24/7 fast food breakfast leaves student asking: good or not?

Photo Credit: Photo by Hannah Cox

McDonald’s thanks their customers as they leave one of their restaurants.

October 6 was one for the history books. The day Americans have waited for has finally arrived: McDonald’s breakfast can now be bought past 10:30. Hallelujah.

All of our favorite breakfast items, including but not limited to the Egg McMuffin, Sausage McMuffin, Hotcakes and Cinnamon Melts can now be ordered all day long. It is not enough for the McDonald’s frequent fliers to eat off of the regular menu. No, we need breakfast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This fast-food chain feeds 68 million people every day — and people are wondering why America is getting fat. Now these millions of people have the opportunity to continue to devour greasy, unhealthy food not for two meals a day, but three. McDonald’s is of such importance to our society that even the Queen of England owns her own McDonald’s. Now she can enjoy an Egg McMuffin any hour of the day.

Now there has been a lot of discussion regarding what McDonald’s puts in their meats. Now, is the question “What is in this hamburger?” even allowed to be a valid question as the answer should be meat? At home when your father grills hamburgers outside on the fourth of July, there is no question that it is 100 percent ground beef. Not pink slime or pureed bone or whatnot. This should not even be a discussion. And the fact that this question even exists became one of the reasons that I began my McDonalds boycott.

My boycott began with that question and ended with a video. My mother shared a 30 minute clip named “Farm to Fridge” with me a few years ago. In that half an hour I struggled to keep watching —afraid that I was going to vomit. The horrific animal abuse taped had me weak in the knees. After the video was finally over, my resolution to never set foot in another McDonalds again was set.

On the flip side, McDonalds is not the sole reason that America is significantly bigger than we were half a decade ago. Other fast-food chains, along with the lack of exercise in many American households have us gaining a little bit of weight, but McDonald’s is the icon that represents obesity in the United States.