Salt in Bottled Water AND I Don't Like McDonald's:

Anybody who knows me in real life may have noticed that I really do not like McDonald's.  Over the years, I have avoided that joint whenever possible.  (I do appreciate sneaking into use their bathrooms when we are on a trip though; they are usually pretty clean and nobody notices that you aren't buying anything.)  

When you live in a town bigger than Mayberry, you usually have a choice of Burger King, Carl's Jr., Wendy's, my new favorite Jack-in-the-Box, and others.  In our town, you have two choices:  Dairy Queen or McDonald's.  The latter has only been here a few years. 

Before the Dairy Queen was recently sold to new owners, I wasn't very fond of it either, but it was the only choice for a quick burger for years and years around here.  Now the food is freshly made to order and tastes pretty good, though the fries are always underdone and don't have much salt on them.  I almost always use their drive-up window.

Cary likes McDonald's.  I can usually talk him out of it, but yesterday I was in a good mood (not already frustrated) and wasn't in a hurry, so I accommodated him.  The drive up window had a long line, and McDonald's is known for taking your order and then making you park while they bring out your food when they are busy.  I decided to go inside instead of wait at the drive-up.  There was only one table being used, so it wasn't busy.  I was greeted with a friendly hello, and I stood there looking at the menu, hoping that they were no longer using pink slime as filler in their meat and chicken.

I ordered Cary a 1/2 pounder cheeseburger value meal with a bottled water, and myself a ranch chicken bacon burger value meal with a bottled water.  I was charged and extra .58 per bottled water, and the lady got in a bit of trouble from her supervisor for not charging me bottle deposits.  I offered to pay the extra .05 per bottle, but they said not to worry about it.  I don't like pop, nor do I need the extra calories, and it makes me mad to buy a value meal and get charged for a cup of ice water, because it is way cheaper for them than pop is.  Plus, I don't want to hassle with drinks spilling in the car.  I remember thinking that the bottles of Dasani water I received looked pretty small.

The total bill was $14.08, which was horrible.  We could have had a nice lunch for $15.00 at a local restaurant, but that is the going price for McDonald's.  I can get the same thing at Dairy Queen for $12.00, and don't get charged extra for the water, which is a full 20 ounces vs. the 16 ounces that I had gotten with my McDonald's meal.

I was in and out of Mickie D's within minutes.  I thought that was great, until I was driving away, snitched a fry and found it cold.   I had just spent a lot of money on food that was sitting there for who knows how long?  My drive back to work was less than 10 minutes, and you guessed it, the burger and chicken sandwich were barely warm.  I am not going to do it again.  I'll buy Cary something from there, if he is really craving it, but I have decided to go to the Subway next door for myself.

But, do you know what really bothered me?  As I sat there behind the desk eating my cold food, I noticed that the bottled water was packaged exclusively for McDonald's, by Coca-Cola.  And that it was "Enhanced with minerals for a pure, fresh taste."  I grabbed the over the counter reading glasses that we keep on hand for tiny print, and read about these special minerals deemed necessary to be added to this particular brand of bottled water.  Instead of just water Dasani adds magnesium sulfate, potassium chloride and salt.  I don't even know what the first two do, but salt?  Why???

Dairy Queen's meal comes with Aquafina, with nothing added.  It is purified tap water and says so right on the bottle, so it isn't some fancy spring water, but it doesn't have any additives either.

Now that my awareness is up, I'm going to have to figure out which brands of bottled water are really the good stuff.  What brands do you bottled water drinkers out there like?  I have chosen Desani many times before this because I like their bottles, but now I'll skip it. 

So, in summary, I know that I will continue to avoid McDonald's.  It was 12:30 p.m. when I went to get our food, and there might be a valid reason why the La Pine outlet wasn't busy.  I do think that they could try harder.  I walked away feeling a bit ripped off, since I was paying for hot fresh food and didn't get it.  If you are passing through, I recommend the Dairy Queen.

Links:

Natural News.com 2004 Article about Desani
Wikipedia.com ~ Desani Water
Wikipedia.com ~ Potassium Chloride is used in making fertilizer
Magnesium Sulfate used to treat Eclampsia and Premature Labor
Natural News.com ~ Experts' Quotes about Soda Pop

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.