I won't be eating a Big Mac again...not anytime soon...not ever...

[Maddy McCall]

Just finished Fast Food Nation. What a disturbing book!

I read some parts to my 9-yr-old son. It even angered his young sensibilities that McDonalds manipulated him and, through him, me. He went upstairs to his bed room, returned with a toy cap rifle, walked to the corner where I park my walking stick collection, and retrieved the machete, and said, "Mom, will you take me to McDonalds?"

Ha! Anyway, Schlosser has vastly improved the health of my family. My pets? Well, I will be checking to see which pet food manufacturers use dead cats and dogs to make their foods.

Comments on the book are welcomed. If you haven't read it, please do!

[catpower2000]

1. THANK YOU FOR EDUCATING YOURSELF...

And your family will thank you with their health, too. I am continually amazed by the people even here on DU who INSIST on their right to poison themselves by eating fast food and don't want to EVER QUESTION what is in the food. They get really pissed off when people dare to say that that sludge isn't healthy!

Cat

[catpower2000]

8. See post 4 nt

[otohara]

2. Chicken McNuggets contain : Anti-Foaming Agent

WTF??? I haven't eaten McD's in 12 years. Out here in CO, Good Time Burgers have begun using Coleman's Natural Beef. I suppose if I were to eat a burger, that would be the only place I would go. I only buy Colemans at the store. I have enough hormone problems, don't need no cow's hormones.

[Maddy McCall]

3. please educate me!

Where are the best places, in a small southern town, to find meat that isn't hormonally manipulated? We don't have any organic stores here.

[THUNDER HANDS]

4. I like McDonalds

And all other fast food. Never read FFN (basically because I'm scared to) but if I was really worried about what I was eating I probably wouldn't shove Supersized fries into my mouth.

Fastfood, alcohol and cigarettes. Life doesn't get any better.

And with the social security age probably pushed up to 80 by the time I'm old enough to collect, I really don't want to live much longer than that anyway.

[GOPisEvil]

6. It's your funeral!

Just make sure you are insured, so no one gets stuck with the costs of burying you. :evilgrin:

[northzax]

9. insurance?

hell, that's just gambling. And honestly, you are paying for my insurance anyway!

[GOPisEvil]

18. I am? Damn. Well, you're paying for mine, too!

A little more indirectly, but you're paying. :-)

[THUNDER HANDS]

10. isn't that what kids are for?

I'll be paying for my parents dumpi...er, funeral, and I'm sure my kids will do the same for me.

I just hope they perfer to be creamated and not buried, burials are such a cash-sop for the funeral industry.

[Maddy McCall]

14. Maybe by the time you pass on, your remains will be used to feed the

cattle that become your grandchildren's Happy Meals. Ignorance is bliss!

[THUNDER HANDS]

15. well...all I have to say is...

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

:evilgrin:

[Rainbowreflect]

25. Don't joke about this.

I cannot donate to DU this time around because we had to help with my sister-in-laws funeral costs.
It was about as simple as we could go and still cost almost $10,000. Man it sucks, neither her mom, nor my husband & I have much money.

[THUNDER HANDS]

26. I'm sorry

but what about cremation. That's a lot cheaper than burials.

[Rainbowreflect]

28. Actually it's not that much cheaper.

But in our case she already had her burial plot and it's what the rest of the family wanted. Both my hubby & I want to be cremated, hell I would be ok with a hefty bag on trash day, but I guess there are laws.
I understand those things are important to some people, but I would rather the money was give to charity or to help the family.

[Maddy McCall]

12. Hey, if you like eating shit, vomit, tapeworms, lysteria, e coli, etc.

It's your own business.

Stay in your cave.

[THUNDER HANDS]

16. yup

just what I like, some enlightenment with my happy meal.

:)

[sangh0]

41. The RNC likes McD's also

They give money to the RNC. Some of it's your money

[THUNDER HANDS]

50. and some of it

goes to the poor working slobs who make the food. Do you check where every penny you spend goes?

[silverlib]

5. I read it -

Don't do any fast food other than Jack in the Box now, not that it's healthy, just "healthier." I try to do locally owned restaurants. The worst part for me was the fact that school cafeterias are the most dangerous places to eat.

Has anyone read his other book about the underground economy? I can't remember the name and intend to read it once I've rested from "Fast Food Nation."

[Maddy McCall]

11. Oh Jeez...the fact that food in public schools had caused DEATHS...

and that no one really seemed to give a good goddam. Hamburger meat was usually the culprit.

I must quote Schlosser with my favorite paragraph from the book:

"The medical literature on the causes of food poisoning is full of euphemisms and dry scientific terms: coliform levels, aerobic plate counts, sorbitol, MacConkey agar, and so on. Behind them lies a simple explanation for why eating a hamburger can now make you seriously ill: There is shit in the meat." p. 197 (and as Schlosser shows: glass, metal bits, tapeworm, vomit, hair, and numerous other gross items!)

