from this "food". This is your FREE WILL climbing up your ass and building a house. It may be yummy now, but when you're pulling your oxygen mask off the kiss your grand kids...

I don't much care if cons are trying to prove a point by killing themselves, knock yourselves out, but they're bringing us all down and I resent having to pay for it. The cost of health care around super sizing is going to bankrupt this nation far sooner than the drug war and once again we sit here, thumbs up ass, going BLAH BLAH BLAH.

If you REALLY want to stop it, TAX IT.
One dollar for every 10¢ of supersizing.

Consider the REAL cost of producing a single poisonous cigarette and you get the picture. The profit far outweighs the cost even taxed to a fair-thee-well, but the net is a real killer and we use that tax to help dig smoking morons out of an early grave. And we keep cigarettes from children for what exactly?

I suppose taxing that corporate bile is considered liberal meddling in your right to shove any garbage in your mouth you like. After all, this is America, Land of the Home Free of the Brave!

So why can't you buy heroin from a vending machine?

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Just like cigarettes, this kind of eating is a time bomb waiting to happen. How's about a junk food tax on this to pay for the emergency room and life support that habitual eaters of this stuff are going to need? We tax alcohol and cigarettes. This food has been engineered to be addictive. Look up neuro-exciters. Train your kids to THINK about what they eat.
Europe has restrictions on fats and additives in food that US co's had to comply with. Here?? Here's what would happen...
I can hear the screams already. Taxing or regulating us is un American!!! To the ramparts!! Get the lobbyists!!
Why Can't we ruthlessly exploit the American People? It's the American Way!! So what if everyone else will pay for this in higher healthcare costs? WE are making money!! We help our friends in Big Agriculture and Big Medicine stay in business!! IT'S A WIN WIN WIN ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!!
And where is that lapdog of a policitian to make this idea of regulating/taxing us GO AWAY???

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Eating the KFC bowl of processed yuck (sorry, it just looks discusting) once a month will not kill you or make you fat, provided you eat reasonably healthy the rest of the month.

Same for every item on this list. Eating them every day, however, is a whole different ball game. There is a reason the recommended daily intake of calories is at 2000 (or 2500 for men).

For all you 'government wants to take over our lives' freaks out there...notice how I said recommended.

To the Vegans/vegetarians: The main culprit here is not meat. You can eat all the meat you want and still be healthy.

The main culprit is 'processed foods'. How many preservatives and other harmful additives are in those things?!

To everybody: And come on...Oreo pizza!?! That's just really unnecessary. Is it the same kind of crust as regular pizza?! eeeeeew.

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Most places that fry food use em because they last longer before they spoil.

There is no safe level for these artery-cloggers! They will kill you and there is no requirement that their use be disclosed to customers.

Read labels: "partially hydrogenated" soybean or other oils are altered in the laboratory and as deadly as an extra hundred pounds - or more so. Unfortunately, these deadly concoctions are exempt from any labeling requirement in restaurants - so virtually all restaurants use them in pastries and frying.

Beware!

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I can see why AlterNet is so fond of these food articles since week after week, they always show up on the top ten Most Popular list.

Personally I think they've improved in recent months. They no longer, for instance, conflate any and all meat-eating with factory meat production = destroying the environment, etc. etc. etc. (followed by the usual snarky comments from both sides). I've lamented that attitude in the past, which seemed to me an attitude of "Let's all eat cardboard and shit rainbows." So I guess I should say now that I've appreciated the more complex tone lately.

On the other hand, it's a little depressing to think that these are the "most popular" articles. Who eats at fast food chains? Poor people. Who is obese nowadays? Poor people. These articles can take on an attitude of superiority and class warfare very easily, if the authors aren't careful.

It's one thing to point out a problem, however entertainingly, but it's better to propose a way out.

When you focus on the fast food chains... what do you propose to DO constructively about them? Michael Pollan has pointed out for example how government policy currently tends to promote the growth of fast food chains in poor neighborhoods: it's easy to get a government loan to open a fast food franchise in a slum, because that has a good track record of success. But there are huge swaths in urban areas with no supermarket (even a bad one) for miles around.

