No Stupid Questions

The only fast food I enjoyed in recent memory was Pizza Hut. During some scare about MSG they removed all of the MSG and I ordered it a time or two after that and it was nearly inedible.

I suspect similar things happened with other types of fast food. I think there's a flanderization effect happening with a lot of it. The same is definitively not the case for things like pizza in general, as I can order from my local NY-style pizza place and pizza is still just as good as it ever was.

All that is to say it wouldn't surprise me at all if fast food was objectively shittier across a number of different metrics.

The other day I ordered a burger and they put tomatoes on it even though I asked them not to. I was about to complain, but decided to take a bite anyway and…huh. The tomato had no flavour whatsoever. I used to not like the taste of tomatoes but how could I object to this?

So what does this mean? Are my taste buds not functioning like they used to? But I spent lunch looking it up and apparently, there is a fair consensus that tomatoes, along with a host of other fruits and vegetables, really are blander today than when I was a kid. For something I never liked, this kind of works out but…

Yes

Both?

Yes it has gotten worse and time is a relentless asshole.

It's gotten worse. I don't bother eating any of it because I make better food at home.

Brand names have gotten worse, that's not you. Cost saving measures upon making sizes smaller while still raising prices. I swear, KFC mid-2000's was amazing compared to the bland oily ones of today. That said, you probably have gotten desensitized to them in general as you grew older too.

Local fast food is still really good for me, but I'd just avoid major brands like Mcdonalds. They've become synonymous with trash food.

The answer is probably "yes"

1. Food is probably worse.
2. Your taste buds might have changed.
3. Your gut bacteria might be different.

I have a couple reasons for believing each.

1. Nutrient concentration in food has decreased over time (Veritasium talked about a fascinating explanation for this) and the desire to find low cost alternatives like HFCS over cane sugar changes the taste of food.
2. "Children prefer higher levels of sweet and are more sensitive to bitter tastes until adolescence."
3. Your gut microbiome literally changes over time.

The feeling bad part is aging.

Quality has absolutely gone down, though, while cost has gone way up.

I stopped eating fast food during covid and never got back into it.

The one time, post covid, I was out and stopped to eat, it was gross. But it'd been so long, I genuinely don't know if it had always been gross and I lost my acclimation to it, or if it was actually more gross than it used to be.

Anecdotally, I've heard complaints online that the quality has gone down while the prices went up, so it probably has gotten worse.

Taco bell has turned to ass. Even their bean burrito tasted off and most of the menu items I see are crazy shit that doesn't resemble anything in terms of Mexican food.

I worked in a "European" US bakery for a hot minute around 2012, and one of the things I remember most was them trying to find new providers with cheaper products. This lead to a difference in taste because obviously in this case the cheaper products are actually a sub-par product.

A big part of it has been the consolidation of the businesses who sell food to restaurants. They all pull from the same places, and so the variety has gone down and the filler gone up.

It's not just fast food, it's all restaurants that are suffering this plague.

I never did anything better than learning to cook at home. My home-made pizza tops any delivery, and I always get to eat it hot out of the oven.

i freakin love fast food, and as soon as covid hit i had to start a 'blacklist' of places that have gotten so bad (chipotle/tacobell/bugerking), its just not even kind of worth it.

fiveguys is one of my favorites as it did not change in any way.

I think the taste and texture may have become noticeably worse after the ban on artificial trans fats. It definitely impacted some of the junk food I used to buy in the grocery store. (I'm not saying the ban was a bad thing, just that a lot of us noticed the change).

Whatever the cause, I have noticed it, too.

im in my 40s and feel the same as you. things like fast food dont hold the same appeal, just nostalgia wishing for the 'old taste'

Depends on the company and where you live, I feel. Some has gotten worse, some has improved.

But they have all gotten more expensive. So goddamn expensive. These days I can order a well made, flame-grilled burger at a burger joint for the same price as fast food slop.

Genuinely shocking to me how disgusting fast food places have gotten. But I’m also not sure if it’s just my perception

Oh it absolutely has. I don't eat much fast food, but it's absolutely gotten worse. I prefer fried chicken if I'm eating trash food and i have to assume the oil has gotten way worse.

Doesn't pot famously make food more enjoyable?

I agree, fast food is not worth what it costs. The reasonably quick food landscape has expanded though, we can get different things, better Mexican food, a Chinese fast to go place with some really good tasting stuff, a restaurant that advertises "curry in a hurry" even.

Popeyes is still good though.

It's gotten worse and the portion sizes are like fucking 1/3rd of what they used to be. It's also like 3 times the price now. So yes, fast food is absolute dogshit now and not even worth the price.

Deny these parasites profit!

I'm in my 40s.. similar to you, used to eat fast food often, and enjoyed it. I was having a horrible day a couple weeks ago, and thought "fuck it.. I'm eating at McDs." It was disgusting, not like I remembered it all.

Like everything else they are dropping quality and portion sizes while increasing prices. Line must go up. Last time I bought a quarter pounder at mcdonalds it was definitely made from 70% mongolian horse lung. Yea, I remember when it used to be a tasty burger. Fucking weird that their "beef" has become gamey. And I definitely took a bite where I was like "yea, that was definitely spoiled meat".

If you eat it regularly then you become accustomed to it, but when you stop for awhile it no longer appeals