Now think of all those people ordering on touch screens in MacDonalds and then eating their food with their hands. Yuk! :-&

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hnlmorg a day ago | parent | next [-]

Can’t be any worse than the contents of the food they’re ordering. I mean, nobody goes to McDonalds expecting to leave healthier than when they arrived.

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ShinyLeftPad a day ago | parent [-]

You don't magically become healthier from eating something, that's just not how it works.

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Lio a day ago | parent | next [-]

True but you can definitely become less healthy by eating and drinking the wrong things.

Sugar in sodas, burger buns and ketchup for example is linked to type 2 diabetes.

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hnlmorg 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You do if you’re malnourished. ;)

But the point I was making clearly wasn’t about restaurants being healthy. It was about fast food joints being especially unhealthy.

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ShinyLeftPad 14 hours ago | parent [-]

> You do if you’re malnourished. ;)

In that case you will end up healthier after a Mcdonalds, too.

You said

> Can’t be any worse than the contents of the food they’re ordering

I think addition of some E coli or whatnot from screen prints makes a McD meal much worse but sure YMMV.

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hnlmorg 10 hours ago | parent [-]

> In that case you will end up healthier after a Mcdonalds, too.

Depends on specific instance of malnutrition. If it’s lack of calories, then yes you’d be right. But that’s not what most people in the west suffer from.

> I think addition of some E coli or whatnot from screen prints makes a McD meal much worse but sure YMMV.

To be honest it was a flippant remark. I was expecting to get downvoted for elitism. Wasn’t expecting a genuine discussion about hygiene and nutrition.

But fair play, you’ve made some interesting points.

	▲	ShinyLeftPad 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah to be fair you could've got me with "what about meds?", there is a blurred line when it comes to getting healthier from eating something...

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saturn8601 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I didn't think of it before but now I won't be able to avoid thinking about it. I got to carry one of those rubber styluses whenever I go to fast food places now. :/

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kulahan a day ago | parent [-]

Unless there is some immunity problem in your body, this will only make you sicker over time. Your body handles random bacteria just fine. It doesn’t handle being prevented from experiencing any dangerous interactions for 5 years straight, then trying to fight off an infection with a severely undertuned immune system.

Touch things with your hands. Your body literally needs it to be healthy. Avoiding it ONLY makes you sicker in the end.

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Lio 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Consider that bacteria are not the only things you could pick up. There's plenty of other parasites to choose from.

There is a reason we ask people to wash their hands.

You're immune system is probably not going to improve on exposure to worm eggs or larvae for example.

To take it to an absurd extreme, if you come across an unflushed public toilet you're not going to drink from it with the hope of boosting your immune system... are you?

	▲	kulahan 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And to take it to the other absurd extreme, you’re not going to throw away all foods that aren’t kept in a sterile vacuum until the moment it’s consumed… are you? I’m arguing against being overly-concerned with hygiene to the point that you cannot even handle touching everyday objects without a significant disgust factor. You’re talking about licking toilets. Come on bro.

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tempaccount420 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is a dangerous (and common) misconception about the immune system.

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SirMaster a day ago | parent | next [-]

It's a misconception that the immune system builds future resistance from past infections?

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kulahan a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Most of your immune system training occurs in the stomach where, predictably, an absolutely enormous amount of foreign matter enters your body. This is standard medical teaching.

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simondotau 20 hours ago | parent [-]

Then shouldn't we just eat diseases to build immunity?

	▲	kulahan 20 hours ago \| parent [-]
		We do, all the time, by simple manner of eating foods that are exposed to air. But if you’re asking if we should try to cram more than usual in there, I couldn’t tell you. I’m not an immunologist, so I don’t know how easy it is or is not to overload it, nor if it even works for all types of contagious infection agents. Some are probably highly resistant to gastric environments.

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saturn8601 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean its not like I dont touch anything. Its just that the workflow for mcdonalds is touch touchscreen -> pick up food that you hold with your hands -> consume said food with potential bacteria now on the food. This wouldn't be the case for sit down fork and knife dining.

I totally agree with exposing immune system...but at the same time, I guess I am weak enough that there is still downtime in the aftermath when I go out into the city(especially during seasonal transitions and when visiting busy packed rooms).

You don't have to have the other extreme of touching every dirty spot especially in a org like mcdonalds which is more likely than not to have people who dont respect basic hygiene. At the same time you dont need the extreme of not touching anything. There is a middle ground.