And what has been the fate of Los Angeles' efforts to limit fast food in poor neighborhoods? I've read a bit about that from time to time, but don't know how that has turned out.

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Fast food kills you faster.

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I don't understand the point of this article other than it's to say "ewww, look at the fatty food they're selling!" Alternet should have a little more intellectual nutrition than that.

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So what are all you slop eating pigs going to eat when there's no environment left to sustain the food chain? The Amazon (the lungs of the planet) is rapidly being destroyed so you can shove crap into your mouths and gloat while you do it. Factory farming is more damaging to the environment than automobiles even as you sit in the drive-through in your gas guzzling piece of shit while waiting for a low wage slave to pass you your food. Does anyone wonder what's wrong with America? I don't.

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Thank you for answering an oft pondered quandry in conversations I seem to get caught up in--the matter of the morbidly obese. Some of us speculate that one must eat 24 hours per day in order to become so fat they can hardly get out of a car, or walk. It's those 1400 calorie meals and snacks that do it! In scanning the comments, it appears your wisdom has been lost on many. Condetector

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For some it's sex. For others it's food. For all of them it's railing at other people's sinfulness so they can feel virtuous.

I want to know about the politics and economics behind what ends up on the supermarket shelves. I want to know about the politics, economics, and psychology that prompts many of us to use food as a tranquilizer. I'll read all the Michael Pollan (etc.) articles you dish out. But too many of these articles have a subtext that I don't like: "Eieeuw, icky gross! Fat people! Sugar! Fat! Bad, bad, bad!"

If you're going to eat a slice of oreo pizza, or double cheese sausage and pepperoni pizza, do it because you enjoy it. Chances are good that you won't get sick, and you won't overindulge. If you eat it because you're feeling depressed and hopeless, you might eat the whole damn pizza -- but you know what? It's not the pizza's fault.

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Just as it is impossible to stop someone who is really bent on committing suicide, getting people to stop eating fast food, high fat trash is also impossible. There is so much information out there that people who eat that crap are well aware of what they are ingesting, apparently they just don't care!

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Would like to post something but my heart just jumped out of my chest and ran away in horror from reading that piece.

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I am doing it for personal health reasons.

My weight has dropped from 200 to 189 and my blood pressure was 119/78 last night vs. 140/100 before I started in 13 days!

That said those "sick" photos you showed looked pretty tasty!

The last thing I ate before I started my new way of eating was a Carls Jr. $6.00 burger and it was great!

It would be more productive to teach people healthier ways eat and why rather than hack on and demonize the fast food industry.

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As much as I dislike junk food and understand the damage that this industry does to the public health and the economy, I can't but think that the problem is not what they cook, but that for many people (many, many) it is an only choice of affordable food, and for many lazy Americans a way of ingesting edible stuff (I refuse to call it food.)
It is a cultural problem, not a food quality problem, principally. In a nation with a relatively new and undeveloped culinary culture, where food is consumed on the go, lacking ritual and social contact, where food is understood as an efficiency and not as a social bind, the value of bodily and social nourishment is not considered.
We all enjoy a piece of unhealthy, greasy something every once in a while, all over the world. America's problem will not be solved attacking the providers of crappy edibles. The problem is much deeper than that.

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"...the Frappuccino is supposed to be a breakfast drink...if you're willing to consume one-fourth of your daily caloric intake before you even arrive to work..."


shouldn't breakfast BE about 1/4 of your daily caloric intake??

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Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances.
The information's out there, folks. Fast food seems to be an express train to an early grave. Preservatives and other chemicals in processed foods can be a danger if ingested in enough quantity, and for some, ANY quantity is dangerous. Aspartame is pure poison to me, for instance.
I never have frequented fast food joints. There's something inately repulsive about them, besides, my wife is a great cook, and I'm not too shabby, myself.
There's also the cost factor. It's almost certainly cheaper to use the supermarket cupons to buy fresh stuff, prepare your own meals, and freeze the leftovers for later.
As for the crap mentioned here: even if I was hungry, I'd shudder at the thought of eating it, besides, I just had some pickled octopus for breakfast. Yum!

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I just got back from KFC's website, checking the menu for the "Double Down." It doesn't seem to exist.

