The McProblem Today

I didn't have to look very far on Strangemaps to find a quirky and revealing map of the US. These little lights show the locations of the world's biggest hamburger chain, McDonald's, that have restaurants all over the US. With America's current obesity crisis becoming an even bigger problem by the day, McDonald's seems to shine like a beacon of light in the world of fast food and shows no sign of decreased popularity. It sells cheap convenience food for the idle masses who would rather pay for big greasy patty of beef (if it really is beef at all!) than open a cookbook and start from scratch like their ancestors did. I'm not just pointing solely at America for this, I dread to think what this map would look like on a global scale!

It's interesting to look at the density of the restaurant locations around the US in this map. The locations seem to follow the general pattern of population. Most Americans are located by the coast, as are the restaurants, and then it seems to get sparser as we move towards the West to states like Montana, Idaho and Nevada. You will, of course, usually spot a McDonald's on the highway at some point- everyone needs to stop and refuel!! But notice how there are nowhere near as many restaurants in California compared to New York or Florida for instance. Could this be because the weight-obsessed residents of Los Angeles and the surrounding cities are trying to outlaw junk food? Possibly. Within 3,000 miles, you seem to go from one extreme to the other as far as eating habits are concerned. Whereas a lot of New Yorkers and Floridians are obese, like their junk food and are comfortable with their lifestyles, the celebrity obsessed culture on the West coast are focused on diets of every sort, denying the body of any pleasurable food (not that I'm suggesting that McDonald's is ever pleasurable) and desperate for the perfect body- obtaining it my any means necessary. Of course, it could just be that McDonald's is just practicing good business management and building more restaurants in the more populated areas- money matters, right?

There are over 13,000 McDonald's restaurants in the US. That works out at about 1 for every 23,000 people (according to article on Strangemaps). Thank God that it isn't a bigger number, otherwise we could be looking at a much, much bigger problem than we already are now. America is sometimes seen as a nation of slob's, which I don't think is entirely true. But I'm glad to see that the there are some parts of the American landscape that the Golden arches have yet to penetrate- there may just be some hope yet.