Friday, March 12

Food for (thought) Friday



week 3 ...or "do you want fries with that?"

My son was on the way home for Spring Break. He called to say he was stopping at Wendy's for lunch, and could he bring me something. Thoughtful kid. But, what would I get? I settled on a baked potato, he laughed.

When he walked in the house an hour later, though, he had bags from Burger King. Yuck. A kiss on the cheek and, "I brought you onion rings, mom. I knew you'd want a vegetable." Cue more laughter. I ate 3.

Burger King Onion Rings 24 grams of fat 450 calories 700mg sodium

In general my son eats a healthy diet, but like most American teenagers consumes his fair share of fast food. Even in a home where he was pulling carrots out of the garden when he was two and washing them off with a hose, the lure of bad, fast food is strong.

I'm not editorialising this week, or quoting experts. I'm just lamenting how far off track food in America has gone. We can bring it home, cook it ourselves, eat at the table with a knife and fork. It's really quite simple.

Have a lovely weekend,

xoSherry

6 comments:

Pretty Things said...

I haven't eaten fast food in I don't know how long.

While helping at the book fair this week, I flipped through "Eat This, Not That", and was horrified.

T.Allen said...

Oh Sherry, I love you! After successfully raising two strict vegetarians without issue, they made friends, and wouldn't you know all of those friends ate fast food! My son had his first burger about 4 years ago from McDonald's. It was weird, he didn't like it at first, but he kept at it because "everyone else was doing it". I carried on like it was a controlled substance, but alas I gave in and he only indulges once in a while, but I shudder each time. I understand sister, I do.

Catherine Ivins said...

I truly believe that fast food is contributing to the destruction of the soul of this planet- I know this in my head and my heart, but still can find myself eating mindlessly now and then, sometimes fast food and sometimes junk food- just this morning I finished off half a roll of neccos (I am thinking maybe candy from my childhood doesn't count as junk food) while reading blog posts!

Sparkle-Me! Designs said...

It's going on almost 5 years that I have not touched (or even considered) fast food. Infact, I have gone cold turkey and do not eat any type of junk food since November 2005. I felt the effects immediately with my headaches disappearing.

elisa said...

Here! Here!
I totally agree. Thanks for a great post. If anyone complains to you about this post, send them my way- I'll make 'em read "An Omnivores Dilemma" or any of the other awesome books out there about how much our food habits have changed.

Lynn Lunger said...

Love this post!

I am currently struggling to eat more healthily. We've never been fast food take-out people, and rarely even drink soda. Whole grain breads, water, 100 % juice... but we still end up eating too much processed foods. I know how much better we could do. Somewhere I read a quote that you can eat as much as you like if you have prepared everything yourself from scratch.

Thank you for this reminder to be more thoughtful about what we are eating.