We joke about how shitty our diets are a lot; McDonald's is staple fodder for stand-up comedians lamenting how we all pretend we don't like it, and yet they serve a billion burgers a day, so someone must be eating it ... which, now that I think about it, basically makes McDonald's the Nickelback of food. And the sad part is, it's mostly just us. Sure, McDonald's sells billions per year, but the vast majority of it is eaten by Americans. One in four Americans eats at a fast food place every single day, ensuring a never-ending stream of fried potato shits and processed cheese sweats.
For reasons that can probably be best summed up by shrugging then turning on Netflix, the U.S. is way more tolerant of shitty food than other countries, down to a basic government policy level. Things like blue food dye are A-OK over here, and we'll readily slather that cerulean turd-batter on cereal and in drinks like it was the nectar of the sapphire gods. Several European countries ban it and numerous other additives we all enjoy for their circus-like curb appeal outright, because why the hell do you need to color your blueberry energy bar blue? Shouldn't it be blue already?
leeser87/iStock If they kept them like this, people would realize they aren't eating candy.
The craziest part about our terrible diet is that, as rich in resources as we are, with the ability to get fresh produce all year round, as well as grains and meat and exotic things that don't even grow on this side of the planet, Hostess still produces 500 million Twinkies per year. Meanwhile, one person in four in Sub-Saharan Africa is undernourished, and about 795 million people worldwide don't have enough food. Now, obviously we can't give them a bunch of oranges and canned tuna to balance the scales, but you can see how they'd look at the abundance we have, and then our insane willingness to skip over a nice tomato in favor of a cheese-stuffed sausage on a stick, and wonder what the fuck is wrong with us.
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