What’s worse? McDonalds or cigarettes?

[phart010 | 1,708]

Discuss

[PII | 1,886]

YES

Update: This is a tough one.

Mcdonalds isn't food because it never rots.  The only real food that never rots as far as I know is honey, the exception that proves the rule.

cigarettes are deliberately laced with several hundred poisons.

smoking 1 cigarette will degrade the body,mind,soul etc.

eating 1 unit of McD will become a part of the physical body in addition to degrading b.m.s.

.....

This is a tough one.

Stop eating mcD and eat real food instead.  And if you must smoke only do so with pure tobacco in moderation, is the only closer I can think to put on it.

Edited October 13, 2022 by PII

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

First you need to decide what is equal consumption. Is one pack of cigarettes a day equal to one McDonald’s meal?

[JamesRobot | 5,808]

What kind of cigarettes are we talking? Jazz cigarettes? 

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

2 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

What kind of cigarettes are we talking? Jazz cigarettes? 

I love calling spliffs “Jazz Cigarettes”. Always gets a great reaction, esp. from 60+ yr olds. 
 

Bringing it back baby

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,014]

I think I've gone longer without McDonald's than I have cigarettes. I'm 8 years w.o McDonald's and 5 without cigarettes. 

[a3quit4s | 4,106]

I know the point is to pick and defend one choice but I gotta say they are both pretty bad for you in the long term. Like @MrWunderful said what is the 1 to 1 we are comparing? Is one MCD meal equal to a pack of cigarettes? Or 3x meals a day at mcds equal one pack? I feel like the food isn’t really what gets you either, the drinks are the absolute worst. Without smoking you may be able to work out if you drank water with every meal and tried like hell to stay away from the sodium and sugar. Both are gonna get you though at some point. 

[Estil | 1,265]

I'm never going to McDonalds as long as they do that pinch the bottom of the fry box trick so you end up with a half filled box of fries.  I miss the good ol' days of the 80s/90s when you could Super Size and truly get your money's worth.

[Astor Reinhardt | 199]

I'd say cigarettes are worse...I've seen the pictures of smokers lungs. No thanks. I'll take clogging my arteries with McDonald's grease any day over that.

[OptOut | 8,889]

This whole topic reminds me of the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Attack_Grill

Only in 'Merica, folks! 

[phart010 | 1,708]

4 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

First you need to decide what is equal consumption. Is one pack of cigarettes a day equal to one McDonald’s meal?

1 hour ago, a3quit4s said:

I know the point is to pick and defend one choice but I gotta say they are both pretty bad for you in the long term. Like @MrWunderful said what is the 1 to 1 we are comparing? Is one MCD meal equal to a pack of cigarettes? Or 3x meals a day at mcds equal one pack? 

Not quite sure where I’d draw the line. I’d hate to place a limit on the discussion.

The main point is that I saw a parallel between the two… both activities provide a temporary feeling of satisfaction and while they can be tolerated when used infrequently, they are clearly both detrimental to health when usage is sustained. But only one of the two comes with a warning label

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

I think the choice here is frankly kind of a no-brainer honestly. With all due respect to those who chose McDonald's as being worse, I don't think you guys fully thought this one out frankly, haha.

For one, cigarettes you will get addicted to, period. McDonald's, the same will not happen unless you don't have a whole lot of self-control. I've never smoked, but my mother did for a very long time, and I know quitting cigarettes is a fucking nightmare which I would not wish upon anyone. With McDonald's, you can just... choose to not have it. Not so easy if you're a smoker, though. This also makes it such that, if you do enjoy McDonald's, you can just have it as an occasional treat to yourself. Trying to do that with cigarettes will probably end quite poorly for you, however. That alone is enough to make the choice very, very obvious to me.

Secondly, with cigarettes, there's the issue of secondhand smoke, which can harmfully affect those around you while you're smoking. With McDonald's, you're only destroying your OWN body, not to mention, besides the actual health effects of the smoke, it's generally just more annoying to those around you than eating a meal.

Thirdly, smoking can damage the environment around you, not just the people around you, if you, say, smoke in your house for several years.

