Thank God for McDonald's' Metabolic Poison

A new study finds that if you order french fries at a McDonald's in the United States you're "more likely to get a super-sized helping of artery-clogging trans fats than you would be at their restaurants in some other countries."

A study of the fast-food chains' products around the world found remarkably wide variations in trans fat content from country to country, from city to city within the same nation, and from restaurant to restaurant in the same city...McDonald's Corp., which promised in September 2002 to cut trans fat in half, and KFC parent Yum! Brands Inc. said the explanation is local taste preferences. But nutrition experts and consumer activists said it is about money: Frying oil high in trans fats costs less.

"Per gram, it is more harmful than any other kind of fat," [one of the researchers] said. "It's a metabolic poison."

More like metabolic heaven.

Speaking of McDonald's, the company has finally "outsourced" the people who take your order at the drive-through to a (currently) U.S.-based call-center. This sounds like a good idea, since it will mean the person taking your order won't be distracted by filling other people's orders and hitting on the buxom 16-year-old girl working the fry machine.