[boilerbabe]

21. Jack in the Box and Kangaroo meat

Back in 1980, when I lived in San Diego, the big rumour was that Jack in the Box was using kangaroo meat in its burgers. Well. I wouldn't know the difference between kangaroo and my late great aunt as far as meat went. So there ya have it!! It all tastes great, right???
Yuuuummmm

[Maddy McCall]

30. Rumor here was that McDs used ground-up earthworms in burger patties

n/t

[BuddhaGirl]

39. His other book

is called "Reefer Madness." I haven't read it yet, but I have read "Fast Food Nation" - needless to say, I no longer eat the crap that is called fast food!

[samsingh]

7. i became a vegetarian years ago

and i'm happy i did.

[boilerbabe]

13. I am Veg, too

And the worst part is, that I have probably been eating animal products anyway without realizing it! I have been trying to make a more conscious effort to not use any animal products, but it is so very hard to be a purist in a society of convenience (or laziness, I would say)
If you have ever read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair, or also "Beyond Beef" by Jeremy Rifkin...you know what i'm saying!!
XXXXOOOO
Look for Action For Animals....(AFA)

[arcane1]

17. ah, those dubious "natural flavors"

hell even some allegedy 'vegetarian' items have that mystery ingredient in there somewhere...

[boilerbabe]

29. You are so right (oops....correct!!) n/t

[Piperay]

35. Yeah, me too

I wouldn't even eat MacDonald's French fries because they lied and said they took the animal by-products out and they hadn't. :puke: :puke: :puke: Vegetarians always have to watch out for liars and tricksters. :argh: :mad:

[terryg11]

19. good

buy local, buy organic

[CBHagman]

20. What I liked about Schlosser's book...

...was that he never lost sight of the people whose lives are connected to the fast food culture. Schlosser covers everyone from the CEOs to immigrant workers in the meat-packing business to the kids behind the counter at McDonald's. There is also a brief glimpse into the new Germany, where fast food restaurants are opening up in what had previously been the German Democratic Republic.

Schlosser has kind things to say about a family-run restaurant that sells high-quality food and provides solid wages and benefits to its workers, and he notes that some chains really did begin with one guy selling sandwiches from a cart.

He wears his politics on his sleeve, but don't let that stop you from reading the book.

Yes, a lot of it is stomach-turning (I couldn't eat beef for weeks after I read it), but some of it's just entertaining. Check out the portion on the science of flavors.

It's also very important reading for parents, as it covers the business of trying to attract young consumers. I remember how my mother used to complain about advertising aimed at kids in the 1960s. Well, it's far worse now.

[Kellanved]

22. the McDonalds in the former GDR were actually an improvement

The HO chain in the GDR was even worse. So McD had a *positive* effect on the diet - health inspectors in the new states only ate at McDonald's in the first few months because the other restaurant were too awful.

[Gloria]

23. Dog food tip........

check out the California Natural/Innova line by Natura www.naturapet.com

Not sold in groceries or the national pet chains, but mostly in local pet shops.

After much research I went with this company....and when I took Slicker to training she did a segment on foods. We all had to bring in our labels...Guess whose food was the one that was far superior???? LOL
No fillers, no farting, no chemicals, no animal byproducts....
there are a couple of other premium brands that are way more expensive, like Wysong, but the Natura foods are really good without having to go mail order, etc.

[pansypoo53219]

24. never had a bigmac thank god

i eschew fast food as much as possible. BUT THE POMMES FRITS!
i will never get meat from the supermarket, i go to a butcher. Mmmmm, pork roast. although i am tempted to try the organic oatpost. BUT THEY WRAP IN PLASTIC!

[BigMcLargehuge]

27. I stopped eating all commercial beef after finishing that book

two years ago. I'm a beef nazi now. If I can't meet the cow at a local farm, I don't eat it.

LOTS more vegetables in my diet now.

Another good one is Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture.

I had to stop reading that one before I was turned off to veggies too...

[deanybopper]

31. be a vegetarian

:)

[A-Schwarzenegger]

32. "If slaughterhouses had glass walls ...

we'd all be vegetarians." --Paul McCartney

[dmr]

33. Just ordered it off Amazon

I found this through google -

http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/mcds/theguardian0704011.html

07/04/01 . Eric Schlosser . The Guardian . UK

The Bitter Truth About Fast Food

It's no good denying it: people like fast food because it can taste pretty good. But what they may not know about is the cocktail of chemicals that gives the French fry its taste - nor the grisly events in the slaughterhouses that can put something nasty in the burger along with the beef. Eric Schlosser follows the food chain in the US, home of the fast food franchise
Pull open the glass door, feel the rush of cool air, walk in, get in line, study the backlit colour photographs above the counter,place your order, hand over a few dollars. Watch teenagers in uniforms pushing various buttons, and moments later take hold of a plastic tray full of food wrapped in coloured paper and cardboard. The whole experience of buying fast food has become so routine, so thoroughly unexceptional and mundane, that it is now taken for granted, like brushing your teeth or stopping for a red light. It has become a social custom as American as a small, rectangular, hand-held, frozen and reheated apple pie.

