YES. Paying $5+ for just a sandwich is too much.
If it were an issue of cleanliness/hygiene, you’d expect it to be more of an issue with some stores/locations than with others.
Actually, it’s the fact that I can get a cheap sandwich from the value menu that makes me eat fast food as often as I do. Where else can you get substantial food for a buck or two?
I wasn’t suggesting $5 for “just a sandwich”. I was suggesting $5 for “lunch”.
Don’t know if this is similar enough, but I quit Coke Zero cold turkey in May of this year. I had been spending $10 to $15 a week on something that did not offer any benefit, so I stopped.
I was going to post a long reply, but let’s cut to the chase: I’M CHEAP.
That was one of their least popular flavors.
Because fast food makes insanely high calorie high fat, high sugar versions of the food you and I make at home. I have no idea how they actually cram so many calories in them. If I make a cheeseburger at home, I’ve got:
1/4ish lb ground beef (I usually buy 80% lean for burgers): 278 calories, 18g fat
1 slice American cheese: 68 calories, 5.6g fat
Hamburger bun: 84 calories, 2g fat, <1g sugar
2 tsp ketchup: 13 calories, 0 fat, 3g sugar
mustard, which is almost uncountable
If I’m feeling particularly indulgent, I may add 2 teaspoons or so of mayo: 60 calories, 7g fat
So that’s a grand total of 503 calories, 32g fat and 4g sugar, give or take. That’s a pretty hefty belly bomb. But a Whopper With Cheese has 760 calories, 47g fat and 11g sugar! Where the hell do they get it all?!
I’m more likely to have a handful of chips (160cal, 10g fat, 1g sugar) at home instead of a Medium Fries (403cal, 18g fat, 0g sugar), too. Put 'em together and that’s 600 calories fewer for my “junk food meal” at home. That’s… more than another homemade cheeseburger!
I don’t think one need to look at bacteria or food contamination or artificial flavors when there’s a perfectly reasonable and easier explanation: your home version is just a more reasonable portion, more reasonable ingredients and has fewer calories, grams of fat and sugar than the “equivalent” fast food version.
Want some nasty crazy flavors? I see your turkey flavor and raise you tofurkey and gravy flavor!
http://www.bevreview.com/2009/11/24/jones-soda-tofurky-gravy-soda/
Though I must say Jones Soda normal flavors are the bomb. I typically find them at Target.
Another example: your alfredo. If it’s a standard homemade version, it probably looks something like this:
Not even close to low-calorie or low-fat, right? Perfectly satisfying, full fat, full flavor indulgent yumminess. Mmmmm…alfredo…
In a restaurant?
The local farmer I buy pork from has something they call “better than bacon” and it’s a certain part of shoulder. Fatty, not quite as fatty as regular bacon, but still gets that browned-fat-in-the-pan deliciousness without any curing or smoking. I don’t know if other farmers do the same thing or call it the same thing, I googled it and didn’t get anything relevant, but it’s something to look for.
In my stew-pot. The chicken and potatoes I made in an hour on Sunday was about $17 to cook a whole pot (and that’s with expensive locally farmed chicken - using store bought would make it less than $10). Eight substantial meals, four of which were packed and waiting in the fridge to just toss into my bag before leaving for work.
Yeah, you actually have to cook to nix fast food. You don’t have to go all gourmet or take an entire day to do it. I watched Food, Inc. in 2009 and haven’t touched fast food since. I went vegetarian for a couple years, too, but have decided supporting small local family farms is important so added a small amount of meat back into my diet once I visited a few farms. Shakes may have cut out fast food for totally different reasons, but the end result is more than similar.
AAAaaaannnnd, now I need to get ingredients for Alfredo next time I’m at the farmers market!
Another possible culprit for the digestive-system effects is the salt. Most mass-produced food is jam packed with it, and solute concentration has implications for osmosis. By comparison, most things I make at home have about a sprinkling of salt for a whole week’s worth of cooking.
In one sense, Good Answer!, but in another sense, No, that’s cheating: you spent way more than a buck or two—it just averaged out to less than a couple of bucks per serving. It’s a lot easier to make cheap meals than to make a cheap meal.
We call that cottage bacon hereabouts and that is what I use. It makes a fantastic BLT and I like it better in soups and fry-ups as well.
Agreed. But you can go even cheaper than this meal. Make chili using dried beans. Dried beans are cheaper than canned and better tasting IMO.
Make soup. Soup is cheap and easy. Cheesy potato soup on a cold day or your own chicken noodle anytime.
Soups, stews and hot dish (casseroles) can be made and frozen in individual servings. When I am working in an office, I usually make something up in a crock pot or soup pot once or twice a month and then freeze individual portions. That way, I don’t have to take time out of my lunch break to go buy something. I spend less, and get food that is better for me.
Yeah, I just never thought about too many folks doing it most work days. I eat one can of soup for lunch most days. It’s about $1.
Dude, my head just exploded. We should get some articles written about that and raise awareness. 
And this gives you some level of satisfaction and sense of fullness? A dollar can of soup? How long have you gone without eating prior to this “meal”? And for how long does this meal sustain you?
It does me.
Breakfast? A couple cups of coffee with milk and some sugar. Lunch? A sandwich or a can of soup. Some light snacking during the day. About the only big meal I eat every day is dinner and even that isn’t that big by most peoples standards. And if I eat a big assed lunch then dinner ends up looking like my typical lunch.
So how many calories would you guess you consume on average (per day)? No calories to start your day; just caffeine (okay maybe 100 with milk and sugar). Then you have nothing more than a can of soup for lunch, which averages around 160 calories per can. Throw in a couple hundred more calories for your “light snacking” and now we’re getting to dinner and you’ve only ingested around 500 calories?? How big is that dinner?
Never measured. But trust me I can eat little and not feel famished. I ain’t stuffed but I ain’t dying. I guess I am just saying SOME people don’t have to eat half a pig for breakfast and half a cow for lunch to not feel starved. Though at any given time I COULD eat a little more if I felt so inclined. Don’t get me wrong, I eat more if I am out camping and hiking my ass off for the weekend say , but the daily cubicle grind/sitting on my ass at home? Not eating much.