McDonald’s. Quick, easy, and delicious. What could be better? A simple stop by the drive threw for a heathy, tasty meal. Right? This country is filled with fast food restaurants claiming to make our lives simpler. But are McDonald’s and other kinds of fast food really alternatives `to home made, or better yet, home grown meals? Is faster and “simpler” always the better option? We Americans live busy, fast paced lives. It often seems that our food should be fast too. But whether we like it or not, we are only human. We aren’t made of steel, nor do we have unlimited energy. Sometime, we need to just stop and smell the roses.

Sure, lots of people love the ease and delicious taste of McDonald’s food. And there’s nothing wrong with eating at McDonald’s. Sometimes. The key is balance. If a little kid is on one end of a seesaw, and an elephant jumps on the other, that kid is going to go flying. That doesn’t help anyone. I think we need to just freeze for a few seconds and really look around us. Where are we? Are we anywhere good? We are a country that puts wealth and success over kindness and truth. So who do you want to be? A real, sincere person, or a selfish miser? We need to wake up from this nightmare we’re living in and realize that there are more important things than our selves. McDonald’s claims that their food is healthy and that they are truly trying to help us out. But do they really care, or is everything they tell us just a bunch of chicken nuggets? Let’s take a look at what they are really feeding us, what they really care about, and what they do to get us to eat at their restaurant. Then, we can decide who the people of McDonald’s really are.

McDonald’s claims that their food is healthy for us, but is that really true? They are a fast food chain after all. I’d like to explain how McDonald’s food might not be as healthy as they’d like us to believe. First of all, let’s take a quick glance at where we as Americans are today, health wise. Thanks to our rotten eating habits, 63.1% of all American are either obese or over weight. And that’s just our country. McDonald’s is a world-wide chain. Humans are really going down hill when it comes to our health and overall well being as the number of chain restaurants increases. Now, let’s look at McDonald’s personally, and what kinds of ingredients are in the food that they’re trying to pass off as “healthy.”

Burgers. They are a very popular food world wide these days, and especially in the country where they originated. America. At McDonald’s, the buns alone contain both high fructose corn syrup and sugar as main ingredients. The cheese, used on their burgers as well as other dishes, contains artificial coloring. If it were real cheese, it would have proper coloring on its own. And both McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets and their “world famous” fries contain something called “dimethylopolysiloxane.” That’s a twenty-one letter word, and certainly not a product found in the average kitchen. With ingredients like that, I am truly stumped as to how McDonald’s could possibly be healthy. In fact, I am rather appalled that they would be selfish enough to lie like that. People, eating food they think is healthy because the very restaurant where they bought the food lied to them. It’s because of money obsessed businesses like that, like McDonald’s that our kind is going so downhill. It needs to stop. Lying about food quality. Could they possibly sink lower? Well, I’m sad to report that misleading information isn’t the only trick up McDonald’s sleeve.

Bribery is another way McDonald’s tries to convince us that their food is good, between Happy Heals and celebrities. Are Happy Meal toys provided simply to make children happy? And what about all of the famous athletes showing up in McDonald’s commercials? Personally, I think it’s more than customer satisfaction that is driving their business.

Kids love Happy Meals. It applies to so many children that it’s nearly a fact. But are today’s children really choosing McDonald’s over a home cooked meal because it tastes so good? Is it because the children believe McNuggets and burgers are healthy for them? Or is it more because they are bribed with fun looking toys advertised all the time on T.V.? Knowing McDonald’s, I have to say that it’s, in most cases, the latter. What five year old could resist a cool race car? Or a doll form the newest Disney movie? When it comes to kids, McDonald’s is all about bribery.

And the fact that adults don’t fall for Happy Meal toys is no problem for McDonald’s. When your on a diet, famous athletes probably look like gods. To see Michael Jordan and Venus Williams on a McDonald’s commercial often seems like proof that McDonald’s is healthy. If those celebrities, skinny and muscled, love McDonald’s, than it should be the perfect way to lose some pounds and get the body of your dreams. Right? Well, before you decide on that, let’s think about it. How do we know that those successful athletes are actually eating form McDonald’s, or any fast food restaurant, for that matter? For all we know, those athletes could be payed to lie. It’s just the kind of rotten trick that money obsessed businesses, like McDonald’s, would pull. And knowing the quality and nutrition of the fast food, chances are that that’s exactly what happened. They lie, they bribe, they feed us horrible food just to make money. Can there really be anything else McDonald’s is doing to persuade us into eating their food? There can, and there is.

McDonald’s has other ways of pulling us in, ways that are often overlooked. They have a logo and a slogan that go just a bit deeper than we think. Picture the McDonald’s logo. I’m sure it isn’t hard to bring to mind. The “golden” arches of McDonald’s have been famous since their premiere in 1952. Think about the colors of the trademark. Red and yellow with white writing. Aren’t those the colors of a lot of fast food logos? Think about it. Burger King, Wendy’s, K.F.C., Domino’s Pizza, even many gas stations. They all have at least two of those colors. But why? Well, believe it or not, it’s been proven that those colors make you hungry. I don’t know about you, but I would call that cheating. You should only eat when you are genuinely hungry and stop when you’re full. But McDonald’s logo is designed to make you feel, or think you feel hungry, even right after eating, and continue eating long after you are full. No wonder we are a country of over weight diabetics! And what about high cholesterol? Do you think it’s the cholesterol’s fault? No. It’s the fault of idiots consuming way too much junk food, as well as the fault of the lying, bribing, cheating businesses that fill our country. Businesses like McDonald’s.

And what about their tag line? “I’m Lovin’ It.” Wow. Such a brilliant catch phrase. Clearly designed to make people believe that McDonald’s is an amazing, lovable business, a silly slogan is no reason to get sucked into a rotten restaurant. And yet that’s exactly what McDonald’s succeeds at doing everyday. Will you be the next gullible victim? So, if we add everything up, we have lying, bribery and cheating. And that’s just the beginning. That’s what McDonald’s is and does. Pathetic.

So do you see what I mean? It’s all about the money; going through all that trouble, nearly trying to force us to hand over the cash.

Now, I realize that for some people, the taste of McDonald’s alone is enough to convince them to buy. Some people really to love the taste and ease of fast food. And there’s nothing wrong with eating at McDonald’s occasionally. But do you remember what I said before about balance? Balance is the key. Our eating habits, as Americans, are out of control and unnatural. You will never go far by living off McDonald’s. The food they serve is dangerous to our health, and the ingredients they use are disgusting. And all they’re doing by hiring celebrities and singing little jingles is trying to distract us, to convince us otherwise.

So, now that you know the fact’s you can make the decision of how you want to eat, behave and live. It’s your choice. Choose well.