Breaking news! McDonald's to Join Forces with Whole Foods Market

Yeah.  No.  I lied.  They are not joining forces.  In fact, I suspect that the clientele of the two companies is about as different as the clientele of the local Gamer's hotspot and the local opera joint.  There might be some overlap, but in general, not so much.

Which is my point.  McDonald's does what it does.  They make some tasty, salty, processed, greasy, quick, cheap food with a salad on the menu somewhere down in the depths.  What they don't offer is gourmet fare, except some darn good coffee in my opinion.  They don't offer any burger that is fresh ground chuck, or an organic tofu and sprouts item.  The only fresh vegetables are in a highly processed salad, and let's face it: They do what they do, they do it well, cheap and fast.  It isn't something I want to eat every day, but I do enjoy a quarter pounder with fries now and then.

The thing that bugs me is when people look at McDonald's and think that they have some obligation to the public to offer food other than what they offer.  It is as if someone somewhere decided that because Mickey D's makes a lot of money, and has had great success that it somehow creates a responsibility to make their menu health food.  They have no such responsibility.  They employ a lot of people, and offer what people want to eat at a price they will pay for it.  Free market baby!

Let's take the whole they-use-ammonium-hydroxide-in-their-food-processing controversy. Or maybe they don't now.  I don't care.  Yeah, really.  I don't care.  Did you know that you have eaten lye, yes lye, on every pretzel you have every enjoyed?  They use a lye wash to create that yummy shiny coat that makes the salt stick and feels so good in your mouth.  It is safe.  I wouldn't want to take a swallow of it because I like my esophagus where it currently is, but I like pretzels just fine and have never worried a second about it.  I wouldn't want a swallow of the stuff that every restaurant has to use to sanitize your silverware either, but I sure am glad they use it.

Lye is Sodium Hydroxide and you eat it all the time!

I don't think we should eat a lot of the ammonium hydroxide processed food, but it is mainly because I don't think it is healthy to eat hamburgers and fries every day even if they are hand ground in your grandma's kitchen and cooked over the coals by grandpa in the backyard. Oh wait...what about those coals?  Should we be cooking over previously burnt wood and what type of wood is that anyway and is the match used to light them safe?

I think that we should be eating, in our homes, food that was prepared from meats, and vegetables that we chose for the meal.  I think we should be spending the time to cook dinner and eat together.  I think processed food is bad for us on a daily basis, and who really cares if that processed food comes cooked in a box that says McDonald's or in a box from the grocery store that lets you pretend you cooked that day because you had to boil water and add the packet of...well...something that tastes good, into the browned hamburger?  

Is fast food bad for us?  Yeah...it is.  But so is most of the stuff that people pass off as food these days.  At least McDonald's doesn't pretend that what they offer is health food like I have seen in other places!  They do what they do.  They do it well, and for the record I ate half a box of Mcdonald's fries today with an order of McNuggets.  I also drank a diet Coke.  They were delicious.  I haven't had any of them for a long time and I enjoyed them immensely.  Tomorrow I will eat eggs from my hens for breakfast, and for dinner we are planning white bean, sausage and kale soup.  I will enjoy them thoroughly too.