Junk Food - A Question of Snobbery?

Options
1235

Replies

  • Zumaria1
    Zumaria1 Posts: 225 Member
    Options
    just an observation, but meals #2-5 are fine dining, which is not intended to be an everyday experience. if you ate them everyday or even a couple of times a week, they would probably make you just as fat as mcdonalds. the problem with mickey d's is that the price of the food makes it a real option for daily eating for the masses. if ruth's chris offered a giant surf and turf meal for $5.99, they would equally be contributing to the obesity epidemic in our country.

    it doesn't even matter anyway...people are going to eat what they want and what makes them feel good until they are more educated about the price of their meals on their health over the long term.

    I agree with this. You are comparing apples and oranges. Fine dining in gourmet restaurants is something people do for special occasions, so the splurge on high calorie foods is just that, a splurge. Whereas Mickey's D's and other places like that, some people developed the habit to eat there every single day. That is because the food is cheap and easily accessible to people, and it is not viewed as a splurge by some, and it has contributed to the obesity in this country. At least fast food places now offer healthier options to people.

    But seriously, to compare a meal freshly made by a chef in a fancy restaurant to deep frozen beef patties and fries is just wrong, dude, lol.

    i seriously don't think its snobbery. Its kinda like when you have company you put out the good china, or your best. For everyday you might use something different. Or with clothes, same thing, some clothes are considered "Sunday best" so to speak, and others are just T-shirt and jeans. One is different for different occasions. Same thing with those meals you mention, most are not gonna eat a meal like 2-5 everyday.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    Options
    I haven't formed an opinion yet but this post is awesome. Well done.
  • Zumaria1
    Zumaria1 Posts: 225 Member
    Options
    Something else I just thought about and wanted to add. I've noticed that in some cultures, you can get high quality, fresh food for cheap, so that even if you are poor, you do not have to choose McDonald's but get a nice healthy meal. I currently live in the NJ area near a neighborhood that is largely Portuguese, they have awesome food, that is fresh and pretty good quality as well. Like freshly caught fish, steamed vegetables, potatoes, bread, just regular food, but is not expensive. In this area, no fast food places.

    Sometimes it angers me to go to some poorer areas and the only food options is the local greasy Chinese, the local pizza place, Burger King or Mickey D's, and way at the other end, some high price place that the average person could not eat at on the regular.

    I think this addresses something that I think should be: poorer people SHOULD be able to afford the organic or better quality foods. To me, its not a question of snobbery, but wanting to get the best quality food at the best price.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Options
    Very good perspective imo.
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
    Options
    I agree. My weight gain was much more due to the thousands of calorie meals and alcohol I had eating at nicer restraunts than fast food joints.
  • Oishii
    Oishii Posts: 2,675 Member
    Options
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9750464/Jamie-and-Nigellas-meals-unhealthy.html

    http://m.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/dec/17/celebrity-chefs-recipes-less-healthy-ready-meals-data

    There was a lot of media attention on the above in the UK. I'm not sure I agree with their criteria for what is or isn't healthy (a lot of meals were criticised for having too much protein, and higher calorie doesn't always mean worse) but it is nice to see the 'healthy home-cooked meal' myth questioned.

    The problem I have with McD's is the satiety doesn't match the calories as well as it would for the same meal elsewhere.
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    Options
    My point is, ALL of the options are debatably an epic fail.

    Are you saying my diet is crap? How rude!

    I am however surprised at how little stick I got for eating for want of better words such junk fine food (people here are surprisingly nice after all...) I wonder if I meals 2-5 were all fast food meals of similar calorie and nutritional contents I would have got off so lightly. Somehow I doubt it. Although jwdieter did a great job on getting the nutritional info together I am pretty sure meals 2-5 were much higher due to portion size (the steak was 12oz for example, the chicken was half the bird, the seafood linguine was the size of my face....)

