Mac Attack...Really

People addicted to fast food, in addition to compromising their health, tend to be more grumpier.  Morgan Spurlock reports on his month long McDonald's diet that he was irritable and suffered from  terrible headaches.  He experienced nausea a the thought of his next Big Mac meal while at the same time experiencing cravings for it.  He writes in Don't Eat This Book that he became both a physical and an emotional wreck while on his fast-food-only diet which was the subject of the documentary film "Supersize Me." 

All this may explain the behavior of two Long Island men at a drive up McDonald's window recently.  Denise Bonilla reports in Newsday August 18, 2005

A 71-year-old man argued with a customer behind him at a McDonald's drive-thru, stabbed the man twice, then ordered five double-cheeseburgers and went on his way yesterday, Nassau County police said.

The argument happened when a 45-year-old man, whose name was not released by police, believed he'd been cut off in the drive-thru and started yelling at John Kent, of 924 Fulton St. ..

Comments

[Cynthia Clampitt]

Blaming it on McDonald's food sounds like the latest example of the ongoing retreat from personal responsibiity. It's ridiculous. Of course McDonald's food didn't make the man stab the other guy. Besides, I've seen people who never eat at McDonald's have perfectly awful fights.

And as for feeling grumpy -- I have a friend who eats at McDonald's at least 5 times a week (not a passion I share with her by any means), and she is the most relentlessly happy person I know. I suspect that Spurlock was grumpy because he hates McDonald's and resented eating there and ruining his health.

And just out of curiosity, why is it only McDonald's that everyone seems to attack. KFC and Burger King will kill you just as fast. Escaping Key West yesterday, after watching Katrina blow through town, the Greyhound bus I had caught to Miami (the small planes at the Key West airport weren't flying) stopped at Burger King for our lunch break -- and there was no where else was nearby. The burger and fries made me feel pretty bloated and not terribly well nourished -- though I still felt cheerful and well adjusted -- no desire to stab anyone at all.

[Foodie]

Hey--glad to see you back, Cynthia. You certainly are right about ample joints in which to find less than healthy food.

Maybe it's just road rage--in the grocery store line today I chatted with a retired chef, a Greek named Jimmy, about how "everyone is in a hurry, everyone's grumpy, you don't move fast enough and some guy in a car gives you the finger--it's crazy--we're all going to die soon enough anyway." Then he pointed at the sweet potatoes I was buying and asked if I boiled them, just a little, before I prepared them.
Nope, but I think I will, especially as Jimmy let me in line ahead of him.......

[Cynthia]

Maybe it's just the backlash from the whole entitlement movement -- the "looking out for number one" generation, which has grown up reading "winning through intimidation." Everyone has been told they deserve whatever they want, and when anything gets in the way of that, they get angry -- and since something almost inevitably gets in the way of our getting everything we want, a lot of people are angry all the time.

I think there would be a lot less anger if people were more grateful and contented with what they have. Also, I think people need to realize that, as a wise friend once told me, you can (at least in a free country) have anything you want -- you just can't have everything you want.