Posted on 07/28/2013 1:14:21 PM PDT by lowbridge
What is “the cheapest, most nutritious and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history” Hint: It has 390 calories. It contains 23g, or half a daily serving, of protein, plus 7% of daily fiber, 20% of daily calcium and so on.
Also, you can get it in 14,000 locations in the US and it usually costs $1. Presenting one of the unsung wonders of modern life, the McDonald’s McDouble cheeseburger.
The argument above was made by a commenter on the Freakonomics blog run by economics writer Stephen Dubner and professor Steven Leavitt, who co-wrote the million-selling books on the hidden side of everything.
Dubner mischievously built an episode of his highly amusing weekly podcast around the debate. Many huffy back-to-the-earth types wrote in to suggest the alternative meal of boiled lentils. Great idea. Now go open a restaurant called McBoiled Lentils and see how many customers line up.
But we all know fast food makes us fat, right? Not necessarily. People who eat out tend to eat less at home that day in partial compensation; the net gain, according to a 2008 study out of Berkeley and Northwestern, is only about 24 calories a day.
The outraged replies to the notion of McDouble supremacy — if it’s not the cheapest, most nutritious and most bountiful food in human history, it has to be pretty close — comes from the usual coalition of class snobs, locavore foodies and militant anti-corporate types. I say usual because these people are forever proclaiming their support for the poor and for higher minimum wages that would supposedly benefit McDonald’s workers. But they’re completely heartless when it comes to the other side of the equation: cost.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Well, I am quite close to Pat’s Philly cheese steaks.
I have never had one; I credit myself with better judgment. I remain convinced that McDonald's "food" is for the palate-impaired.
So... the peanut butter replaces the “soy protein” I’ve seen on the ingredients list? (I’ve only seen White Castle burgers in frozen form, in the supermarket.)
A McDouble is a double cheeseburger with only one slice of cheese instead of two.
Any carnivore or omnivore which does not require live or raw food would gobble up ANY cheeseburger in a nanosecond.
McDonalds doesn't start with a produc,t then convince people through marketing to like it. They determine through product testing which profitable products their customers will buy, then they market those products.
That's the way the fast food business survives.
>> but it still tastes like cardboard.
Nah, the $1 McDouble doesn’t taste like cardboard, it tastes like fat on a bun... and fat on a bun tastes GOOOOOOD...
Yeah, they've got the metric system over there. They don't know what the f%$k a quarter pounder is.
What do they call a Big Mac?
A Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac
Le Big Mac.
What do they call a Whopper
I don't know, I didn't go into Burger King.
Off topic, but I was in England and Burger King had a "Bean Whopper", guess they have a lot of vegetarians over there.
And I did NOT try it. Gross.
No E at the end of "Royal".
It is not edible. Ammonia and pink slime, no one should touch McDonald’s burgers.
No wonder you stay. Philly cheese steak is some of the best eating there is.
The only reason we ever bought them was after going drag racing and coming home broke it was stop at McDonalds where the hamburgers were 13 1/2 cents each or $1/dozen!
If we weren’t broke we went down the street to Bobs Big Boy and had a real hamburger.
“Check out the big brain on Brad.”
They are good. We have some great sub shops here too.
I can only think that the McDouble is a loss leader. They make it up on the soda and fries.
But not from me. I bring my own soda, or splurge on a $1 iced coffee.
Yes, I'm cheap, at least when it comes to food.
When I'm running errands, I make a point of grabbing one. It also saves me the time of preparing lunch.
Pretzel buns are where it's at. It's the culinary invention of the 2000s. I used to get a pretzel bun "sunrise sandwich" every day on the way to work. Very addictive. You'll never want to go back to a regular bun.
I remember going there as a kid. I remember going to a McDonlad's like the one pictured below. Check out the prices, circa 1969.
This was the entire menu:
Hamburger 0.15
Cheeseburger 0.15
Shake 0.25
Fries 0.15
Coke 0.10
Rootbeer 0.10
Coffee 0.10
Orange Drink 0.10
Milk 0.10
Gas cost $0.29/gallon, too. Ah, the good old days.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.