    The key arguments against junk food seem to be:

    1) lack of quality ingredients and nutrients: but this would less harmful it appears than a fine dining option which is higher in calories and sodium etc and also goes through processing (although on a smaller scale). This can be offset by the rest of your diet.
    2) frequency of eating: which can be offset by well, eating it less often
    3) cost / availability: tied in with 1& 2 above but makes no real odds to the actually effect it can have on your overall health
    4) taste / palatability: clearly this can be simply a matter of perception but again makes no real odds to how it will effect your health

    Let's be honest. People aren't going to suddenly give up "junk" food tomorrow and switch to whole foods en masse. That is just fantasy. Whilst we can encourage people to do so it seems evident that people are eating "junk" food for one key reason: they like the taste. A lot.

    As such it strikes me that it is a far better idea to get people to consider the nutritional values of the food they are eating for themselves and see if it may be incorporated into their diet (which in all likelihood it can be just in smaller quantities) than saying some food is inherently "rubbish" or should be avoided at all costs.

    And for my next trick I will pull a rabbit from a hat....
  • chloeobe
    chloeobe Posts: 72
    Options
    If all of this is junk:

    1) Big Mac with fries followed by a Cadburys Caramel McFlurry
    2) Har kau (steamed prawn dumplings) followed by nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) served with chicken skewers and satay sauce
    3)Steak au poivre with brandy and cream reduction, frites (fries) and aparagus spears tossed in garlic butter followed by salted caramel chocolate torte
    4)Poulet Breton (chicken) served with wild mushroom sauce, truffle mash and salade verte followed by crepe with fresh strawberries and Chantilly cream
    5)Breaded calamari rings (squid) with tartare sauce and lemon wedges followed by seafood linguine

    Then call me the garbage can

    YUM
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    Options

    Then call me the garbage can

    YUM

    Lol - a rather fine looking garbage can?

    But that is part of the point. There seems to be a lot of moral and social judgment attached to the food people eat. It seems that a lot of this stigma attaches to "junk" food whereas other foods somehow bypass it completely even though they are of a similar nature but just 10 times the price

    This does not seem fair, correct or objectively justifiable.
  • DudeistPriest
    DudeistPriest Posts: 665 Member
    Options
    The term "junk food" doesn't necessarily refer to nutritional value. I beli
    eve, and I very well may be mistaken, that it originally referred to the overall quality of the meal.
    Comparing fast food menue items to gourmet meals is like comparing a Ford Focus to a Lamborgini. I mean you could but what would be the point.
  • ecdce
    ecdce Posts: 129 Member
    Options
    So, I cannot remember the name of the documentary, but I'm sure someone somewhere knows what I'm talking about. Anyway, it has a brief segment about a professor or research team that are devoted to studying the perception of food. They have a little restaurant set up that can altered to be anything from fine dining and upscale to greasy diner (to study how settings affect how people perceive food, presumably). In one study, they took ingredients from KFC, I believe, and made a soup out of it solely from those ingredients. Then they had subjects rate how the soup tasted, particularly in comparison to fast food, like KFC. In another, they served Taco Bell's fresh tacos, or whatever they're called (when I eat taco bell it's frankly not to eat anything fresh -- I want those weird potatoes with cheese wiz, thanks), and told subjects they were from an upscale restaurant that focused on fresh ingredients. Then they served the same food to another group and told them it was Taco Bell. Unsurprisingly, the first group perceived the food as being fresher, healthier, and tastier. In the last study, they had subjects guess the calorie count of a fast food meal (burger and fries, if I recall correctly) and something 'healthier', like a burrito or wrap from a more upscale restaurant. People were generally able to guess the calorie content of the burger accurately, but were WAY off with the healthy meal, underestimating the meal by hundreds of calories.

