Personally, I don't like fast food. It was great when I was a kid and each meal came with a toy, but back then I either had playtime or gym class every day at school, so working off the excess calories and fat wasn't really an issue and my parents only bought me fast food when we were out shopping all day or for a special occasion. Nowadays, however, there's simply too much at stake when it comes to eating fast food (think increased portion size, fat, sodium, sugar, etc) and I think that too many people rely on fast food to feed their families when they don't feel like cooking. Pretty sad, eh?

Have you seen the documentary Supersize Me? This is the one where the filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock, subjects himself to 30 days of nothing but McDonalds for 3 meals per day. It's sick what happens to his health. For a little insight, as if you didn't know the food was already bad for you, here are the nutritional stats for the big 3 chains in the USA: McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's. Now you can see exactly how bad the food really is for you.

Then there's the book, Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser. This book (which was also made into a movie of the same name - rent it and you will really think twice before you buy fast food again, especially after watching the last scene) delves into the history of fast food (and what a noble history it is - seriously) and the ill-effects it has had on our society as a whole from the farmers to the slaughterhouse workers to the employees at the restaurants to you, me and everyone in between. It's an excellent book and you will never look at fast food the same way again.

I don't mean that you'll stop eating it altogether - I haven't - but you'll think more about each purchase before you make it. Fast food is a fascinating industry.

However - isn't there always a "however" when you read something like this - I think I could be persuaded to try more fast food items if we had any like these from around the globe. Here is a link to McDonald's Strange Menu Around the World. This sort of makes you wonder how some of the other chains have adapted to other cultures.