It was the middle of the afternoon and my family and I (my wife and I have two teenaged daughters) were in the car headed for home. We agreed that this would be a junk food moment, something we don’t do often. The two items most mentioned in the car were french fries and a chocolate shake.
“Hey, there’s a White Castle up ahead,” I mentioned.
I pulled up and ordered the “large chocolate shake” and some fries. None of us drink soft drinks, though we had all heard that there were some large serving sizes out there. What emerged from the window nonetheless startled all of us: A 44-ounce chocolate shake.
We hauled it home and split it among the four of us. By the time we all gave up on it, there was still a bit left. Which inspired me to check the White Castle nutrition website. This 44-ounce drink is 1030 calories including 210 calories of fat (White Castle’s large strawberry shake is as much as 1,300 calories in many regions). I’m not writing this to single out White Castle–many fast food joints offer similar fare. It was a worthwhile anthropological adventure, though, to see what (I assume) some people drink all on their own.
PS. We all enjoyed the shake.
Erich,
Love your blog…You’re all over the place…and i like that because pretty much everything is related…
“Anyhoo”…I especially liked your post today…as a mom with two kids trying to get it right…i appreciate the way you acknowledge that splurging is going to happen at times…but to do so in moderation, talk about it as a family, understand what it is your doing, and all in all be very conscious of our actions…all very good points.
The truth about the American Diet and disease is so tragic and so full of misinformation. I kind of get why people would just “check out” and say just “f___k it” Both my children have major milk intolerance/allergy as with massive symptoms. One is allergic, one intolerant (prior to them, i didn’t know the difference). They were sooo sick for so long and i never knew why. The doctors NEVER mentioned, just take out milk for a week or two and see what happens. Knowing what i know now, it would be the first advice i’d give anybody for almost ANY symptom on the planet…but not a peep from the medical profession.
I mention this because you had a shake 🙂 and it got me thinking… Did you know there are estimates from very reputable sources that as many as 50% of children and adults may have milk intolerance resulting in all sorts of bad outcomes (too long to list here but it’s a huge trigger for ADHD & Autism (not a cause, but a trigger). Only 5-10% of US youth estimated to have autism or ADHD but upwards of 40% of those incarcerated today were diagnosed as ADHD at some point…
That almost makes me cry…that is so sad…I would love for someone to go into a juvenile detention center or prison and do a double blind study involving diet changes (milk for sure but maybe wheat as well), and see what happens…I’m sure the results would be stunning as they were with my children…
Shocking to think that milk is causing so much harm, not just to my kids but to society…I’m not anti milk BTW…but it was VERY difficult to find out the truth as i was flat out told by professionals that milk was not, could not be the issue…The milk industry is a huge lobby group…they control the conversation…
Cheryl: A few years ago, I took a hard look at the propaganda produced by America’s dairy industry. Here it is, in case you haven’t seen it before: http://dangerousintersection.org/2006/08/21/the-land-of-milk-and-money-how-milk-producers-fool-most-of-the-people-most-of-the-time/