That's a real bummer, because I'd never heard of it before reading this article and it both looks and sounds pretty darn good.

I guess that's the downside to showing all this addictive food in an article of this sort. It is a superb commercial for half the products listed (for those that enjoy their fast-food decadence on occasion), while those that are just as horrified as the author is at the idea of a "1200-calorie greaseburger" were already there before they started reading.

Let's just call it an exercise in counterproductivity.

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Look in any freezer section of any regular "food" market in America and you will see the same and worse. Hot Pockets, White Castle little burger budddies, Mr. P's Pizza...
A long time ago I tried to eat these foods and it took me a while to figure out why I felt stressed and unhealthy all of the time. Add mass consumption of coffee that sits in the maker all day to this list, as well. When I finally figured out that "you are what you eat", I discovered fresh and organic and really delicious. America is addicted to the mouth feel (this is an industry term, i.e., the processed food industry)of glop-- such as the Big Mac; grease, as in those "greasy little pepperonis" on pizza and "bloomin' onions" at Outback; sodium--you don't have to shake it on any more--it's already there; and high fructose corn sweetener as sugar--be sure to wash it all down with a 2 liter Pepsi. People who eat this crap have presumably never tasted a truffle or goat cheese or real sweet creamery butter or a grass-finished Nebraska steak. No wonder people are dying like flies from colon cancer and high blood pressure!

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Okay, true... americans ARE obese by and large.

Lack of excercise, excessive sedentary activities and lotsa scrumdiddlyumpshus crap snackfoods.

We don't really question what we scarf down.

Look at those 7/11 microwave burritos.
Who the hell ever thought that this would pass for something your digestive system would ever be able to break down? ..sure beats the hell out of me.
Until the last century most diets were traditional and largely evolved from local agriculture and spices and livestock. In the last half century our eating habits have become not only extremely broad switching from different traditions (chinese for lunch and italian for dinner) but then comes the fast food concoctions that defy content description.
Have our digestive tracts ever truly evolved with our diets?

Americans having more that 'melting pot' culinary appetite we have more choices than most places. Some european countries have lots of overweight people... heavy meat and potato meals knocked back with large glasses of the local brew. But ours is from ingesting whatever satisfies the munchies.

Well, the Krispy Kreme sundae looks utterly suicidal (and I wouldn't having one right now)

The cheeseburger fries... could only be the product of researchers who smoke dope.
(Reminds of my favorite artery clogging chilicheese fries... gawd it's been years!)

The Monster Burger beckons .....must.....fight... urge!

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whyyouarefat.com has things (none of them made by fast food resturaunts) that will blow your mind. The most healthy thing on that site is 1000x worse than anything here. I think its sort of silly to rail against fast-food-we all know it's unhealthy, totally artificial and generally not all that good tasting.

Caveat eator!

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Censorship?
It seems that many types of articles trigger a predictable response of "Why does Alternet print these kind of articles?", where the commenter has seem clearly defined, but narrow definition of what they think the purpose of Alternet is. Maybe this line of reasononing would have merit if this medium was a very limited resource like broadcast hours on a television station or even space on a printed newspaper. The reality is, however, that the marginal cost of having more articles posted to a web server and adding links is quite small. So, I say, the more the merrier, as long as it fits the loose guidelines of progressive free speech (albeit hard to define exactly). One of the things I love about Alternet is it's kind of wild and wooly expression of ideas from various viewpoints.

Taxation:
For those that want to tax junk food, get a grip! I'm in favor of sin taxes. But nutrition is complex and controversial enough that it would be hard to draw the line between healthy and unhealthy foods. I think what many states have now where they tax candy and soda is probably a good place to leave it.

Like cigarettes:
Enough with these ridiculous analogies to cigarettes. Not only can junk food be consumed on rare occasion with negligible impact (unlike cigarettes that coat lungs with crap), but I'm not worried about involuntary second hand consumption of junk food.

Personally, I have a diet which some might consider puritanical: I cook almost all my meals at home from basic healthy ingredients. I essentially never eat junk food. However I'm not a vegetarian, because I believe a moderate consumption of some animal products (from good sources) can enrich a diet.

