I used to work with this woman who was super healthy in her diet and even sold whatever the Amway equivalent of health spa lifestyle shit is; lifespring or something. Anyway, despite all this and her whole foods lifestyle, she'd say 'there's nothing like a quarter pounder with cheese sometimes' and she'd get them a couple times a year. I always respected her, and now looking back I wonder if she'd still like them if she took 5 years off and didn't have one for so long. I think they depend on that familiarity and are able milk it for a customer's lifetime. They've discussed that aspect in various documentaries over the years; the 'hook them as a child' argument. But having stopped eating it and trying it again, I find fast food is generally worse overall, and I think that's because they change it so often to maximize profits that only the regulars think it's the same. We know the modern fast food burger is of vastly different quality than it was in the 50s and 60s when all of it was getting going, but just how drastic the changes become over time is unknown to me. I just know what I taste. I'm sure the info is out there; they do have to release their ingredients. But the science stuff is all trade secrets. That's where the suspicious and fascinating things take place. They're like the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries in that regard. It's BIG business, and they're always doing cutting edge shit to shave pennies here and there. They reduce spoilage, they extend shelf life, they pump sugar where it traditionally doesn't belong, they add salt and preservatives. We've all seen the food that doesn't spoil. That shit freaks me out. I guess the healthiest you can eat there is breakfast, because they can't fuck too much with an egg and coffee. I think in Supersize Me their breakfast sausage was surprisingly one of the only 9 things on their entire menu (including coffee, tea, and diet coke) to not include sugar somewhere. Plenty of salt and fat though in sausage.