|
Silly me. I thought that as my kids and I got older that I would leave eating at fast food restaurants behind me. Well maybe not completely behind, but that I would frequent them far less often. Working out of my home and enjoying cooking as much as I do, I figured that once the kids were older, my eating habits would change.
I guess it was wishful thinking on my part, because that hasn’t happened. I still go to fast food joints whenever the opportunity presents itself, with or without the kids. Call it a guilty pleasure or force of habit, but I just can’t seem to shake it.
Maybe I am addicted to trans fats or could there be something else they add to the food that is causing my addiction, I don’t know. All I know is that when the craving strikes me it takes every ounce of will power not to jump in the car and head for the nearest fast food dealer. Generally I lose that battle of wills.
With all of the recent assaults on trans fats, I will be finding out soon enough if that is the culprit responsible for part of my addiction. I personally think my problem is more psychological than chemical, because it is not necessarily a matter of taste.
My cravings are not always driven by the “higher” end of the fast food spectrum. While it happens occasionally I don’t really gravitate towards, well for the lack of a better term, a “quality” type joint like In-N-Out or The Hat. Sure their ingredients are generally fresher and are a step above the massive chains like Jack In The Box or McDonalds, but there is something about the massive chains that keeps luring me back.
I don’t know what it is about “Jack’s” tacos, but they are perhaps the guiltiest of all pleasures. My god, they aren’t really a taco, at least not the type of taco we were brought up eating and definitely not what we now know, thanks to our neighbors to the South, what a “real” taco is supposed to look or taste like.
Since high school, my friends and I have had numerous theories as to what the “meat” was actually made of. Even though we were never able to answer the question or pinpoint its origin, despite some rather unsavory speculations, it never stopped us from eating them, sometimes multiples at a time.
And sure a Big Mac is not as fresh or as “good for you” as an In-N-Out Double-Double, but there is just something about it. Especially when I see one of those advertising banners touting a deal on it, my car wants to pull into the drive thru line as if it has a mind of its own.
Oh those banners are just the tips of the psychological iceberg. Couple those banners with the onslaught of media ads and TV commercials that we are all subjected to on a daily basis and we are all hungry sitting ducks. Yes, I am as big of a sucker as the next guy and I have a tendency to buy into whatever the advertising machine shoves down my throat.
As we all know from experience, what we see is not what we usually get, but that doesn’t stop most of us from going back for seconds. If a particular burger tantalizes our taste buds, despite the fact that it didn’t aesthetically match what we saw on the commercial, it becomes a moot point. The taste has it.
Getting us to buy that burger is what the advertising is all about and it works. I know in the back of my mind, when I see the latest and greatest burger being touted, the pictures I am seeing will in no way reflect what I will see when I take it out of the bag, but that doesn’t stop me from buying it. Especially when the ingredients appeal to my carnivorous side. I’ve always been a sucker for charred animal flesh.
Where I draw the line, as does the rest of my family, is when we feel that the over zealous advertisers flat out lie to us. It is one thing to position your lettuce, tomatoes, and onions in a perfect stack and putting your best patty forward. It is another thing to hire a spokes person for your product who is, well, shall we say size challenged, in order to make your product look bigger than it is.
Recently there have been quite a few violators in this arena. One of the most notable is a little ditty offered up by KFC, the chicken emporium formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken. They changed their name a couple of years back in an attempt to divorce themselves from the word “fried”. I guess they saw that trans fat express heading their way.
The culinary tidbit they have been pushing for the last year has been what they call the “Snacker”. While appropriately named, because for it to be a meal you would have to have ten of the suckers, to look at it on TV, with the actor they are using, you would think it was a Whopper.
The other that is misleading is Taco Bell’s commercial that has Carmen Electra eating one of their new burritos. I know Carmen is small, but to present the burrito as so big that she can barely get her mouth around it is a flat out lie according to my wife who goes to Taco Bell often.
With all of the government agencies that are out there trying to regulate every aspect of our lives, I think it is about time that we rein in these advertising gremlins that go over the line as far as their representations go. If it is going to require more than one of their products to fill you up, there should be a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen telling you so.
I don’t have to worry about my tacos at Jack’s though. The last time they ran a commercial for them it featured a guy trying to decide how many to get while talking to Jack at the drive-through. Jack suggests that he get about 20 and the guy agrees.
That sounds about right to me.
|