    So yeah, I definitely think there's something to your theory.
  • ecdce
    ecdce Posts: 129 Member
    Options
    I shouldn't even be posting in this thread as a vegetarian, but most of the food joints that I stay away from have to do with horrifying stories I've heard from employees about mishandling food (picking it up off the floor and serving it, spitting, putting a moldy pizza in the oven and scraping off the mold) or because the place showed up in the newspaper for having rat feces present in the kitchen.

    Those gross kitchens happen to be in places like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, etc.

    I've also never had a french fry or pizza that made me close my eyes and sigh with contentment, although I have had that experience at some nicer restaurants. If I'm going to eat a thousand calories and a hundred grams of fat, 1) fancy cheese is involved and 2) I should be giddy with food joy.

    Just from experience, I worked in food service in college and the McDonalds and Taco Bell were clean enough to eat off the floor. There are people cleaning all the time. Some other restaurants? Yeah, not so much.

    So next?

    I also worked at a McDonalds in college and my experience was the opposite. We had cockroaches and mice that no one did anything about. When I pointed them out, they just said wipe down the surfaces and try not to drop food. I was reprimanded for naming one of the mice. Don't name vermin. It's unsanitary. The mice I could handle more than cockroaches. We pulled the soda machine apart to clean it one day (one day in the two or three months I worked there) and there were 10-15 cockroaches inside. Ick. Still have a hard time with fountain drinks.
  • justicer68
    justicer68 Posts: 1,223
    Options

    I also worked at a McDonalds in college and my experience was the opposite. We had cockroaches and mice that no one did anything about. When I pointed them out, they just said wipe down the surfaces and try not to drop food. I was reprimanded for naming one of the mice. Don't name vermin. It's unsanitary. The mice I could handle more than cockroaches. We pulled the soda machine apart to clean it one day (one day in the two or three months I worked there) and there were 10-15 cockroaches inside. Ick. Still have a hard time with fountain drinks.


    I worked at a McDonalds umpteen years ago and we never had any kind of issues with finding bugs or vermin in the building luckily. Well.....now I really won't have a hard time giving up fountain drinks or fast food. thank you.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    Options
    Is it ok to rag on junk food perhaps because there is a perception that it is what less affluent people eat and is therefore an easier target?

    Ding ding ding we have a winner here!

    Wrong. McDonald's is frankenfood. Period.
    Yeah because just calling something "frankenfood" is not a logical fallacy or circular reasoning or anything.


    Yeah! Not to mention being disrespectful to Mary Shelley's novel! :angry:
  • chloeobe
    chloeobe Posts: 72
    Options
    On a Friday i "treat" myself to lunch from the nearby McDonalds, KFC or BK. All of my colleagues laugh, pretend to be sick and even one "who has to leave the room because of the stench", when im chowing down on my burger and fries which i know has 625 calories and 28 grams of fat in it...

    Ok yeah thats alot of fat and carbs. However the same colleagues all b*gger off to the local posh Indian on Friday lunch time. Last week the one that gives me the hardest time for my "junk food addiction" had a mixed started of pakoras, chicken satay and samosas, then a chicken korma with coconut rice, naan bread and all washed down with a pint of the best Indian beer...for LUNCH.

    And they think I have a problem.....
  • luckynky
    luckynky Posts: 123 Member
    Options
    If I'm going to eat a thousand calories and a hundred grams of fat, 1) fancy cheese is involved and 2) I should be giddy with food joy.

    This. McDonald's does not make me feel giddy with joy. If I'm going to over-indulge, I want it to be like sex with my dream date, not with a $2 *kitten*.
  • misssiri
    misssiri Posts: 335 Member
    Options
    I shouldn't even be posting in this thread as a vegetarian, but most of the food joints that I stay away from have to do with horrifying stories I've heard from employees about mishandling food (picking it up off the floor and serving it, spitting, putting a moldy pizza in the oven and scraping off the mold) or because the place showed up in the newspaper for having rat feces present in the kitchen.

    Those gross kitchens happen to be in places like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, etc.

