It is clear the Mcdonald's supporters are not going to be swayed by health arguements, moral or environmental issues, or surprisingly, poor food quality and taste. I propose a more selfish reason to avoid McDonald's - MONEY. Who wouldn't like to go on a trip, or buy (something we all could use) a faster PC? The McDonald's regulars could do just that, with a simple lifestyle modification. While some at this site have argued that McDonald's gives the most "Bang for the buck", I maintain that it is grossly overpriced. Consider that for the cost of one(1) order of fries you could easily purchse ten(10) pounds of potatoes! You see folks, healthy food is also far cheaper food. For the $5 you spend on a meal at McDonald's, you could buy huge amounts of whole grains, dried legumes and vegetables. And its not time consuming to prepare such foods. While some must cook for a while, its just a matter of turning on the stove and waiting. A potato in the microwave is done faster than you could get through the drivethrough.
Consider the case of Joe Banker. Joe eats at fastfood outlets five times a week at an average cost of $5 a meal. Joe could easily replace these meals with homecooked meals at $1 a meal. That would save over $1000 in only a year. If Joe invested this money (hopefully in a company with better management than McDonald's, or Bre-X...Ouch!), he would have even more.
Healthy food does not have to be less tasty or satisfying, or difficult or time consuming to prepare. Get yorself a couple of cookbooks, visit a bulk food store, and expirament with some of the less familiar produce at the supermarket - while it male be relatively expensive compared to the more familiar fare, it is dirt cheap comared to fast food. People who choose not to eat McDonald's type of food do not feel they are depriving themselves. Tastes quickly adapt and begin to appreciate the more complex taste of real food over the over salted high fat type. There was a time when I ate lots of fastfood, but now I can't imagine why. Even if a new study came out suggesting fast food was actually healthy I wouldn't change my diet back.
Would you really prefer to eat at McDonald's over a trip to Australia? Would you feel you gave up too much while you were expiriencing a foreign country? All this, and at the same time you are helping leave the earth in better shape for your children!
