Fast Food and Bad Health

I happened to get into an exchange with someone the other day that bothered me. It wasn't that it was a heated exchange, it was the context and the accusation tossed toward the end.

The exchange was in the comments about the plane crash in San Francisco. I asked what I thought was a simple question:

I am curious. We have cameras on street corners, in small stores, at ATM machines... why are there no cameras trained on aircraft approaches to runways?

I was answered in this way:

How many times does something like this happen? Wouldn't it be more prudent to place cameras at a McDonalds to watch for heart attacks?


In response, I pointed out that heart attacks rarely happen at McDonalds and that a heart attack only kills one person while plane crashes usually kill many more.

I was later accused by the responder of making a "knee jerk outrageous response" (presumably by asking about video cameras on runways) which seemed quite odd to me since bringing up heart attacks and McDonald's seemed quite off-topic.

But that got me to thinking, why is McDonald's the villain in heart attacks? I realize that McDonald's sells fast food and that fast food consumption is deemed unhealthy but is it to blame for the fact that heart disease is the #1 killer of adults in the U.S.?  Was heart disease not a major killer before 1954?

It seems to me that heart disease was a major problem well before that.

I'd like to point out that heart disease, though not a heart attack, killed my father and he rarely, if ever, ate any fast food.  And that he lived to be 84. That his father died of a stroke at 65 (in 1955), as did his grandfather (well before 1954, obviously).

You see, I think genetics has a lot to do with heart disease, as do poor overall diets, lack of exercise, and a number of other things. I would not recommend eating fast food every day, however.