I'm a nutrition graduate student, so I've studied more than the average person about nutrition and think about it (including from a public health perspective) more than the average person.

I'm really concerned about the terrible lifestyle choices of many Americans, but I believe in personal freedoms where they don't infringe on other people (which again disqualifies smoking "rights").

Public Health Care:
Where it gets complicated, however, is when taxpayer money gets used to pay for healthcare. Then all of a sudden, the cost of one's bad lifestyle choices is a burden on other people. But even in this case, it's a scary idea to start limiting people's freedoms for that reason.
The advantages of a public health plan (such as single payer) are great enough that I think I could live with paying for other people's bad habits.

But it's enough of an issue that I'd also like more free-market healthcare reform ideas to be studied and discussed (and no this has nothing to do with what the right-wing echo chamber is bellowing about).

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The commentators took a mediocre, sans science article about fast food and turned it into a superb debate. Kudos especially to Kepstein 7777, Flying Doofus, mjglow, UneasyOne, hagwind, and rationalModerate.

I've got to admit, that giant burger above the title looked darn good!

When all is said and done, too much is made of what we eat. When the journalist (probably as expert as anyone on the subject of food) Michael Pollan was asked to recommend what to eat, he basically responded: Eat food; not too much; mostly plants, not too much meat. I would add to Pollin's advice to remember our Paleolithic ancestors. The agricultural revolution occurred a mere 10-12 thousand years ago; this is when the staple grains like rice and wheat became a large part of our diet. Prior to this event humans and pre-humans ate mostly vegetables, fruits, nuts, and some very lean meat. It is by and large common sense to get as much of the refined carbohydrates out of one's diet as possible. They are not a normal part of a human diet and, while they may not be doing rampant harm, over a life time they may contribute to certain morbidities such as heart disease and high blood pressure. Other "unnatural" things such as high fructose corn syrup, aspertame (thanks Don Rumsfield) are probably best strictly limited in consumption until a better understanding of their effects on our bodies are understood. Again, the article was mediocre (albeit at times very funny; e.g. the burger-fries concoction!) but the comments are great.

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I'm suddenly not hungry, reading this article.
Not because it repulsed me, but because I'm scarfing on a pepperoni pizza with a 7Up and some jalepeno-cheddar dipping sauce!

So Good!

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The rest is kinda gross.

I don't know how this relates to demonizing fast food in general, but showing the worst possible fast food to eat doesn't change my choice to pick out something I actually like. I agree that most of these things would be poor choices, and all of them very poor choices to overdo...

Most places offer salads these days too, and everybody should know by now that Ranch is packed with fat and sugar if that's what they're avoiding. I'm for taxing people more that make risky choices, but I won't demonize someone who overeats more than somebody who skis or does risky sports. Both have their risks and costs in health dollars we all share the burden of.

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...and the same frappuchino has 350 fewer calories and 189 fewer grams of fat.

By comparison, a slice of commercially prepared pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top has 393 calories and 126 calories of fat.

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Check this out:

http://tinyurl.com/ksvkkk

George, 15, saw this and said, "This is a sign that our civilization is ending."

Pizza Hut Chocolate Dunkers! Paying money to hurt your own body! Masochism! Insanity!

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Oh.

Oops.

Wait a sec...

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Lots of people wouldn't even be aware of these foods if weren't for, well, articles like this. Fast food joints are usually pushing their 99-cents-or-less items. Now if you buy three or four of those....

And just to play devil's advocate for the megacorp fast food joints, what about small restaurants that serves "challenge" portions - finish our two-pound bacon cheeseburger and get a free t-shirt and your photo on the wall! That's not evil, that's local color!

Mmmmmmm... two-pound bacon cheeseburger....

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If nobody wanted these disasters,the outlets wouldn't offer them. The same goes for the Honda Fit, bulldozers, Glen Beck and Nancy Pelosi, lawn mowers, and outdoor grills.

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I wish we had a KFC here, in Sweden!

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Those KFc bowls are good, and only 700 cals. Yeah a little high in fat, but you can't be good all the time. They are a nice filling meal.

