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Comment by TelmoMenezes | Hacker News Reader

Someone always feels the need to say something like this these days, when McD's is being discussed. If we call ourselves hackers we should question everything and notices the meaning behind these weird social rituals.

Please don't be offended, I do it too and am not claiming to be above you.

My take is that McD's is currently the symbol for poor people food. Poor people are both money-poor and time-poor, so fast food is one of the few options they have.

When people criticise MCD's, they are usually just signalling that they are not poor.

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There are tons of good for you, cheap, quick to make meals if you have access to the most simple kitchen. A simple salad, sandwich or bowl at spaghetti at home is cheaper at McDonald's and much better for you. Lack of time shouldn't be a justification for fast food. When I worked in an office it would take longer to go out and get food than it would for me to pack a lunch and eat at my desk.

Sure, but they don't give you the serotonin rush that McDonald's does. The fat+salt+sugar+carbs+MSG combinations is a very affordable drug these days. With more resources you can adopt healthier pleasures. Poor people don't have that luxury.

It's very easy for people with confortable lives to prescribe rational choices for the less fortunate, as if they were characters in the sims. But they are human beings with all the usual human flaws like the rest of us, and they want their day to be less miserable, like we would.

fat+salt+sugar

The book 'The End of Overeating' says that modern food is engineered to maximise this enjoyable aspect of food, to make it hyperpalletable. (It feels like a reasonable book, the biases are clear, it's just popsci so it's a bit flaky in parts and obviously a bit sensationalist.

(http://www.amazon.com/The-End-Overeating-Insatiable-American...)

Please don't perpetuate the myth of the MSG placebo effect here. It's a cultural meme with no basis in science [1, 2]; glutamate is widespread [3], yet nobody complains of "green tea headaches".

[1]http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/02786915939...

[2] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-7599.2006....

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamic_acid_%28flavor%29#Conc...

Except the comment you replied to wasn't a criticism of McD's.

He's pointing out a very important fact: McDonalds is not that tasty. What I make without these recipes using incredibly simple methods (as described above) tastes better. Frankly, these are elaborate instructions on how to make disgusting food.

Garbage. They're signalling that they enjoy something commonly known as food. You know, the stuff that you cook and prepare without resorting to huge amounts of preservatives in a mass produced fashion.

Ok, maybe a little harsh. I actually enjoy eating Big Macs. But there is better and more delicious food out there. Try it, you won't be disappointed!

See, you're doing the same thing to me. You're implying that I am unsophisticated foodwise just because I said that people who attack McD's may be posturing. Why do you assume that I haven't tried other things? Actually I grew up in southern Europe and the first McDonald's opened in my home town when I was around 18.

You wouldn't be implying that Southern European cuisine is better quality food than McDonalds now would you?

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