# How often do you eat fast food? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 11, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059 "2011-06-11T02:12:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/21 "2011-06-11T13:09:29Z")
I’m like **needscoffee** - just don’t have a hankerin’ for it anymore. I too was surprised last time I took stock of how much (or how little) I go now. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve eaten my fair share and I probably will grow to love it again. But for the past year or so…meh. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/22 "2011-06-11T13:11:49Z")
Probably once or twice a week, which is too high. Tends to be grabbing food after shopping, and of the Costco-hot-dog or McDonald’s-drive through variety. The thought of going home and making lunch with two whiny toddlers attached to my leg sometimes kills my soul. I should try to be more organized about packing lunches. ETA: I love, love, love fries. Love them. Fortunately the ones I like best are homamade or fancy-resataurant. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/23 "2011-06-11T14:10:05Z")
Very rarely since about a year ago. I just find cooking something fast a lot cheaper and better tasting. I do occasionally (maybe twice a month) stop for a kids meal for my daughter after she goes to therapy. That’s mostly for the playground though. ---
**Author:** ![kapri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kapri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapri)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/24 "2011-06-11T14:15:36Z")
I put “never”; as far as I can recollect, it’s been several years since I’ve had fast food. I live two blocks from a McDonald’s but it wouldn’t occur to me to get food from there. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/25 "2011-06-11T14:41:04Z")
Less than once a month - sometimes we stop by Chipotle. I don’t think it’s bad for me though. One can make decent choices at a lot of ‘fast food’ places, actually. I’ve never been a big fast food person, even when I didn’t care what the hell I ate, because most of it just doesn’t taste very good. These days I don’t eat most grains, so that’s very limiting in terms of take-out - I never get pizza, etc anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/26 "2011-06-11T14:53:48Z")
It depends on how my life is going. Right now, I could answer the poll with \<1 a month. When I’m in the middle of a semester at school, though, I eat a lot on the run, and I can do 20+\> fast food meals a month, usually Taco Bell or Subway (easy to get vegetarian options). ---
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/27 "2011-06-11T15:04:39Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I haven’t eaten at a fast food restaurants since Nov of 1997. I love fast food but it’s expensive and I’ve been trying to keep my food budget less than $70 a month. > > But I would LOVE some Burger King and Taco Bell right now. 😃 Taco Bell is probably the worst thing you can eat, but I LOVE it. 😃 That and Popeyes have to be my top two. I usually eat fastfood 3-10 times a week. On a ten, is when I eat my breakfast and lunch there. I rarely cook, though. So, if I have the time (dinner and long lunches) I eat from better resturants. Also, by where I work in like fast food row. So, it’s easy to pick up McDs or Donkin Donuts (which I love their coffee and is my usual breakfast spot) for breakfast and go to work. Lunch is pretty much the same, but with more variety. I’m not as picky with my lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/28 "2011-06-11T15:07:49Z")
Generally at least once a day but I don’t feel bad guilty about it because I keep it healthy. A Subway sandwich on wheat bread with all the veggies and no fat dressing is my most common choice. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/29 "2011-06-11T15:10:25Z")
Once a week or so. But I’m trying to do better at what I get when I do buy fast food. A Half size Wendy’s salad for instance. Not great, but better than a double cheeseburger and fries. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/30 "2011-06-11T15:18:39Z")
> [@rhubarbarin](#): > > Less than once a month - sometimes we stop by Chipotle. I don’t think it’s bad for me though. One can make decent choices at a lot of ‘fast food’ places, actually. I would agree with this: there is this idea out there that fast food is somehow an order of magnitude less healthy than other types of food, and I think that’s a misapprehension: the burger and fries at Chili’s (1310 calories, 65 g of fat) is not healthier than the burger and fries at McDonalds (1010 calories, 51 g of fat), and ordering by entree instead of a la cart encourages overeating. Most of the sandwich/fries combos at [Chili](http://www.chilis.com/en/nutritional%20information/chilis_nutrition_menu_generic.pdf)’s come in at more calories and fat than a McDonald’s meal. Both do offer healthier alternatives. Where fast food is a unique health problem is that it is so quick, easy, and cheap, and therefore easy to overeat. It’s easy to pick up a burger and fries when you aren’t really hungry enough to go through the effort of making food at home. The opportunity cost of eating is too low. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/31 "2011-06-11T15:55:43Z")
