Uh... this is probably one of the reasons that cooking was invented - to preserve food, or at least extend its usable life.

On a related note, my 14-year old has had to sit through Supersize Me in school for the second time. She said it was just as obnoxious and preachy the second time around as it was the first. She noted that nobody's forced at gunpoint to walk into a fast food joint, but somehow that idea is overlooked in the film.

Oh, just to get it off my chest: THE REDSKINS COULDN'T BEAT A TEAM OF BABY DUCKS! Sorry, I feel better now.

Still shit quality meat. For the price of an Angus and a 20 minutes I can make you a bacon wrapped cheese delight using real meat. Near Zero Carbs and much better then that crap. It's low quality meat cooked to hockey puck levels and salted till they crystallize when dried. That will damage some of the more useful compounds found in meat. Not because it's cooked through but for expedience they cook it very fast at very high heat.

Also the bun and cheese should rot, which doesn't. Not saying that it has no nutritional value but really with a little bit of effort you can get something so much better for the same cost.

As far as Supersize Me. Well yeah it's preachy and they also don't mention that you can just not super size it. However if you can stem the childhood obesity issue without the feds getting involved I'll support preachy over regulated. Though this should really be parental issue.

HA! Take that you food snobs!

One point I would like to make in McD's favour is the safety factor. In my living in a foreign country for many years, and one that has at times very bad standards of food preparation, McDonald's has proven to be be a very safe place to eat. My many times eating there (which is a whole lot) I have never got food poisoning (that I can really remember). Now it is not because it is filled with chemicals it is because the restaurants are clean and the business has standards that it tries to uphold.

So the next time you are in India or China or someplace Africa and all the local foods are either giving you the runs or the heaves. McD's or BK or Wendy's will be a safe haven of OK food that will not sicken you.

"Even In-N-Out, which takes far longer than McDonald's, is only about a 5 minute wait in the drive-in in Hollywood or a 5 minute wait indoors at the one in Marina Del Rey."

Yes but while you are waiting there you have limited access to stuff. When you make your own you are home you can be doing anything. I'm not suggesting something that requires you to stand over the stove. I'm usually shooting zombies on the PS3 while I cook. You could be doing research on line or well just about anything that takes 20 minutes or less. We are talking about basic heating but with an oven vs a microwave. Never liked the mic for quality food I think it wrecks the taste.

I'm not suggesting a wine braised steak with caramelized shallots topped with blue and grouyer. Even though I like to cook the exotic stuff like that is only for special occasions.

I can't even remember the last time I had a roadburger!

BF spoils me with the venison. Vlad, I put just a little butter in the skillet, some garlic powder, a little cracked black pepper, about 3 minutes on each side, done! Serve with roasted taters (in the regular oven, about 20 minutes) and broccoli (which I steam in the microwave). Yum!

Total fangirl of Tom Naughton's. I showed my family his Big Fat Fiasco videos on youtube and finally convinced them I'm not putting myself in an early grave with all the fat I'm eating.

I try to avoid McD's because I feel like I want to crawl into a hole and die afterward. I occasionally forget this fact and relearn it the hard way. This doesn't happen with homemade burgers. Not sure what the problem is.

Flynne: I've do similar stuff but Amy said she doesn't cook she heats. So I figured she'd want something that does not require pan frying. Tougher cuts of venison I'll occasionally beat with a mallet then braise in wine or cider.

Vlad, that sounds yummy, too, I'll have to try that! When you make a venison stew do you put wine or beer in it? I usually will put half a glass of either merlot or Sam Adams Octoberfest in it. And some chopped tomatoes too.

Thanks for breaking down the "Twinkie diet"-I suspected the results were something like this. All this guy has proven is that you can lose weight if you cut calories, which, duh, we all knew. I think this experiment got particular notoriety for use of Twinkies-lots of diets endorse using "treat" foods, but Twinkies sort of epitomize the stereotype of food that a fat person eats (plus they're nasty and widely considered to have NO nutritional value) so it adds to the shock value.

I'd imagine that an adult male can eat way more than 1500 calories on a low carb diet, or at least feel a lot fuller and more satisfied. On the other hand, I guess this does a good job of proving that you CAN eat whatever you want and lose weight, as long as you are willing to exercise moderation and portion control.

Haven't tried stews with venison. Since I don't hunt right now the cuts I get are store bought and they never have the stew meat. Either the hunters save it for themselves or they get cleared out fast. Can't bring myself to stew a really nice piece.

The rifle I have won't be seen as a hunting rifle and handgun hunting is basically illegal up here.

A Pumpkin Spice Doughnut (there is no such thing as a "donut")? That sounds horrible.

Yeah I don't blame you. Never waste a good cut in a stew. Ever do venison stroganoff? Just like beef, only with venison. Add some chopped onion and sliced mushrooms, oh, gods, it's good!