Fourthly, as far as I have ascertained, cigarettes are pretty fucking disgusting to anyone who doesn't already smoke. Every person I've heard talk about the first time they smoked say they hated it, but then later grew a taste for it. Whereas with McDonald's, it's just food, which you can freely enjoy (or not enjoy) without needing to acquire a taste for it like smoking.

Fifthly, while admittedly this is just my own assumptions here and I have no clue how true this actually is, it seems to me as though the long-term negative effects of smoking will start to manifest themselves much quicker than the long-term negative effects of McDonald's.

And lastly, frankly, weighing my options here... I think, personally speaking, I'll take my arteries getting clogged with shit over cancer and general lung issues any day of the week. At least it'll probably be pretty sudden when it gets me, rather than a long, grueling battle which I'm likely to lose. And I can at least say that my health issues were my own stupid choices, and not me being influenced by addiction, haha.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,091]

36 minutes ago, ZeldaFreak said:

I think the choice here is frankly kind of a no-brainer honestly. With all due respect to those who chose McDonald's as being worse, I don't think you guys fully thought this one out frankly, haha.

Yeah, this is how I feel.  Come on guys - McDonalds?!?  Are those joke votes?  Cigarettes literally kill you.  And people who smoke do it every day, many, many times.  Has anyone ever in their life met a person who insists on eating McDonalds every day, never mind repeatedly on the same day?  For this to even be a legit question the comparison would have to be re-enacting the movie "Supersize Me" versus being a regular smoker.  Then maybe you'd have a fair comparison...

[Tulpa | 3,517]

50 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

For this to even be a legit question the comparison would have to be re-enacting the movie "Supersize Me" versus being a regular smoker.

Even something like Supersize Me was found to be in doubt. No one could duplicate what Morgan Spurlock claimed happened to him. Eating McDs every meal for a month isn't the smartest choice, but it isn't a death sentence. 

[Brickman | 3,995]

I’d be a bit concerned if someone selects McDonald’s as worse, unless it was just for a laugh.

Mc Donald’s at least has somewhat healthier options these days. Worst case you grab a unhealthy meal then go for a run to burn it off.

No amount of exercise is going to stop the damage cigarettes do to your body.

[AstralSoul | 502]

Cigarettes. You need to eat and as bad as McD's is, it still holds at least some nutritional value. Cigarettes don't have calories but they're incredibly harmful especially over the long term. I mean eating McDonald's every day would most likely kill you too so it's a tough call.

[OptOut | 8,889]

4 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

(Do you know of) a person who insists on eating McDonalds every day, never mind repeatedly on the same day?

I only know of one...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Gorske

Miraculously still alive after having eaten over 32,000 Big Macs!!! 

 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

42 minutes ago, AstralSoul said:

Cigarettes. You need to eat and as bad as McD's is, it still holds at least some nutritional value. 

McDonald's is at least food, even if it's low quality. Cigarettes have no benefit at all and taste awful, so it's an easy choice for me.

[AstralSoul | 502]

37 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

McDonald's is at least food, even if it's low quality. Cigarettes have no benefit at all and taste awful, so it's an easy choice for me.

Yea that's kind of what I was going for too. But long term either one could kill you.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Cigarettes are clearly worse. Not sure what spurred you to make this poll, but it's not even close.

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

6 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Yeah, this is how I feel.  Come on guys - McDonalds?!?  Are those joke votes?  Cigarettes literally kill you.  And people who smoke do it every day, many, many times.  Has anyone ever in their life met a person who insists on eating McDonalds every day, never mind repeatedly on the same day?  For this to even be a legit question the comparison would have to be re-enacting the movie "Supersize Me" versus being a regular smoker.  Then maybe you'd have a fair comparison...

This is a great point. While I also believe cigarettes is the right answer, I wonder what a Big Mac every hour or two would do to someone. I am an ex smoker, and I think the biggest killer with smoking is the frequency. You’re going for a smoke at least every hour if not more

[phart010 | 1,708]

7 hours ago, ZeldaFreak said:

I think the choice here is frankly kind of a no-brainer honestly. With all due respect to those who chose McDonald's as being worse, I don't think you guys fully thought this one out frankly, haha.

