I can honestly say I have never had a McDonald's burger (or one from Burger King or ... ). When my kids were little, we'd go for the nuggets and fries, and I'd have a chicken sandwich. Then I learned that they spray a chemical similar to butane on their frozen nuggets to keep them fresher longer. No more Happy Meals for us!

But on occasion, we drive through for fries ...

Ever wonder what may be sprayed on the fries?

Hello

And I remember complaining as a kid when my parents made homemade "Blood Sausage " and those tasty pancakes with mashed brain!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now this is what our kids and grand-kids are eating!!!!
Bring on the blood saussage but hold those pancakes!

Kolya

I hadn't eaten at a fast food establishment for about 20 years. One day we were on a church trip to Boston, and on the way back we stopped somewhere, where there was a Burger King. With all knowledge of the horror of this fabricated 'food' (apparently the burgers are liquid--YUCK--before they are made), we were hungry, so I thought that maybe a whopper would be okay, and would bring back some fond memories of when I thought it was tasty. I know that it has been documented that not one cell is nourished from meals at McDonald's et al, so I just ordered it for the junk it is, much like when I crave and eat a (or two or three) Devil Dog!

The Whopper did NOT taste good, (granted I have, over the years, become increasingly particular about choosing and cooking only good quality food, and I don't eat meat very often), BUT I did not expect to also (literally) *feel* that round burger just sitting in my stomach all night without any feeling that it was being digested! I had a horrible night's sleep from it! I felt like I had consumed a non edible poison of some sort.

I feel guilty now that I used to take my son and daughter when they were toddlers for the occasional meal there, trusting that my country would only allow real food to be served. On the other hand, someone said that 25 years ago (when that would have been), the quality was real, so I am hoping that is so...

For $2.50 cents a serving, I can prepare a lovely meal with all the food groups, including lots of fresh veggies, so cost shouldn't be an issue.

We have to start cooking at home again like all Americans did in my youth..it just is not worth suffering from all the diseases our 'food' and fast food diets have created.

I grew up as a teen in Brooklyn. There was no McDonald's there yet. A cheap fast food was a slice of pizza, and it was real at that time which meant it was healthy... (real olive oil and real cheese)

EVEN pizzas today (except gourmet ones labeled like that) in pizzerias and fast food pizza chains don't serve real cheese on their pizzas! It is all about filling us up with fake, low cost ingredients, so that the purveyor can make a profit, and we can end up sick!

Alicia: Better to buy frozen fries at the supermarket and bake them at home for the boys...those fries didn't taste 'real' either.

Also in the news recently was this story about a young girl in the UK who, apparently, has eaten nothing but Chicken McNuggets since age 2, and finally collapsed in ill health. More distressing still is the breakdown of just what makes up a McNugget. Clue: it's only 50% (processed) chicken.

I regret to acknowledge that I eat at McDonald's very often (but not in recent weeks!) owing to its proximity to my place of employment, but if I were more intentional about meal planning I could probably avoid the place entirely. Like so many other things, it all comes down to discipline, doesn't it?

Esteban

Agreed. The occasional drive-through is when we've been running errands all afternoon and dinner is nowhere in sight.

Chef Jamie Oliver showed school kids what's in a McNugget. Don't watch this video before dinner or if you ever plan to eat a chicken nugget again.

I know, I know, I have been there with the children too, and the 'drive through' option was a brilliant idea...

Let's hope that healthy drive throughs will take over and give McDonald's a run for its money.

Check out this real, organic version of McDonald's (including vegan burgers for vegans and Orthodox/Easern Catholics, LOL!) that opened up recently in my area:

http://www.elevationburger.com/EB.php#home

In Greece (as well as Italy--even on the highways), there exist a few domestic fast food chains that are wonderful...fresh fruit juices squeezed right there, fresh orange juice squeezed right there, flat paninis filled with fresh ingredients like spinach and feta, mozzarella and tomato, ham and cheese, club sandwiches with real french fries, real desert and food crepes, etc...they heat up the paninis and spinach or cheese pies for you on the spot and they are so delicious! I wish we had fast food outlets like this!

When my teenage daughter and I had taken a tour of Italy a decade ago, we actually were excited at the autostrata lunch stops when we were travelling between locations, because it was very satisfying to eat a yummy fresh, warm panini (panini bread is much flatter in Europe than here) with a freshly squeezed cup of orange juice. We felt so energized and satisfied--something my then teenaged daughter (who did frequent McDonald's et al at the time with friends) acknowledged as a feeling very different than when she ate at fast food in the U.S.