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Incredibly Disney "Family Food" has a recipe similar to this - Cheeseburger and Fries Casserole, labeled as a "quick and easy family pleaser." Check it out, the few comments on this page are really disturbing. Cheeseburger and Fries Casserole

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Seriously, tell me why I should care. Because as far as I'm concerned what another person eats is thier problem not mine.

If you want to eat cheeseburger fries, oreo cookie pizza's and donut sundae's by all means be my guest. It's not my heart you're killing.

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Since I started reading the articles about food and food industry in Alernet I've started eating less red meat, all fried food and fast food. I've started eating only food I make or if I eat out I only have salads or veggie sandwiches. I eat a homemade tossed green salad for lunch everyday with a glass of filtered water. Since I have been hospitalized for congestive heart failure and high blood pressure,it's very important for me to eat healthy and Alernet has really helped me to get healthy and will help me stay that way. What constitutes "food" in this country is enough to make anyone sick. Is it any wonder why we are in desperate need of healthcare reform?

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I want to know what kind of focus group from hell is responsible for the creation of Domino's Bread Bowl Pasta. 3-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese in a bread bowl is an actual menu item.

Let me repeat that.

PASTA served in a bowl made of BREAD! I wouldn't know where to begin calculating the calories and carbs. Dr. Atkins has got to be spinning in his grave.

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...especially the liberal progressives being upset about people making decisions to end their lives early. Really. What better way to get rid of the red-necked, Repukian, Shrub-like individuals than to let them commit suicide.

I am all for government WARNING us about the evils of the food industry, but it is still your decision to make for yourself. Stay out of my life otherwise. Truth in labeling, yes, but really, do you think the people that would even venture close the foods mentioned in this article would actually want of be able to read the label?

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The Double down is a new idea being tested by KFC, and is not available in most markets.

Where is the calorie information coming from? I've read that it can be as low as 600, and not what was reported here. Of course, I am more willing to buy into the higher number. We're talking about two fried chicken breasts with cheese and bacon. There is no way it can only be 600 calories.

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Especially when you insinuate that eating something just once will dramatically reduce your life expectancy. Lighten up.

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Back in 1968, I hyothesized that there would one day be coin operated drive thru windows where you dropped your money, wrapped your lips around a "food tube" and took in a precisely calibrated amount of delicious, appetite quenching..., stuff. We're so close, we may actually get there before I die and I'll be able to laugh my way out of here.

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Aside from fast food, which I try to avoid, try looking at the sodium content of a can of soup or a frozen entree. Even ketchup has, for some unknown reason, high-fructose corn syrup as an ingredient (although you can find ketchup without it if you look). If you want flavor in your home-cooked food, add spices, herbs, lemon juice, vinegar (especially apple cider vinegar). Use honey instead of refined sugar, or buy raw sugar instead of processed. Little changes when taken all together can produce big results. Use a little EVOO and saute your food instead of drowning it in the deep fryer. Eat raw foods whenever possible, especially those that you know have been grown without pesticides or artificial fertilizers. It ain't rocket science!

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quote from the movie "Remo Williams" by his teacher Chun "You know why they call it fast food? because it speeds you to your grave" and the talk of msg monosodiumglutinate on this movie" Remo says "you cannot even say it" to which Chun replies" I can say rat dropping too which does not mean I want to eat them". The people of America have become obsessed with fast food and people wonder why little john or jane have a weight problem, being a responsible parent is knowing what is good and bad for your child's health and not caving in to their plea's of wanting a happy meal just for the toy that comes with it, has anyone seen what a bag of these fries from Macdonald's looks like if you set them out even in the refrigerator overnight, a shriveled up version of a potato, and yes fast food can be addictive but that is a choice that should be left up to the individual, but parents need too start making healthy dinners at home teaching there children how to cook and stop depending on fast food to feed there children, whose weight problem is directly caused by the source "Fast Food"

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This stuff makes poutine look absolutely healthy.

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eat that stuff deserves to die. Although I admit to having eaten several things that weren't good for me-- Once I ate half a bloomin' onion at Outback, and half a box of Triscuits last night. Yes, I deserve to die.

