How Cheap Food Distorts Our Choices and Makes Us Fat

sausage-mcmuffin image Actually, yes. I have never eaten two at a sitting but I will confess to once having had a deep unabiding love for a Sausage McMuffin, and now I know why; they have everything a body craves. According to PSFK, their nutritional information:

900 Calories (45% of daily value) 54 Grams of Fat (84% of daily value) 570 mg of Cholesterol (190% of daily value) 1840 mg of Sodium (76% of daily value) Based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Three bucks gets you half a day's diet and and goes for hours, no wonder they were so good. No wonder people buy this instead of arugula and kale-they are the cheapest calories on earth, no muss or fuss or cooking and taste good too. No wonder we have such health and obesity problems when something like this can be engineered. Via Scott Lachut at PSFK. who didn't say where he saw the sign, because I'm there.

Michael Pollan had something to say about this:

A dollar will buy 1200 calories of cookies or chips but only 250 calories of carrots. If you don't have a lot of money, the most rational thing to do is buy junk food to get the most calories for your buck.

Michael Pollan: The Government Makes You Fat