    Anyone that has ever worked in food service knows that most are gross. It's not just McDonalds and Pizza Hut.
  • pluckabee
    pluckabee Posts: 346 Member
    Options
    So, I cannot remember the name of the documentary, but I'm sure someone somewhere knows what I'm talking about. Anyway, it has a brief segment about a professor or research team that are devoted to studying the perception of food. They have a little restaurant set up that can altered to be anything from fine dining and upscale to greasy diner (to study how settings affect how people perceive food, presumably). In one study, they took ingredients from KFC, I believe, and made a soup out of it solely from those ingredients. Then they had subjects rate how the soup tasted, particularly in comparison to fast food, like KFC. In another, they served Taco Bell's fresh tacos, or whatever they're called (when I eat taco bell it's frankly not to eat anything fresh -- I want those weird potatoes with cheese wiz, thanks), and told subjects they were from an upscale restaurant that focused on fresh ingredients. Then they served the same food to another group and told them it was Taco Bell. Unsurprisingly, the first group perceived the food as being fresher, healthier, and tastier. In the last study, they had subjects guess the calorie count of a fast food meal (burger and fries, if I recall correctly) and something 'healthier', like a burrito or wrap from a more upscale restaurant. People were generally able to guess the calorie content of the burger accurately, but were WAY off with the healthy meal, underestimating the meal by hundreds of calories.

    So yeah, I definitely think there's something to your theory.

    This was the fast food episode of Penn & Tellers Bull****
  • missmuse1
    missmuse1 Posts: 11
    Options
    My point is, ALL of the options are debatably an epic fail.

    Are you saying my diet is crap? How rude!

    Haha, no, I wasn't. I was just saying that I personally think it's unfair for someone to be arrogant over the fact that they chose 2-5 when those choices are not THAT much better than choice 1.
  • shadus
    shadus Posts: 424 Member
    Options
    1) Big Mac with fries followed by a Cadburys Caramel McFlurry
    2) Har kau (steamed prawn dumplings) followed by nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) served with chicken skewers and satay sauce
    3)Steak au poivre with brandy and cream reduction, frites (fries) and aparagus spears tossed in garlic butter followed by salted caramel chocolate torte
    4)Poulet Breton (chicken) served with wild mushroom sauce, truffle mash and salade verte followed by crepe with fresh strawberries and Chantilly cream
    5)Breaded calamari rings (squid) with tartare sauce and lemon wedges followed by seafood linguine

    To get much idea you'd need to do a nutrient breakdown of the foods and actually either have the nutritional information provided to you or calculate it yourself based off the base ingredients.

    Be aware of exactly what you put in your body.

    Some of those are better from a nutritional stand point than the mcdonalds, not because mcdonalds is satan or anything, but because they have a wider degree of nutrients.

    #1) Ground Beef, Bread, Potato, Yogurt, Chocolate, Caramel
    #2) Dumpling Wrapper, Prawn, Rice, Veggies, Chicken, Peanut
    #3) Steak, Olive Oil, Brandy, Cognac, Heavy Cream, Potato, Asparagus, Garlic, Butter, Caramel, Chocolate
    #4) Chicken, Veggies, Wild Mushrooms, Potato, Truffles, Various herbs, Flour, Strawberries, Heavy Cream
    #5) Calimari, Breading, Tarter sauce, lemon, pasta, "seafood", cream, cheese

    From a caloric perspective some of those are probably worse, but from a broad range of nutrient perspective alone, likely #2-#4 are likely better from you.

    A 5000 calorie meal of McDonalds down the street, Burger King in the mall, or Taco Bell coming back from an independent theatrical production is just as bad as 5000 calories from Eleven Madison Park or Noma from a weight gain perspective. That said, the later probably tastes significantly better and has a much broader nutrient profile. Fast food thrives on being simple and made from preprocessed preprepped ingredients. Gourmet food generally includes many fairly fresh ingredients.

    A lot of the perceptive difference though is simple classism.

Categories