Over the past three decades, an industry that began with a handful of hot dog and hamburger stands in southern California has spread to almost every corner of the globe. Fast food is now served at restaurants, stadiums, airports, zoos, schools and universities, on cruise ships, trains and aeroplanes, at supermarkets, petrol stations and even in hospital cafeterias. Americans now spend more money on fast food - $110bn last year - than they do on higher education. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos and recorded music - combined.

Much more ....

[Catherine Vincent]

34. I like the chicken burgers at Whataburger

Is there crap in that too?

[YellowRubberDuckie]

36. how do I give up STEAK!?

I'm a beef whore. I can't get enough. Fridays has awesome angus burgers and steaks, and I eat them a lot. my cousins actually visited the place where they get their beef from in Montana or Wyoming (one of those) and they said the cows would come moo at you at the fence. Some places do care where they get their meat. I know we're talking about fast food, and Yes, I know all about the hamburgers at McDonald's. I didn't eat there for two years after I heard about it...but now I eat there a lot, and I'm not dead or dying. My doctor checked my cholesterol two weeks ago and I'm doing great. Those fries ROCK. Also, I'd become a vegetarian, but I could never become a Vegan. Sorry. I can't give up my milk or my cheese. But I admire those of you who are vegetarians and vegans. It takes a lot of will power at first. I just don't like veggies enough to eat them exclusively. Oh, and I have this obsession with Seafood. I'm working up the courage to try sushi. I grew up here in Oklahoma, and I just gotta say that meat is an important part of our culture...And as for the shit...you guys gotta realize, if it's cow or horse shit, it's just grass and hay that's been digested. It's considered a delicacy in certain countries.
Duckie

[Tinoire]

38. Two Options

You don't have to give up steak if you can't but consider this

1. Buy all your beef in Arabic Halal stores... It's totally organic and the animals are slaughtered individually and as humanely as possible. (google and find out) Kosher is unfortunately not as humane in America.

2. Buy a large freezer and pay a farmer to raise one organically for you. You'll not only have better, healthier meat from a happier cow but you'll save a bundle also.

I do a combination of the two and it works beautifully.

[lazarus]

43. if it's a whole breast

and not "reconstituted" the way McNuggets are, then you should be fine, so long as they're fully cooked.

I worked in a chicken processing plant for several years, everywhere from Live Hang (where the chickens are slaughtered), to Evisceration, to Debone, to the freezer. Never saw a nugget on a chicken. You don't want to know what goes in the nuggets.

[Iris]

37. Here's how awful I am

I read the first chapter of the book and began craving a Big Mac - I've probaby eaten 12 in my whole life.

I went to McDonald's and ate a Big Mac because I could tell that once I got through the book, I wouldn't be going to McDonald's anymore.

Even if they do now have arugula.

[Iris]

40. Here's an interesting article from the Nation

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030818&s=greider


It basically says that McDonald's is now insisting its poultry providers phase out antibotic use.

[sangh0]

42. It's a lie

McD's is not phasing out the use of antibiotics. They are only phasing out those antibiotics that are also used on humans. I'm disappointed the William Greider fell for McD's propoganda

[ikojo]

44. Loved Fast Food Nation

It was a very quick and informative read. Being active in the anti Genetic Engineering movement I had already heard much of what Eric Schlosser wrote.

I suggest that if you do want to continue eating meat that you get meat from a health food store. Whole Foods and Wild Oats (yes I know how evil they are respective to union organizing) both sell "free range" meats. This is meat from animals that have been fed no hormones or antibiotics or even animal parts.

If you are uncomfortable shopping at Whole Foods or Wild Oats try locating a free range farmer in your area. Many of them will do subscription farming.

It's amazing how delicious free range chicken and beef tastes.

[TXlib]

45. Fast Food Nation is on my wish list... Could you summarise

some of the main points it makes?

[slackmaster]

46. I'm surprised that "jchild" would have ever eaten fast food

Ever in your life.

[Character Assassin]

47. Tremendous book. Never eat poo again!

n/t

[SyracuseDemocrat]

48. I'm still gonna eat them

In my view, life is too short to worry about stuff like this. That's just my opinion.

[ArkDem]

49. You let your child have toy guns?

.