so many people think eating a big mac is somehow unhealthy, we have heard it so many times it becomes “true”…sadly many people take that silliness to an entire new level.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/orthorexia-nervosa-how-becoming-obsessed-with-healthy-eating-can-lead-to-malnutrition-10479149.html
Anything taken to an extreme is a problem.
So is writing without proper capitalization. Why is this obsession about other people eating healthy. You mean one thread is not enough on this subject?
All I know is that I feel like crap when I eat fast food in the United States. That’s enough for me.
And I got sick eating fast food as a teenager. I even ended up at a hospital that’s why I try to eat healthy.
Eating a Big Mac IS unhealthy - note, I am not talking about any burger, but specifically a Big Mac. I used to eat really unhealthy for years. Started eating healthier and now I feel so much better, have so much more energy, get sick less, and just can do so many things that I didn’t even imagine I could do. I am not going back!
I’m right there with you, acollegestudent!
Someone is heavily invested in fast food… That, or someone needs public input on the subject for a class assignment. 
Actually, it is a good topic, even with the fitness and nutrition thread going on. A Big mac to me is disgusting, but if you like them and have one once in a while, it won’t hurt you (people love white castle hamburgers, I used to eat them when I was a teenager and could eat a dozen, last time I had a couple, it made me queasy, go figure). The problem is when you get into the mentality that only certain things can be eaten to be ‘healthy’, when there is an obsession about things, it can lead to malnutrition if someone takes it too far.
It is why diets are a disaster area, fitness and health as the other thread talked about is a lifestyle change, but it doesn’t mean you have to totally eat what some idiot claims is ‘healthy’, while eating vegetarian can be healthy, you can also eat an omnivorous diet and be healthy. The Paleo people have the right idea about a lot of things, but when they start justifying not eating things like beans or grains at all, they lose me, or somehow claiming that the mythological diet they think ‘paleo man’ ate was all that healthy (our ancestors were resilient, but saying they had a good diet is kind of idiotic, if you ever picked up and read about their lives. They were hunter/gatherers who probably, based on the skeletons we have uncovered, suffered from vitamin deficiencies (things like Ricketts are seen in the bones), they likely faced 1 year of relative abundance and several years of relative famine, and so forth…and they would basically eat what they could get, including things we would turn our noses up at.
And yes, I saw this in a different vein. After my father suffered a heart attack, and had open heart surgery, he took the then prevalent idea that eating meat was bad, that cholesterol lurked around any corner, too far, and quite honestly, and no matter whether we pointed out that even the American Heart Association diet (that they still have out there, and in many ways is laughable, it is still predicated on the notion that fat is bad, diet causes heart disease and so forth) allowed him things. The reality is if he occasionally had some steak as a treat, or had some pastrami (again, as a treat, once in a while), or pizza, or other ‘fun foods’, it was fine, and that he could eat lean meat relatively regularly and be okay (the man didn’t eat much to start with, he weighed within 5 pounds of what he did coming out of the army in WWII, and he was a combat veteran in Europe).
The best nutrition site I have found said 90% of your meals should be in the healthy zone, and 10% should be your ‘fun’ meals, and it works. The claims that food is merely fuel like gasoline is idiotic, it isn’t, food means a lot more than that.
This is just my own theory, but I think a lot of that is psychological, and knowing that it’s unpopular to eat such foods.
I know when I ate Taco Bell as an ignorant kid, I felt fine afterwards. Now, when I eat taco bell on rare occasions, my mind replays news reports on obesity, high sodium, chemicals, etc… it makes me feel like crap after eating the food. I don’t think it has to do with the food itself but rather the thought of knowing I am eating something that I have been ‘told’ I shouldn’t eat.
Regardless, I think obsessing over eating only what is currently believed to be healthy is bad. I say stick to moderation (stay within established guidelines for fats, carbs, sodium etc) and make sure to diversify your eating so that you get all of the vitamins and minerals you need.
^^^Disagree that it’s mental. My numbers are much better medically, and physically I can do things I couldn’t even do when I was in high school.
@fractalmstr there is actually some studies that show that (at least a variant of it). I read a paper last year where they compared people who ate at McDonald’s with the calories displayed vs those who didn’t. People who ate at the McD with calories displayed (and indicated they knew what calories meant), generally felt guiltier about eating there than those who didn’t.
If I remember the name of the paper or author, I’ll PM it to you.
I do not doubt that there are medical benefits from a ‘numbers’ perspective (i.e. blood pressure, cholesterol, etc) by eating less fast food. I was simply referring to how eating at some fast food places lowers your mood and makes you feel bad (or guilty) about what you eat.
@romanigypsyeyes Ha, interesting! Please do 
Our little city does not permit blacktop restaurants. We do have a Fat Burger, a Chipolle and lots of coffee places. What really fries my cookies is trying to put together dinner or go out to dinner. No carbs (scrape the bagel), no gluten, no red meat, hormone free meat/chicken…wild caught fish, only dark chocolate, vegetarian, vegan. fructose free, no regular sugar only raw…Our restaurants are really good…We went out to dinner with some friends. The husband, listening to his wife order (for 10 minutes)…finally said, "Why don’t we just eat dog S…and be done with iit?
I love Big Macs. And Whoppers. And pretty much any other kind of burger.
Do I want fries with that? Yes, please.
It’s not mental for me because I love the convenience of fast food and grew up eating it. Something in the food has changed in the last 10-15 years.
I went to Germany in May (mentioned this on another thread) and ate a Burger King hamburger that was delicious. The bread was tasty, the tomato flavorful, and the meat was juicy and thick.
I can’t eat BK or McDonald’s here in the US anymore without gagging.
Believe me, I would love for it to be mental.
I also think as we get older what we could tolerate when were younger may not be ok when we get older.
No kidding. As a kid, I used to love those wax “pop bottles” of colored sugar syrup. Pretty gross to me as an adult, even though I happily eat straight sugar like that in other forms. (Creme brulee topping? Yes, please!)
Well, maybe my gastrointestinal system thinks it’s 25 in Europe, and when I come back home it’s 45. Seems strange but OK.
I still won’t eat it here . . . not worth it.