Stick it to Fast Food…

I’m not one to really jump on someone else’s bandwagon.

But this particular bandwagon is too damn good to pass up and it speaks volumes on how I feel about the fast food industry. You’ll hear me say it over and over again: The fast food industry doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you nor me as a human being. When they see us, they only see a dollar $ign. The industry is lining their pockets with our dollars while they are lining our precious veins with nothing even remotely close to real food. Their pockets are getting fatter while our bodies are doing the same.

Seems a group of high school students in Toronto are feeling the same way and they are spreading the message that “Fast food isn’t real food” and asking students near and far to boycott any and all fast food for the entire month of November.

This is the manifesto from their website.

“Fast food isn’t real food. It was designed by food chemists in white lab coats. Sure, sometimes it tastes good, but that is their trick. If you put enough salt, sugar and fat in anything it will taste good. Fast food companies are getting rich feeding us garbage. And it’s making us fat and sick. This November, let’s go fast food free and stick it to fast food. We Deserve Better.”

Fucking brilliant. Seriously. I can’t even begin to tell you how I hope this campaign grows into astronomical proportions and reaches every corner of every state/province. Beyond that really. Anywhere the fast food industry has set up shop this campaign should be right on their heels telling those money hungry imbeciles that kids these days are listening, learning and making decisions about the health of their generation because it’s obvious no one else is going to care about them.

People think moderation is the key when it comes to fast food. No it’s not. There is no such thing as moderation when your food comes laden with salty, fat in a tiny paper bag with taglines such as:

(Arby’s) “Now that you’re tastes have grown up”

(KFC) “Life tastes better with KFC”

(Dunkin Donuts) “America runs on Dunkins”

(Carl Jr’s) “Making people happy through food”

(Taco Bell) “Fourth Meal”

Take a look at those numbers. McDonald’s isn’t trying to hide any information from you. The nutritional calculator is right there for you to see that a typical meal is over 1000 calories, has 86% of your daily fat intake and is through the freaking roof on the sodium. You know why they put that calculator there? So that they can use the argument “See, consumers know what they’re buying when they come into FatDonald’s“, knowing full well that most of our population is addicted to that crap and the last thing they are doing is checking how it stacks up to a healthier alternative.

I’m on my podium on this one people because a typical meal for me when I would walk into a McDonald’s (all the freaking time) was 2 cheeseburgers, large (actually super-size but apparently you can’t buy that anymore) fries and large diet coke. The damage?

They don’t fucking care about you.

The fast food industry is doing everything to make you “think” that the food is okay to eat. But here’s the problem: WE’RE NOT THINKING!! We’re just believing what we want to hear because what we don’t want to hear is that the fast food industry is killing us and couldn’t give two craps about it.

Now before you get all crazy on me, let me make one thing clear. I understand when you really have exhausted all outlets for food and the only thing left is the drive thru. It happens. It happens to Meegan and I but on extremely rare occasions. We’ve had to turn to some form of fast food because we’ve been driving all day and there is no grocery store/restaurant near by. Over the last 3  years, on this Life Changing Journey, I’ve been to Dunkin Donuts once, Subway a handful of times and indulged in a Starbucks Pumpkin Scone at least a couple of times. So I point the finger at myself too. I’m just as susceptible when it comes to the convenience and ease of pointing and saying “I’ll take it to go please”

Yes, it’s convenient. Yes, it’s easier than spending time in your kitchen. Yes, there is an abundance of choices. Yes, you don’t have to think about anything except whether to add a side of Angry Poutine with your Triple Whopper with Cheese . But let’s get real people if you don’t have time to think about the food going into your body then there is something seriously wrong with how you are living your life.

There was something SERIOUSLY wrong with the way I was living my life.

I was addicted to the golden arches. I was addicted to the Jack that lived in that damn box. I was addicted to the drive thru, the isolated eating, the hiding of the evidence, the secret of knowing that when I sat down to dinner I had already consumed the “fourth meal” in between meal number two and meal number three. Never once, when my morbidly obese fingers grabbed that paper bag through the little window, did anyone think to ask; Do you know what you’re doing to your body?

The kids behind the “Stick it to Fast Food” campaign are on to something. That something might not seem so big now but it has the potential of doing something major…

It has the potential to save lives.

Think about putting the banner on your own blog. Think about pledging to boycott fast food for the month of November. Think about encouraging your kids to boycott then take a plan of action. Send the SITFF link to anyone you can think of. Facebook the hell out of it. Twitter the mother loving crap out of it (hashtag #stickit). Whatever you do, just take a moment to THINK about how much the fast food industry doesn’t care about you…

Then STICK IT TO THEM!