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Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 16, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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do people actually feel disgusted and ashamed after eating take-out?

Depends on what kind and how much.

I'm a big fan of that burger assembly meme, where healthy bread, lettuce, onion, tomato, cheese, and beef get put together and suddenly get labeled unhealthy instead for no apparent reason. Yeah, you could do with a lot more of the fiber and low-glycemic carbs in the lettuce+onion+tomato and a little less of the high-glycemic carbs in the bread, and if you're topping beef with cheese maybe that's more than one meal's worth of fats, but balance it out later and you're probably fine.

But it's real easy to get that burger with a huge side of fries and a large coke (and if you're not frequently in the US recall that here "small coke" means "large coke" while "large coke" means "a quart of diabetes"), and that combo can push you over the line from "fine meal" to "disgusted and ashamed after".

never knew a world where fast food meals were more than 1000-1300 calories on the regular

Even 1000-1300 is a lot for a lunch, and a Big Mac combo gets you straight to 1170; you can get to 1360 just by going from medium to large on the fries and soda, even though the burger itself is only 580.

I guess the other parts of "disgusted and ashamed" are:

  1. Fast food often kinda sucks. My wife's burgers probably aren't much healthier than McDonalds' (the extra onions and mushrooms might have helped, but a quick sauté in salty burger grease fixes that right up!), but they're about the same nutritionally for far higher quality. If I just go to Burger King, even if either way I can afford some extra calories (I can't), it still would have been much better to spend those extra calories on something worth the expenditure.

  2. Fast food is really fast. Burgers with avocado and fresh-grilled Hatch chile slices are not something we're going to make every day, or every week, at home, but if I want something 40% as good I could have it any time by swinging by one of many convenient drive-thru lanes. Making it so easy to indulge makes it too easy to over-indulge.

It’s the bread/bun, condiments (ketchup, mayo, mustard, and whatnot), and side(s) (e.g., fries) that are the culprits. Cut those out, and ground beef + cheese + toppings are decently solid.

Fast food is really fast. Burgers with avocado and fresh-grilled Hatch chile slices are not something we're going to make every day, or every week, at home, but if I want something 40% as good I could have it any time by swinging by one of many convenient drive-thru lanes. Making it so easy to indulge makes it too easy to over-indulge.

It's a good point but burgers are not the best example -- my burger-making strategy these days is:

  1. heat pan
  2. scoop 1/3 lb beef with measuring cup
  3. slap in pan
  4. squish with flipper
  5. flip after 2-3 minutes
  6. wait a couple more minutes then add cheese
  7. put on bun with mustard, butter and whatever veggies

If I'm at home it's pretty much the fastest easiest thing I can make, and probably at least half-way between your avocado burger and the fast food one; if I'm not at home obviously stopping at a restaurant is faster, but a burger is probably the easiest, fastest fast food to make for yourself in the universe.