Regards,
Alice

This reminded me of 30 years ago when the big rumor going around was that McDonalds beef contained ground up worms!

Anyone else remember this?

Alicia:

Christ is in our midst!!

My old standby when I was working and had to feed my two children in a hurry was what I called "Goulash." I could put it on the table in about a half hour from frozen meat to dinner.

A thawed and browned pound or pound and a half of ground turkey. When the meat is browned, add some jarred tomato sauce and a can of stewed tomatoes. Heat the whole mixture through. Meanwhile boil a box of elbow macaroni--or wheels or anything else in the cabinet. When the macaroni is done al dente and the other pot is hot, mix together, add a handful of parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and serve. My children's tastes weren't that sophisticated so lots of seasoning wasn't necessary. Best part is they didn't mind if they got this a couple or three times a week.

Bob

I hadn't seen the article that Alice posted but did see the one to which Estaban linked - and it turned me off McNuggets (not hard to do, as my consumption of them is usually limited to eating those left over at the conclusion of a rest-area stop with my two young ones).

I rather suspect that Alice's link will put an end to my young son's love affair with McD's burgers. My little girl has a long-standing aversion to them, so no problem there. She does eat McNuggets, though reluctantly, if we stop at McD's, but the UK story will be fodder for her regular pronouncements that McD's food is 'not good for you'.

In the past couple of years, when on the road, we've taken to hitting diners more often. The kids find them fascinating and, though it takes a bit longer and costs a bit more, even 'Mr Fast Food' (as Cae likes to label her brother) admits to enjoying the range of choices and the quality of the food.

Although initially suspicious of anything but home-cooked food and the small local Lebanese breakfast place (where the owner, a long-time friend of mine, greets her like the princess that she's sure she is), Caelin was quickly won over by the discovery that most diners have pickled beets and broccoli (her two most favorite veggies) available. We've gotten very familiar with diners throughout New England, the Tri-State area, and Delaware - a couple of which are best forgotten, but many of which are now welcomed sights, even if it means getting off the highway.

Many years,

Neil

Ever seen the documentary "Super Size Me" with Morgan Spurlock? If not, ya outta. It's enough to gag a maggot.

Here in the Lone Star State we have a hamburger chain called Whataburger. I prefer it to McDonalds, Burger King, etc.

BTW the brains are OK if you put a lot of onion and garlic in them...and some dill for good measure.

Just to show the other side of the coin, Spurlock made a follow-up, in which he lost all that weight, again, just by eating fast food. Turns out it's how much you eat, and how much you exercise, and not merely what you eat that counts.

WHAT???? You're somehow surprised that our government would favor the profit margins of large corporations over the health of people? Where have you been for the last 150 years? With the introduction of the industrial revolution in this country, people became commodities by which the elite could make money.

As objects, there were thousands and thousands of them showing up on the shores of America, so there was no nee to treat them as anything other than what they were -- cheap labor. Sprockets in the great cogs of the industrial machine. Things. That's all people are in Capitalism. Either things to be used to make money or things to sell to in order to make money. Either way, the outcome is the same - make money.

This is the same government that will throw you in jail for selling raw milk to those who want it, who have been harassing the naturopathic healing arts for decades, yet have covertly allowed arsenic in your processed chicken for decades.

This government is the definition of evil. And if Obama wins, it will only get worse. They will be emboldened, especially against the Church

Good points.



Absolutely the best recipe to get children to eat meat and love it! I used to make a version of this for the children when they were young too, and it was the only dish that we all agree to and enjoyed. I mostly used chopped beef, though sometimes I used turkey. The tomato sauce can be whatever is handy--tomato paste mixed with water, ready made marinara, pureed tomatoe, etc...and the pasta could be varied too! Greek mothers make it with orzo (rice shaped pasta) for toddlers because it makes it easy to feed it to them with a spoon. When they got older, I would always saute some onion and a little garlic first and then brown the meat, and sometimes I would sneak in some chopped fresh sauteed mushrooms to add some veggie power...*most* of the times, they didn't detect them and ate them! LOL...

