McDonalds

margaretclare

Hi SidB

I agree with you. I read 'Fast Food Nation' about 3 years ago. I also read 'The World is Not for Sale' written by that French guy who was prosecuted for trashing a new McD's they were building near where he lived.

Can't really comment on their standard of service (although one time we went through the drive-through, they managed to give us the wrong meal!!!) I just don't like the whole idea, the way they operate, the way you've no idea what is in any of the foods they serve up. The idea of whole chickens being mangled up, processed, chemicals added and then re-formed into 'chicken nuggets' really turns my stomach. Yet, the McD's nearest us always seems to be busy - they open at 6 am and every time you pass by there's a line of cars waiting to go through.

It may not be McD's fault, but there's a huge increase in litter since they opened the place nearest us. Their brown paper bags, drinks containers etc, chucked all over, and even thrown out of cars. It's a different philosophy!

Aunty Margaret

Smiley_Mum

There was a programme on a while back about two guys trying to set up a burger store with nothing but quality in it, i.e. no artificial rubbish in any of it. All natural stuff. I did a check on Google at the time about McDonalds and there was a link on Dooyoo about the stuff that is in McDonalds "food" junk or whatever you want to call it. It is absolutely loaded with additives, etc etc, the list ingredients was the length of my arm and longer for everything on the menu, including milkshakes, the reason being that all the additives, stimulants, E numbers etc etc etc etc get people hooked and they get addicted to eating the trash that is served. I wouldn't feed the stuff to an animal, let alone a human being. I wouldn't touch the stuff with a bargepole. It really upsets me to see the amount of parents who queue up round the block outside junk food places on weekends and the kids are like 4 or five years old, and younger. If they just knew what they were feeding their kids, they would think again, or would they... the healthy sandwich store that is alongside a well known junk food outlet is relatively busy most days but the junk food outlet has queues outside are more often than not round the block. I took my kids to the healthy place for lunch one day and the smell from the cooking of the food next door was making me feel unwell, smelt like vomit, no kidding. :eek:

check this link for additives in McDonalds junk -

http://www.dietriot.com/fff/mcd/mcd.html

100% beef could mean anything, just 100% cow, not quality cuts like sirloin or fillet.

VixxAnn

I watched Supersize me a few months back on DVD and again on TV last week. Personally I would choose not to eat at McD again - for ever. And will do my darndest to persuade my kids that its bad. Thing is the company know what they are doing with the toys etc. The kids see the TV ads, want the toy and aren't even that bothered about the food. If you had a fish and chip shop that gave away kids boxes with toys I bet they'd be inundated.


My nearly three year old was recently at a kids party at Brewsters. They gave them brewster bear toys & things and the bear came to say hello etc. Dinner was greasy chicken nuggets and sausages. When we were out driving over the weekend, she saw a Brewster Bear on a pub sign and was "demanding" that we stop there for dinner. She wasn't even hungry.
thats the power of marketing for you :mad:

djohn2002uk

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/c/chickenhead.htm
This should put you off McDonalds....

Poppy9

I agree with Jellyhead. In moderation junk food can be acceptable. Personally I eat there about 4 times a year mainly because I don't like the food but if I am starving when I take my daughter there I eat. I don't like meat so now go for the quorn burger (bit bland and tasteless) as they have stopped the veggie burger. My daughter always has chicken nuggets and chips with fruit shoot or orange juice. She probably eats there once a month at the most. She is not unhealthy or obese.

Yes like all people I worry about what we are eating and what is in our foods. Fruit and veg which should be healthy is full of chemicals and pesticides. God knows whats been fed to the animals we get our meat from. Meat free alternatives i.e. soya, quorn - again can cause problems if eating to excess. Then there is diary products - again what is really in them. I think unless you grow all your own food and slaughter your own animals you are at the mercy of food producers.

I find it hard eating out for say lunch in town. Most meals are over salted. Kids meals usually consist of chips and sausage/nuggets etc. Why can't children just have 1/2 adult portion size. I went for a carvery and kids meal was chips etc. I had to ask manager if we could just have a smaller adult portion of carvery as kids meal as the waitress said no. Even in one healthy eating cafe which serves jacket potatos and salads only for adults the kids meal was either a box with chips, nuggets/sausage/fish fingers plus cookie and carton of drink. If you wanted cold food it was a ham, jam, chocolate spread or cheese roll, crisps etc. I begrudged paying £6 for a jacket potato that was only half eaten but I was refused a half potato which I would have happily paid £3 for. As the kids meal was £3 and included a drink etc which I was prepared to pay extra for I thought this was unreasonable.

jellyhead

VixxAnn wrote:

If you had a fish and chip shop that gave away kids boxes with toys I bet they'd be inundated.


