“The great thing about McDonald’s is that they have a lot of different things on the menu. I love their salads.” – Beyonce Knowles

(?????)

Yes.  I was hungry, have not had a burger from there in over a year.  So me and my lady had a burger, and some french fries, and I even added salt to a box of fries, that already come salted, but just not enough in my opinion. It was delicious! I even had a second quarter pounder! And a second a milkshake, cause I honestly can’t remember the last time I had one.  But, I also honestly do not know when, I will actually be there again, and that is the point of this particular blog post. I do not think of ‘McDonald’s’ as inherently evil, I know the founders were not. They made and sold hamburgers.  How dangerous can you be? But times change, and so do business practices.  Am I a fan of factory farming, nope! I think permaculture is where it’s at. Am I a fan of their massive ad and marketing campaigns? Not so much. Do I like the notion that the shareholders run McDonald’s more so than the franchise owners, not in the slightest. At the end of the day there is honestly very little I do like about McDonald’s and yet there I am really enjoying a quarter pounder, with cheese.  A “Royal with Cheese!” (Pulp Fiction)

Did I betray my principle’s?  Nope!  I drink beer! I am not going to lambaste a company that sells crap and behave all hoity toity hipster that is out right against it. But I will tell you this. There is a reason, why they have become so powerful, and have been able to get away with so much. We all eat there! I also believe that too many people eat there too often. Going once a year as an individual is not really going to contribute to them being able to do what they have done, quite the opposite. Too many, go there, too often. That is why they have been able to do so much, and not all of it positive. But I really can’t blame them. For the same reasons I can’t go after big tobacco, or big alcohol. On occasion, I like a good cigar! I like a good glass of beer!  And sometimes damn it… I like me a BigMac! But I can get away with it because 90% of the time, I eat really well. Lots of vegetables, nuts, beans and legumes, and some fruit. I eat a nutrient rich diet, this leaves me with rarely wanting such a cheap (not really that cheap) cheat meal.  And when I do cheat and there, over the long term, will have very minimum effect on my waistline, heart health, insulin, etc.  So I’m not here to tell you not to eat McDonald’s, because prohibition never works. But I will stress, it is not ideal to eat this stuff on a regular basis, this holds true for all fast food. My meal yesterday was almost 1700 calories (including the second burger.) That’s outrageous!  I will say shame on them, but I ate it!  So shame on me too! Ultimately at the end of the day, their business success is honestly based on being very popular and quite often abused by the general public. If we as a population do not like factory farming, Monsanto, sustainance farming, big corporate having its way. Then we have to stop supporting them with our pocket books! The McDonald’s I went to was packed! Lots of parents, lots of kids, lots of people who struck me as people who go there quite often. You are allowed to indulge, but the habits you have in this life should not include fast food, smoking, and rum. Our habits should consist of eating right the majority of the time, exercising, sleeping enough, meditating, if you so desire, etc. If more of us did that, these companies would not have so much power. Again, I don’t mind they exist, I do mind the power they have accrued, but we’ve allowed that to happen/created it.

To follow up, the burgers tasted great! But later, I did not feel so good. I paid for it! Which is why, again, it is going to be a long time before I go back. Again it is okay to splurge once in a while, but if the majority of us splurged on occasion, not all the time, a lot of things would change for the better. So think global, act local, and things will change for the better, both for your waistline and for the planet.