Food for thought.

    For me, fast food has always been a love/mild hate relationship. As a child, before I knew the health risks and consequences of overindulging on fast food, it was love. A bucket of chicken, a cheeseburger, a giant soda...whatever it was, the result was always a satisfyingly full stomach and happy taste buds. Of course, it wasn't an all-the-time type of thing, which made it that much more exciting when we did have it. My naive younger self always found home-cooked meals to be extraordinarily bland, not really appreciating or understanding the labor my mom would go through, having to work all day, and come straight home to slaving over a hot stove or oven while the rest of us relaxed. But typically on Friday nights, that's when the stove was off, and mom got to do her own relaxing, and everyone enjoyed themselves with a nice warm meal; and everyone got to decide what THEY wanted rather than having 'whatever was already in the oven'.


    But as I grew up, I learned how wrong I was all that time. Now, I'd much rather have a wholesome, healthy home cooked meal as opposed to a fat/grease/calorie-packed one. I also grew to appreciate the fact that for 20+ years, my mom still comes home after long days of work to feed my dad, my sister and I, and even though I still don't pick what she makes, I'm more than thankful for having the food on my plate in the first place.
   There's still days where different situations arise, and we have fast food. Appointments, late work shifts, and various other things can cut into the making of a meal, and fast food becomes a last resort. On a personal level, I do run into situations where fast food is the only resort, like going out with friends. There's no real plausible way to get a nice home cooked meal, when you're in another town,  so fast food becomes the only realistic alternative.
    This isn't to say I eschew it completely; I typically eat it in moderation. I only get small combos and smaller portions, knowing that I'll eventually regret going any bigger. I maintain a pretty active lifestyle though, which helps combat the 'side effects' of fast food., and with an endless list of family members who have contracted diabetes as an incentive, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is essential.
    It's almost shameful that we as children were so attracted to fast food at a young age, and that it takes a little growing up and a little awareness to help us realize the repercussions of it, both short and long term.
At this point, nothing beats a home cooked meal, no matter how tantilizing fast food may be.