Has Fast Food Gotten Worse, or Am I Just Getting Old?

Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨1SimpleTailor@startrek.website⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

I’m genuinely curious. Years ago, I was a chubby young pothead who lived on fast food. Taco Bell, McDonald’s, KFC, you name it—I ate it. Back in college, fast food probably made up at least 50% of my diet. And it wasn’t just because it was quick and cheap—I actually enjoyed it.

But these days, I find myself craving it less and less. Besides being more health-conscious, it just doesn’t hit the spot like it used to. It’s more expensive than ever, mostly bland, and I feel terrible after I eat it. So what’s changed? Is it just part of the enshitification of everything? Have I just gotten old, or has fast food really gone downhill?

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aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The only fast food I enjoyed in recent memory was Pizza Hut. During some scare about MSG they removed all of the MSG and I ordered it a time or two after that and it was nearly inedible.

I suspect similar things happened with other types of fast food. I think there’s a flanderization effect happening with a lot of it. The same is definitively not the case for things like pizza in general, as I can order from my local NY-style pizza place and pizza is still just as good as it ever was.

It wouldn’t surprise me if fast food was objectively shittier across a number of different metrics.

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RBWells@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Doesn’t pot famously make food more enjoyable?

I agree, fast food is not worth what it costs. The reasonably quick food landscape has expanded though, we can get different things, better Mexican food, a Chinese fast to go place with some really good tasting stuff, a restaurant that advertises “curry in a hurry” even.

Popeyes is still good though.

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- Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Gonna have to disagree with you on Popeyes. They’re generally good for the first few months they’re open, the nosedive. The fries are good, the chicken is dry and extremely thin for what you pay.
  
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  - RBWells@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It’s still good where we are, is in a run down part of town, not generally even fast, technically, but still so good. Publix has good fried chicken too but the spicy Popeye’s, so good and the only ‘fast food’ I will eat. Even french fries I generally just make oven fries now, but I never even try to make fried chicken.
    
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cley_faye@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Seeing the brand names you cited, I’ll assume you’re in the US, so my comment may or may not be as useful as some brands are way different in France (for example, Subway is decent most of the time).

Growing up I sure got less and less attracted to fast food, and trying it occasionally did feel bad in some case. Although there’s a definite shift in not wanting to clog my own arteries, it’s not all there is to it. Some brands really feel awful now (McDonald’s being the worst fast food out there these days), but there are also other that still “hit that spot” (BK mostly). I think it’s safe to say that some big names let themselves go bad, AND it is still possible to find good fast food stuff.

With that said, it do gets more expensive, as everything else. The craving for fast food really become less common as time pass, and although it’s still good while eating, there’s still a tinge of guilt afterward, knowing it’s both too expensive for what it is (I mean the actual food, not necessarily that it’s too expensive for service and stuff) and that it’s not that great for yourself.

I’d say if you keep them as an occasional treat and know a few good places to indulge, it can work. But it sure feels like it requires more thinking than just dropping in any fast food joint to have a good time.

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Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Fast food is called “fast food” because it’s fast, not because it’s food.

Apart from that, there is probably no production chain that has profited better from making things the cheaper way than anything related to food.

So this does not just concern fast food, but the HFCS loaded soda you drink, your bread swimming in dough raising and stabilizing chemicals, or your tinned soup made from water, starch, food coloring, flavors, and preservatives.

Just because of the masses produced and sold, any cent saved on a single Burger quickly adds up to a million dollar in extra profits. Don’t expect them to waste that money on better ingredients or flavor, as long as you keep buying that stuff, they keep on making it worse to save yet another cent.

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- Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yeh you don’t like it, sure, but the question was whether it had gotten worse in some way that’s quantifiable different to how it used to be in the past, or if it’s just OP’s personal taste changing.
  
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  - Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Given that nearly all fast food recipies changed in the last decades primarily to make them cheaper to produce, you can safely assume their flavor went down the drain.
    
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The_Helmet_Stays_On@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yes

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shani66@ani.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Oh it absolutely has. I don’t eat much fast food, but I’m guessing the quality of oil has dropped significantly.

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Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I think the taste and texture may have become noticeably worse after the ban on artificial trans fats. It definitely impacted some of the junk food I used to buy in the grocery store. (I’m not saying the ban was a bad thing, just that a lot of us noticed the change).

Whatever the cause, I have noticed it, too.

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FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It’s gotten worse and the portion sizes are like fucking 1/3rd of what they used to be. It’s also like 3 times the price now. So yes, gast food is absolute dogshit now.

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KammicRelief@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’m in my 40s… similar to you, used to eat fast food often, and enjoyed it. I was having a horrible day a couple weeks ago, and thought “fuck it… I’m eating at McDs.” It was disgusting, not like I remembered it all.

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Toneswirly@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If you eat it regularly then you become accustomed to it, but when you stop for awhile it no longer appeals

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