I never eat it. If I’m out driving and I get hungry, I will go into a grocery and pick up some grapes and low fat sliced turkey to snack on. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/32 "2011-06-11T16:29:35Z")
Probably 5 times a week I’d guess… almost always lunch during the work day. I pretty much refuse to stay in the office during lunch, and my co-workers seem to have no fun at lunch, and tend to bring their lunches and eat at their desks, so I go out. I also have something against bringing my lunch and eating it in my car. I’d eat outside, but that’s only really good for 4 months a year; it’s too hot from June-October, and too cold from December-February. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/33 "2011-06-11T16:48:28Z")
If I’m on the road the Wendy’s junior bacon cheeseburger is my go-to food source. I’ve been getting away from soda but the hamburger is still king. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/34 "2011-06-11T16:50:49Z")
I work in an office building with many food courts nearby, and sometimes I’m too lazy to pack a lunch. Maybe twice a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/35 "2011-06-11T16:57:11Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I love fast food but it’s expensive When I do eat fast food, it’s sometimes because fast food places that have “value menus” are just about the only place you can get something “substantial” for around a buck. I’d be hard-pressed to make myself something comparable at home for that price. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/36 "2011-06-11T17:06:29Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I eat it every now and then, but I do know the guy who made the news the other day for having eaten 25,000 Big Macs. Was he still hungry? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/37 "2011-06-11T17:10:23Z")
Depends on what you mean by the term of course. Moe’s SW Grill is the only one I visit on a regular basis; otherwise there’s Jason’s Deli and their sandwiches and a local Turkish eatery with some pretty tasty wraps, riders, and gyros. Taco Hell, McBurpos and their spawn almost invariably give me indigestion, so I now avoid them like the plague that they are unless I have no choice (c.f. on vacation, but now that I have a GPS I can dial up the nearest Paneros or something, unless I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere of course). ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/38 "2011-06-11T18:18:15Z")
> [@YaraMateo](#): > > Taco Bell is probably the worst thing you can eat, but I LOVE it. Whatever you mean by “worst,” you can’t really make a blanket statement about any one chain, because each one usually offers something that isn’t so nutritionally atrocious. How much people order those items, however, is another matter. I think the only criteria that make for any kind of meaningful comparison is the percentage of calories from fat in one serving of a given item that you order. [This table](http://www.becomehealthynow.com/article/dietbad/1154/) will help you make that comparison, using the particular things you order, but you need to keep in mind that the far right column is the amount of fat in grams. Since a gram of fat is 9 calories, multiply that by 9 and see what percentage of the total calories that number is. So, using that calculation, the Taco Bell Chicken Burrito Supreme, for example, is 35% fat. (Whether you eat the whole thing–410 calories–is a different question.) A Quarter Pounder (no cheese) at McDonald’s is 43% fat. (Total of 430 calories.) Nutritionist say [your diet should average no more than 25% calories from fat](http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/dailyfat-3432-143.html). If you eat some “real” food (e.g., vegetables or fruit) with those items, it will bring the average down, but typically a fast food place won’t have anything like this except for horrible, tasteless salads, which people have to put high fat salad dressing on to make palatable. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/39 "2011-06-11T18:42:30Z")
I picked Rarely. Last week, I had a Roy Rogers roast beef sandwich - we were working on our boat and didn’t want to take a long lunch. Before that, I honestly can’t remember the last time I had fast food. I just don’t like it and I can afford to eat better, so I do. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059/40 "2011-06-11T18:45:38Z")
I’m not entirely sure what constitutes fast food. Every couple weeks, we will buy a rotisserie chicken from our supermarket. Several times a year I will go to the local felafel joint for a cheap and tasty lunch. Or to a roti place for a stuffed roti. Is this fast food? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-eat-fast-food/585059.md?page=3)