“I’d like a double cheeseburger, the jumbo fries, and a DIET soda.” Does this fast food order sound familiar? The patron stressing the diet soda to lighten some part of the gut busting meal is a pretty common occurrence. Now, we might start hearing something like, “…and a LIGHT beer” tacked on to a fast food order. Alcohol is now being served at fast food chains around the U.S.
Very popular chains like Burger King, Sonic, and even Starbucks have begun introducing alcoholic menu concepts at select locations. The controversial change could be a result of the economy, as many say alcohol will allow them to compete with the casual dinning restaurants in the evening. While that fact may be true as adults may want to eat somewhere that has an alcohol option on the menu, that addition to fast food menus could cause more harm than reward.
Thankfully none of these restaurants allow for alcohol to be ordered from a drive-thru or car stall, but there are still some possible hazards. The risk of getting a quick meal and a quick beer and then driving off pose obvious dangers. However, assuming that adults are responsible enough to gauge what’s appropriate consumption, what about the health factor?
Fast food takes enough flak for its continuous high-calorie, low-nutrient menu items. Now if alcohol is available to be included to a value meal or ordered as a chaser to that frothy coffee drink, how many more extra calories are the consumers going to ingest this year? While the diet soda wasn’t screaming “I’m healthy,” it wasn’t adding more calories to the meal.
Is alcohol consumption going to rise because it’s just so convenient to grab one while the kids play in the playplace? These changes are significant and will have an noticeable impact if they become wide spread concepts.
It kind of takes the innocence out of taking the kids to Sonic’s Happy Hour for a special treat. Let’s just hope they don’t offer free refills!
Via USA Today
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