For one, cigarettes you will get addicted to, period. McDonald's, the same will not happen unless you don't have a whole lot of self-control. I've never smoked, but my mother did for a very long time, and I know quitting cigarettes is a fucking nightmare which I would not wish upon anyone. With McDonald's, you can just... choose to not have it. Not so easy if you're a smoker, though. This also makes it such that, if you do enjoy McDonald's, you can just have it as an occasional treat to yourself. Trying to do that with cigarettes will probably end quite poorly for you, however. That alone is enough to make the choice very, very obvious to me.

Secondly, with cigarettes, there's the issue of secondhand smoke, which can harmfully affect those around you while you're smoking. With McDonald's, you're only destroying your OWN body, not to mention, besides the actual health effects of the smoke, it's generally just more annoying to those around you than eating a meal.

Thirdly, smoking can damage the environment around you, not just the people around you, if you, say, smoke in your house for several years.

Fourthly, as far as I have ascertained, cigarettes are pretty fucking disgusting to anyone who doesn't already smoke. Every person I've heard talk about the first time they smoked say they hated it, but then later grew a taste for it. Whereas with McDonald's, it's just food, which you can freely enjoy (or not enjoy) without needing to acquire a taste for it like smoking.

Fifthly, while admittedly this is just my own assumptions here and I have no clue how true this actually is, it seems to me as though the long-term negative effects of smoking will start to manifest themselves much quicker than the long-term negative effects of McDonald's.

And lastly, frankly, weighing my options here... I think, personally speaking, I'll take my arteries getting clogged with shit over cancer and general lung issues any day of the week. At least it'll probably be pretty sudden when it gets me, rather than a long, grueling battle which I'm likely to lose. And I can at least say that my health issues were my own stupid choices, and not me being influenced by addiction, haha.

Just playing devils advocate here..

1. just because you are addicted to something doesn’t equate to it being inherently bad. Also, any thing that gives you dopamine and can be done with relatively high frequency is addictive. If McDonalds food was as easily accessible as say, a pack of gum, then there would McDonalds addiction. When I was younger I actually knew some people that  smoked a few cigarettes casually on weekends while having a drink. Outside of this they didnt smoke. Of course they were not buying their own, only bumming them.

4. The taste of cigarettes is subjective. There are thousands of brands of cigarettes. There are flavored cigarettes. There are charcoal filters that remove a substantial amount of tar and crap. Big tobacco puts a lot of crap chemicals in cigarettes for all kinds of reasons like to burn them faster, extinguish them automatically when unattended, make them more addictive, add flavor, etc.. There are also pure tobacco cigarettes with no additives. Also, peoples taste is subjective, some people like things that others find disgusting.

One observation I’ve made is that it’s not always apparent that people who are smokers are smokers. Sometimes they just look like normal people. And smoking is not a guarantee of bad health problems. Some people (I’m thinking of farmers) smoke into their 80’s and 90’s and would have lived just as long smoking or not smoking. It is often apparent though that people are overeating fast food.

I’m not disagreeing with you. Just adding to this discussion. I am not necessarily for or against smoking or fast food. Again just playing devils advocate 

Edited October 14, 2022 by phart010

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

What? Cigarettes taste disgusting. Have you ever eaten one? It's super dry and gross. Mcdonalds tastes WAY better. This is silly.

[Estil | 1,265]

7 hours ago, Tulpa said:

Even something like Supersize Me was found to be in doubt. No one could duplicate what Morgan Spurlock claimed happened to him. Eating McDs every meal for a month isn't the smartest choice, but it isn't a death sentence. 

Yeah it's thanks to him we no longer have Super Size and how fast food places try to make themselves look more health conscious but it's really just an excuse to give smaller portions for higher prices!

[Estil | 1,265]

My grandma who smokes like a chimney somehow just passed the big 9-0.  Luckily I never saw any appeal to smoking at all so I thankfully never took it up.  I mean who wants all their stuff to overtime turn all icky yellow?  Ewww...

But above all else, Bulletproof from the COPS cartoon says that alcohol and cigarettes are DRUGS.  Say NO.