My nearly three year old was recently at a kids party at Brewsters. They gave them brewster bear toys & things and the bear came to say hello etc. Dinner was greasy chicken nuggets and sausages. When we were out driving over the weekend, she saw a Brewster Bear on a pub sign and was "demanding" that we stop there for dinner. She wasn't even hungry.
thats the power of marketing for you :mad:

i don't know of any fish and chip shops who DON'T do a kids meal in a happy meal style box with a toy included

brewsters food is foul. i'd rather eat at mcdonalds lol! you can get an up to date ingredients list here http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/?f=y for items sold in the UK. we have different regulations to the US and the menu is different. as for somebody saying the milkshakes contain chicken fat - 3 flavours are suitable for vegetarians so i doubt it. the strawberry one isn't.

my child doesn't eat burgers, he only eats the nuggets and i truly believe that mcdonalds nuggets are the best quality nuggets you can buy. he doesn't drink coke or milkshake, he has water or juice - no rubbish in that. there's no rubbish in the fruit or carrot bags either. i was talking this morning to a mum who doesn't let her kids eat mcdonalds but i pointed out to her that her kids eat school dinners (does she really think the processed chicken they eat at school is any better than mcd's nuggets?), she has ketchup, salt, vinegar, coke, crisps, chocolate in her kitchen cupboards and her kids regularly eat them. they eat at the chip shop too (kids meals in a box with toy and plasticky drink, basically coloured sugar water with a few hundred additives). her kids might be harmed by eating at mcd's but only because they're already overloaded with rubbish anyway, and are the kind of kids who would choose cheeseburgers and coke or shakes. i don't think my child is being done any harm by the occasional meal at mcd's because his usual diet is healthy and we never have salt, coke, etc. in the house and he never eats from the chip shop (i do though ). he's not overloaded with chemicals on a daily basis, unlike almost every other kid in school.

kazzy

I genuinally believe that there are less queues in these places these days.Everytime I pass one I look in and they are not as busy as they used to be.Maybe the message is finally hitting home.

Liz19

kazzy wrote:

I genuinally believe that there are less queues in these places these days.Everytime I pass one I look in and they are not as busy as they used to be.Maybe the message is finally hitting home.

I don't know about that. I took my kids yesterday for lunch and people were queuing to get into the car park and the restaurant was mobbed. I only go about 4 times a year so this may have been a one off.

VixxAnn

jellyhead wrote:

i don't know of any fish and chip shops who DON'T do a kids meal in a happy meal style box with a toy included

Ours around here don't do that - maybe the big ones like Ramsdens etc do??
But besides, if any DO the toy thing - I don't think they back it up with mega bucks TV and poster campaigns pushing the toys directly at kids (with food as a secondary if ever mentioned at all) just to get the kids to demand to their parents a trip to McD/B.King.

And before someone says how bad it would be to eat fish and chips regularly I think as long as its in moderation then they're a darn sight better for you than any other takeaway. Fish is definately good - just have a few less chips

jellyhead

every chip shop here does the kids box meals, not big chain chip shops, just little family run ones. the toys are the same ones asda cafes use in their kids boxes i think. but yes you're right they don't advertise on TV so people wouldn't know about the toys unless they were going to the chip shop to begin with. but, the kids boxes contain junk - when i go to the chip shop i get fish, mushy peas (mmmm, tartrazine ....), baked beans and chips and okay it's starch and not real veg but it's better than nothing lol! the kids box doesn't have beans or peas and doesn't have fish. the choice is nuggets, sausage or fish cake, all 3 of which are made of mashed up stuff with very little meat. the sausage is a suspicious red colour. the drink is in a carton inside the box, one of those little cartons that taste of plastic and contain colours and flavours, no fruit. then they add a lolly, again just coloured sugar. at least at mcd's kids can have fruit/carrots and drink water or tropicana. so i'd rather my child ate at mcd's than the chip shop, luckily he doesn't like chips anyway, it was me who bought a kids box because i wanted the toy :rotfl: if spud eats anything from the chip shop it will just be a bit of my fish, so that's okay. it's another case of having kids menu full of rubbish though, when real fish would be a better option.