Just drive through

In today's fast society, everything is about convenience. The grocery store is stocked with microwaveable frozen foods and packaged foods for lunchtime convenience. This is not all bad. Companies are starting to sell healthy versions of the frozen dinner. I tend to bring frozen and packaged foods to work because I cross the border every day and with so many restrictions on what you can and cannot bring across the border, I prefer to be able to show the border guard what is in my lunch bag without any doubts. That little USDA inspected stamp has become a very important thing to me in the last few years.

Probably, the most convenient way to get our food is from the fast food drive thru. The drive through has been one of my personal pet peeves for several years. One of the the biggest concerns with eating at the drive thru is the quality of food, or lack of, obtained at the fast food vendors. Most foods are of high caloric and low nutrient content. I remember my own shock at learning that a Jr. Whopper contained 35 grams of fat. This was, at one time, my choice of a fast meal but when I realized that it contained almost my whole days fat allotment.

I don't think we need to revisit impact of the fast food industry on today's society. This has been done in articles, movies and documentaries. Bad food choices is one of the biggest contributers to obesity along with over sized portions of food. Inactivity is another major contributer to our continents obesity problem. People no longer walk down the block to visit a neighbor or to go to the store. They now drive their car to save time. People no longer leave their car to get a cup of coffee. I remember watching a Tim Horton store on a Sunday morning. There were no cars parked in the parking lot, however, there were about 20 cars waiting in line to go through the drive thru. I could not figure out why people would sit in their car for 10 minutes waiting to get a cup of coffee when they could park, go into the store, order the coffee and leave in less time since no one was actually in the store. It made no sense.

I am not faulting people for being in a hurry. I live on the edge myself when it comes to going to work, however, I make my own coffee at home and put it in a travel mug. On the few occasions that I have stopped for coffee, I parked my car and went inside. If people choose to sit in line at the drive thru to wait for their coffee, it is not really a matter of being in a hurry. It is more of an issue of being too lazy to get out of the car because if they got out of the car, they would actually get their coffee in a more timely matter.

So if you are wondering why you have gained a few pounds here and there while you are sitting at the drive thru then I guess there is a problem.