According to this chart from the CDC, fast-food burgers have more than tripled in size since the 1950s, going from four ounces (i.e. a quarter pound) to a whopping 12. And if you think that’s bad, the average soda is six times as big as it used to be.

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I don’t know what’s worse, the idea that we’re eating three times as much unsustainably raised snout-meat, or the idea that we’re throwing the overage out and thus wasting tons more food. It’s probably some of both, and neither is great.

Obviously a lot of people, even conscientious people, will eat fast food sometimes, for reasons of convenience or finance or being stuck at a rural rest stop and not really having a choice. I hear some people even like the taste and occasionally eat it deliberately. But just be aware that when you eat that McDonald’s meal, you’re actually essentially eating three of them.

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