Not-so-Happy Meals

If you're a fast food consumer and want to stay that way, stop reading right here. If, however, you're looking for some incentive to kick that habit and Super Size Me didn't do the trick, then take a walk with me.

Nonna Joann over at BabyBites.info is doing an experiment. She bought a McDonald's Happy Meal about a year ago. She didn't eat it; she put it on the shelf in her office. Nonna's shtick is about turning children who are picky eaters into healthy ones, so she wanted to experience – up close and personal – what was so enticing about Mickey D's secret weapon.

Using survey statistics that show a baby's first finger food is a French fry and French fries account for 25% of kids' and teens' vegetable intake as a jumping point, Nonna wanted to see if the Happy Meal rumors were true: Would it, like a Twinkie, last for years?

Her findings are perspicuous and mildly horrifying. On the one-year birthday of her Happy Meal, it still looked pretty much good enough to eat.

Here's how things transpired:
Day three, my cheery Happy Meal’s yummy smell is hardly noticeable as I come into my office. I can’t help but think about the hidden ingredient in much of McDonalds’ food. It’s even in their fries …MSG. MSG is an excitotoxin, which over-stimulate brain cells to the point that they die.

It’s day five... If this were real food, there should be some decomposition. Morgan Spurlock’s (Super Size Me) McDonald’s experiment found fries are turning black from decomposition by two weeks. But, McDonald’s fries never did decompose. That can’t be food, for food to nourish your body it needs to decompose. Could the lack of decomposition be because of trans fat? I thought McDonald's said they no longer use trans fat, but according to the McDonald's website their French fries are prepared in hydrogenated soybean oil, corn oil, or canola oil. Any hydrogenated oil is a trans fat!

I wish I could say that my Happy Meal has changed in some way. But it looks pretty much the same nine months after I purchased it. The bread is crusty. That’s all!

My Happy Meal is one year old today and it looks pretty good. It NEVER smelled bad. The food did NOT decompose. It did NOT get moldy, at all.

I think ants, mice and flies are smarter than people, because they weren’t fooled. They never touched the Happy Meal. Children shouldn’t either.

And here's what the McDonald's website has to say about their food: “McDonald’s offers a range of menu options to help meet your family’s nutrition needs. When it comes to eating with your kids at McDonald’s, you can feel good knowing that our Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals contain important nutrients that growing kids need. Many of the foods we serve at McDonald’s are the same trusted brands you might purchase for your family at your local grocery store.”

Nonna even debunks the argument that eating fast food is cheaper than cooking at home by doing an actual budget for food stamps recipients based on $300 a month for two people.

I've outlined before the nutritional elements each of us needs to achieve health for ourselves and our planet. The list includes non-processed whole foods, good fats and carbohydrates, complete proteins/amino acids, omega oils, digestive enzymes, probiotics, fiber, and water. As we become healthier, we will naturally become happier.

The Happy Meal and its kinfolk do none of us any good. These “foods” do nothing more than encourage factory farming, pesticide usage, packaging waste, diabetes, and obesity. Where's the happy in that?