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that some food is poison, and you persuade people with advertising to eat and it causes their funeral because you want PROFIT you are a criminal and ought to receive at least capital punishment.

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in our travels in the States a few years ago...

we roared in laughter when we caught sight of a commercial from Sonic:

DEEP-FRIED MAC & CHEESE BALLS


we couldn't decide if it was a sign of stupidity or final proof of the contempt & loathing American business has for its customers...

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Dang! Even this gun-toting right wing nut is scared. No wonder we have an obesity and diabetes problem in this country, with fat little kids that look like they could roll down hill. Yikes! Not a decent salad in the bunch, no veggies, nothing. My local Carl's Jr. for years had a salad bar, which was something of a lunch bargain for some time. Now, it's been pulled out and all that remains in a drain in the floor. McDonald's even got rid of the salad shaker, an attempt that was neutered by the sugar loaded dressing. Didn't anyone get the message about fruits and vegetables being a great way to get vitamins? Huh? What's really sad, that even a jaded person like myself can see, is that these type of "eating" establishments are what most dot the landscape in poor neighborhoods. You won't find a Fresh Choice in your typical jumpy low-rent district. But you will find plenty of fast-food pig troughs. Funny, isn't it, that China, really for the first time in it's history, is now beginning to have obesity issues. Hhmm. Wonder how that happened?

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Oh please. Blame the fast food companies. How about a little personal responsibility. As someone with an average BMI, I would eat some of those things. They sound awful tasty. Especially the donut sunday! Yum!
It's about moderation. You don't have to clean your plate. Listen to your body. When you're full -- stop eating.
Gotta go, need to do a Krispy Creme run....

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Thanks for the informative article. Should anyone I care for indulge in any of these dangerous, risk-taking activities, now I'll have some solid basis to warn them not to.

There seems to be an anology between this type of "food" and Republican policies. In both, nobody who loves 'em seems to care about the consequences of theur action, or inaction, as the case may be. One would think that, post-Katrina, everyone would understand that it simply isn't true that government isn't the solution but, rather, the problem. But people are still enthralled by the idea that their lives will be just as easy and carefree by not paying taxes,as well as by deregulation even as their roads crumble, their bridges collapse and their houses are foreclosed.

Mebbe the next article like this will address how clogging the arteries, cutting-down blood circulation, affects the brain's functions.

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Come on. Who thought the Crispy Creme donut covered in icecream would be a good choice and was upset to hear about it in this article? A media outlet like alternet knows better than to write something like this. It is paper thin rhetoric. SO what these fast food joints are selling pig slop. Don't eat it! Americans are fat becuase we have a who gives a crap attitude about, well - pretty much everything. Our divorce rates are astronimical, our infectious diseases are out of control, our schools suck, and they sell pizza with oreos to our children - them ruthless no good doers. Who is buying it? Well - Americans! But, they advertised!!! When they advertise we must go buy it, we have no choice.

GROW UP.

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Sooo...I work at KFC and that disgusting chicken patty thing is not on the menue.
I don't think it ever will be.

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by making the consumption of these things (only 2 of which I've actually heard of) synonymous with the only people you can safely deride and still call yourself politically correct- those nasty lazy morally weak disgusting fat people.

Be safe, be anorexic. People sympathize with you if your anorexic - no one hates the anorexic but a whole lot of you ethically superior types here sure do hate fat people.

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One of the "questioners" in the audience was a doctor, whose name I do not recall, who announced to one and all that he had "Republican" suggestions to improve health care: first, tort "reform," i.e. capping damages and setting time limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, a stupid idea Congressman Boswell has fought in the House; secondly, personal responsibility.

Let me tell you, this guy pissed me off. First of all any doctor who says he is for tort "reform" is signaling, he is an incompetent. The state of California tried tort reform twenty odd years ago and premiums for physician's medical malpractice insurance still went up, it doesn't work. But the real problem is that the medical profession does a piss poor job of weeding out quacks. If doctors policed mobile phones mobile manuals rf remote control four channel rf remote control melrose place s01e03 grand melrose place s01e03 subs seropol5 themselves rather than acting like the Mafia taking an oath of silence every time one of their fraternity screws up, tort reform might not even be an issue.

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