The Fast Food Nation© Niall Fleming 2005
The world of today is a fast food nation, where people are in such a rush that they cannot even take the time to cook a decent meal themselves anymore, it's an absolute travesty.
When you can get microwavable sachets of rice and sauce, you've got to realise that it's gone too far; rice only takes between 10 and 15 minutes in the microwave anyway, so why would you need to cut that down to 2 minutes? It's pure laziness, and the advent of new technologies that promise even quicker cooking times - that is at the root of the issue. Myself I'd rather make the effort and have it taste the way I want it to, rather than how some little man at the Dolmio™ factory thinks it should taste.
Fast food outlets are spreading like wildfire, a term the media use for this is McDonaldisation, the global chain that is in the hearts and minds of the world. We all know that McDonald's™ food doesn't taste nearly as good as a decent home cooked burger would, but it's the convenience. We want it now, and we don't want to have to waste our time cooking and waiting, yet we queue up for 10s of minutes in McDonald's™ when we could have made ourselves something far better.
With regard to McDonaldisation, Subway are doing similar, Leeds has no less than 6 outlets in the city centre alone, with several more on the outskirts, all within walking distance of each other, and while a Subway sandwich is probably better for you than a burger, it's really not the point.
The point is that it's no wonder that over half the nation is clinically obese, because we're too lazy to get off our arses and make something healthy and tasty. No, we'd much rather eat chemical ridden junk food, chock full of reformed meat, with very little real meat in it, padded out with rusk.
As soon as the nation realises how utterly lazy they have become so much the better, for all of us, we don't want a repeat of the state of the American people over here do we? We have seen the effects of over-indulgence and ubiquity of global fast food chain stores, and we don't like it. If we start now, we can stop the wheel turning, and hopefully pull it back.
Not only will it help our nation not to be a nation of mindless buffoons with legs the size of a small ram, but it will make us a happier nation, as has been proven many times, the healthier you eat, the happier you feel and your general well-being will be improved.