The great thing about this is that it is so versatile.
Since I don't eat meat very much anymore, (fasting has inevitably gotten me to the point where I/we don't really miss it much), I try to buy better quality meat when I do buy it.

I just found that Trader Joe's sells Australian Grass Fed Organic 85% lean chopped beef for about $5.00 a pound! Grass Fed beef is the absolute best meat, and is actually good for you because it has Omega-3's in it! Costco also sells this organic beef, but I don't remember if it was also grass fed. Apparently, being 'grass fed', however, is very important.

Trace amounts of arsenic are present in just about everything, including organic crops, free-range organic poultry, you name it. Trace amounts of thousands of potentially lethal compounds occur naturally in everything we eat and drink. The issue is how much you need to consume in order to receive a harmful dose, and the answer is, truly awesomely huge quantities, which, if you did ingest them, would suggest different and more pressing health issues.

Stuart,

My point was not how much we need to eat to be harmed, but how food can actually do you good...

The idea is that grass fed beef actually is healthy for you!

However, eating any red meat should be done rarely, as there is a definite correlation with colon cancer as well as other disease...

I am glad that we are forced to eat legumes so many times a year by the Church!

As a business traveler, I find myself eating at fast food restaurants way too often. While McDonald's not my favorite, sometimes it must do. I know much of that is not beneficial nutrition, but time constraints and stretching the expense account sometimes make fast food the best solution.

Likely this old body processes lots of toxic chemicals every day from all kinds of sources. I'm not particularly worried about it. My sovereign Lord has decreed even the hairs of my head are numbered. So, then must be my days in His hands according to His times.


μιχαηλ τον αιρετικον

Grass-fed beef is better for us to eat because cows' stomachs were not designed to eat corn (which is what most mass-produced American cows eat). Therefore, they get sick and are fed antibiotics, which we then ingest ... not good, not good at all.

Much of what city folk think they know about agriculture is wrong, you know.

What exactly are you insinuating? If you have a problem with what we read, please take it up with the authors of the literature we read. Thank you.



Thank you Alicia for that information...Indeed, we have all ingested way too many antibiotics, both prescribed and otherwise....

The indiscriminate use of antibiotics ceased some time ago, and was not related at all to the use of corn feed. In fact, cows on their own like corn, and even cows raised on grass will gravitate towards a patch of corn if it isn't fenced off.

People frequently use the term "cows" when they really mean "cattle" as in "beef cattle." Cows are what one would find in a dairy setting - they're the ones that give milk - also sometimes known as "dairy cattle." Similarly, people use the term "pigs" when they mean "hogs". Hogs are the big things we get pork from, pigs are the little ones, the juveniles.

My family has farmed (and ranched) for many generations in Iowa and in central California.

Corn is not a natural or neutral food for cattle. In fact, cattle can only eat corn for a few months - usually while they are being fattened up in a feed lot and that is exactly why they are fed corn - more weight on the animal means a better price for it. In the past, the American consumer has actually prized the "marbling" effect that corn fed cattle have and some do find the meat more tender. These days people prefer leaner meat and as a result beef cattle are spending less time in the feed lots now. Increasingly we see more grass fed cattle making it to the market. Eating corn for longer than the feed lot period will actually kill the animals because it causes permanent injury to their digestive and endocrine systems.

That fact the some cattle will wander over and eat corn from a field (I have never seen that before) does not mean that is either good or natural for them. Most domesticated bovines will eat almost any vegetable matter they can find, whether it is digestible or not. Undomesticated bovines, such as bison (American buffalo), stick almost exclusively to a diet of grasses. By the way, bison is very tasty, lean and healthy, if you have not tried it.

On a related subject, a fascinating (and accurate) documentary about corn appeared a couple years ago. I recommend watching it:

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/kingcorn/film.html

Corn, like many things in life, is good for some things, very bad for others.

Well, Alice, since Stuart was born and brought up in NYC, it would seem that he is insinuating that we might not want to listen to his pronouncements on this topic - such as his insinuation (rebutted by Rybak, who was not born and brought up in the city) that corn is good and a natural diet for cows.

Many years,

Neil

Stuart's wife is Agro-American. Stuart also spends a lot of time doing technology evaluation, which also includes agricultural technology.

"gravitate"?

If "gravitate" is a synonym for "trample gates and fences" . . .

I know cornfed deer (deer that live near farmers' fields) taste better than forest deer that eat acorns and browse.