Rifle season just started here in CT, but BF usually uses a bow.

A Pumpkin Spice Doughnut (there is no such thing as a "donut")? That sounds horrible.

Right?? And who would ever want to put pumpkin in their coffee??? But Dunkin' Donuts does! Pumpkin-spice coffee, get it while it's hot! Or you can have it iced!

None for me, thanks, I'm driving.

I adore McD's. I had a double quarter pounder with cheese with no bun (thanks Amy) last night. Mmmmm.

Every coffee place I know of, including Starbucks, has pumpkin spice latte at this time of year. It's absolutely wonderful, unless you hate pumpkin. Pumpkin happens to be my favorite flavor for almost everything, even ice cream.

Don't get me wrong, Karen, I love pumpkin too, just not in my coffee! Best ice cream I ever had was pumpkin chocolate cheesecake, courtesy of Cold Stone Creamery. YuM!

Never made it into an In-N-Out Burger, but I'm not out West all that much. The big local chain everyone raves about out here is Five Guys, but their burgers are a little too rich for my lunchtime tastes. Pretty good eatin', though.

Miss Alkon, have you seen any Jollibee franchises in your area? They're an Asian chain, I think out of Taiwan or Hong Kong. They're the biggest fast food chain in the Philippines, bigger than McDonald's. I've heard they're making inroads on the West Coast -- it would probably be fun to compare their L.A. and Manila menus!

This is one of the earliest forms of food preparation known to man (aside from cooking meat on a fire) glad these idjiots finally caught up.

Sun dried tomatoes, beef jerky....mmmmm makin' me hungry.

I so miss In-N-Out. And unfortunately, we're staying on the LEast Coast for the holidays, so I won't get my usual December fix. Waaaaaaah.

If I may speak as a woman who works in health care...

The diet the Kansas State professor undertook illustrates the whole Weight Watchers principle: Eat what you want, just eat less of it.

Different people have different reactions to medications, different reactions to illness. So why do we assume that there is a "one plan fits all" diet out there? Some people have celiac disease, which proves to me that when it comes to food digestion, decisions have to be made based upon what works for the individual. Amy, I think it's great that you found a diet that works so well for you. However, I remain unconvinced that one way of food consumption is going to work for everyone.

People who are diabetic often have to adjust their medication until they find the amount that works for them. I think that diet should be approached in a similar fashion. See what works for you, keep your intake of food moderate, and get off your ass and move more.

Pumpkin flavored coffee is a crime against humanity.

If pumpkin-flavored coffee is wrong, I don't want to be right.

>>Every coffee place I know of, including Starbucks, has pumpkin spice latte at this time of year.

Oh god, they were serving samples of their gingerbread spice latte at our local this weekend & I rashly tried it.

It's got the most revolting punch - a combination of a chemical cookie mix & powdered ginger sugar. I thought I was going to barf it out of my nose.

I've only had In and Out once when I was in Las Vegas and it was really good. Oregon doesn't have any. We do have Five Guys now and they're really good! They are way too filling fir me though.

That reminds me of the hippie/health nut obsession with "preservatives".

I've heard countless complaints about "preservatives" and worry-mongering about how things "don't rot".

I have never once seen them point me at any scientific data suggesting that "preservatives" as a class were actually harmful.

(Even more ironically, some of the same health nuts push the anti-oxidant fad... without realizing, evidently, that preservatives are often very strong antioxidants, like BHT.)

In-N-Out was my favorite fast food on the West Coast. I used to eat lunch at the Huntington Beach one a lot when I was out there. But until I saw the post on The Chive about it the other day, I had never heard of their secret menu. Amy, you ever order anything off of that?

"As far as Supersize Me. Well yeah it's preachy and they also don't mention that you can just not super size it. However if you can stem the childhood obesity issue without the feds getting involved I'll support preachy over regulated. "

I suspect that will work on teenagers about as well as preachy anti-drug films do.

I worked for a fast food restaurant for about a year and a half. They had everything very organized and very clean. On the other hand, after having probably eaten a burger once a day for probably 6 days out of the week for that time (food was half off if you worked there), I no longer eat hamburgers. No gross stories to tell, but I don't like them anymore.

Bread and cheese won't rot if they dry out first either.

If you want to see a McBurger rot, put it in a ziploc bag and leave it in the sun for a week.

Moisture is everything when it comes to decay. Which is why the first methods of preservation were drying, curing and salting. If you make an environment inhospitable to bacteria/fungus/mold, then your food can't rot.

And I'll have no bashing of Pumpkin Spice coffee. I'm not typically into flavored coffees, but Green Mountain (Vermont hippie coffee roasters) has three that I like: blueberry, southern pecan, and pumpkin spice.

Finally, the guy that did SuperSize Me is an idiot, and he assumes that everyone else is dumber than him, so he ate like 4,000 calories a day.