Okay, okay, I admit it. I'm about 10 years too late, but I finally read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. It originally came out in 2001, but I've always been a late bloomer (even with new books). Many things about fast food and our meat industry I already knew or assumed, but it's just sad when almost everything negative you thought about our food is true.

I gave up eating fast food on a regular basis in my college days. First McDonald's (you might as well start at the top), then Taco Bell, Burger King, Subway and the rest fell like dominoes. I knew the food wasn't good for me, and I disciplined myself out of it. I wish I could say the same for my TV consumption. That's not to say I don't take random visit to the fast food world, but now it is an anomaly rather than the norm.

Reading Fast Food Nation, you begin to realize that the way we cook our food in general has changed drastically since the 1950s. Instead of fresh food, much of what we eat is freeze dried, microwave ready, made with additives and preservatives that make something taste like something else. I discovered that through the magic of chemistry, we can make anything taste like anything. Natural flavoring is not better than artificial flavoring. It's just a different starting point. I don't know why we don't have carrots that taste like milkshakes, but that would probably confuse people more than convince then to eat more carrots. Steak apples, anyone?

The thought of fast food is ingrained in our psyche from early on. My daughter is two and half, and she already know what a Happy Meal is. I have never taken her to a fast food restaurant, but thanks to commercials, relatives and a toy in every box, she already has McDonald's in her brain. 'Yeah, Happy Meal. Mmm-hmm.'

The fast food culture has homogenized the food we eat (same cows, same potatoes, same chickens, same corn), created a factory-line inexperienced work force, and caused the obesity rate to skyrocket in America. At the rate of foreign fast food expansion, the world is next.

I read about how chickens and cows are raised for mass slaughter. They are basically piled together next to each other, standing in their own manure. They are slaughtered at such a fast paced assembly line style that it is inevitable that there is shit in the meat. The cows are fed corn mixed with animal by-product. Basically, cows eat cow. Chickened eat cow. Cows eat chicken. And so on.

That bothered me a little, but this bothered me more. The people who work at these slaughterhouses are considered only slightly more important than the meat. Unlike chickens, cows must be cut by hand (because you cannot make cows the same size). The workers must cut at such a rapid rate that accidents and injuries are inevitable. The factories (conglomerates in themselves) coerce workers to lie about injuries and falsify reports on a regular basis. Most of their workers are illegals, so this is easy to do.

That bothered me more, but this bothered me most. Most of our food-bourne illnesses (e. coli and salmonella) are due to feeding these animals the cheapest feed (corn and by product). Grass fed cows almost never have e. coli because it's what is natural for them to eat. There is so much crap and sickness in our food that outbreaks are expected. The routine way we make our meat for the public is making us sick. I used to regret eating so much fast food for lunch as a kid, but when I found out how good the food was in the cafeteria, I realize it didn't really matter. All the food was lousy.

Of course, everyone in the food industry denies any wrong doing. They are just making a product for the public in the cheapest, most profitable way. Nothing more American than that. Even if it means changing the very culture of America.

The first step to changing this lousy trend is the most obvious: stop eating so much fast food. I still get a pizza on a regular basis or a burger at the pub, but still no McDonald's. I've even gone a step farther to eating cage free eggs and buying my meat at meat markets. I actually eat a greater variety of meats now. When I consider that a pound of ground lamb cost the same as a fast food combo, the price doesn't seem that bad. It's pretty tasty too.

You can't change people. They can only change themselves. McDonald's won't change until we stop buying. No protests needed. Just stop buying. Profit margins are a bitch to the big corporations. You don't have to do it for the cows, or the immigrants, or somebody else's kid. Just do it for yourself. You will be surprised what a few yourselves out there can do.

Chris Jungle eats as little poop as possible.