Just an idle thought but did you Dasani is nothing more then bottled british tap water?

Check the link: Soft Drink is Purified Tap Water

and my partner works at mcdonalds (maintenance) and he said that before Supersize Me was out in UK (we were some of the first in the UK to see it) they had signs everywhere telling the staff not to discuss it and to call a manager if a customer had any questions, it also had a list of "company-correct" answers etc. I was fascinated by the film - mostly by the fact that someones taste buds could be so dead they would eat that food so often and think it was so good...

I have found this little chat interesting and when the salad came out over here it was in all the papers that if you ate the salad as suggested (in the pictures etc) it had more calories then a big mac...

Tap water or spring water, water is still better than Coke.

I don't mind drinking filtered tap water. It's better than drinking water from the spigot at a soda fountain. Usually they come out through a spout that is also used for soda and picks up traces of syrup, and aside from that, the removable plastic covers to the spigots are usually full of mold. I worked at a mcdonalds and I always cleaned them out thoroughly...but I was the only one. The only thing you're required to do is put them in a can of plain soda water to soak overnight.

ewww.

Anyway...fruit aside, does anyone who's had this fruit salad know what flavor that yogert is? It's really quite tasty.

It is vanilla yogurt.

I wasnt argueing the goodness of water - just that this is tap water (we get drinkable treated water out the tap in UK) and I object to paying 89p for something I already paid for!

I prefer Volvic myself, I visited the spring when I was in France a few years ago...

I drink bottled water exclusively (unless I'm desperate!). I'm aware that it's the same stuff as what comes out of the tap - but the bottled stuff tastes better to me We go through 3 or 4 five-gallon bottles each month between the two of us (plus our kitties).

(also our pipes are 45+ years old...the water doesn't exactly taste like a mountain spring, if you know what I mean...)

I'm pretty sure most folks are aware that the bottled stuff is filtered tap water, for the most part...but they buy it anyway.

Here's an article from the FDA you might find interesting: Bottled Water: Better than the Tap?

Something also to keep in mind is that Coca-Cola is the exclusive worldwide approved beverage supplier for McDonalds and always has been since the beginning of McD's in the early 1950's...which is why the bottled water is Dasani (BTW, in the US the Dasani water is domestic, not imported from the UK! ).

I took to drinking bottled water (generally Deer Park because everyone has it in the sport top 24 oz bottles), because I initially tried using a Brita pitcher, but didn't bother with it as much, since you have to keep it filled, wait for it to chill, find a cup with a lid for on the go, etc. etc. With the sport bottles, I can handle one easily in the car, always a supply of them pre-chilled in the fridge, and they're quick to grab without the fuss. The prior way, I didn't drink water as much. This way I drink more than enough. So in a way, for me, bottled is better than tap.

That wouldn't surprise me - those dressing packets can pack a caloric whallop. They want it to look as appetizing as possible in the advertisements show they show it 'fully dressed'.

There are a lot of people who basically LIVE on McD's food - it's great that they at least have an OPTION of getting a salad - why not make it more appealing in their ads?

I bet most of you can remember the one option at most low to moderate priced restaurants not all that long ago - the Diet Plate - a scoop of cottage cheese, a hamburger patty and a slice of tomato on an iceberg leaf (ew!).

Sometimes if you were lucky, you'd get a couple of (canned) peach slices.

And McD's back then...Forget about it! Except for diet soda...

THANKFULLY things have changed, and for the better IMO.

I drink lots of water, but I just add ice and lemon!

The water here is called "council pop" i.e. supplied by the council, and cordial/squash and fizzy drinks tend to be called "pop" (i dont know why).

We pay water rates in excess of £400 a year for the privilidge of having treated water (some water authorities put flouride etc in as well), so it seemed really cheeky to bottle it and charge people, especially as spring water sells best in the uk (i.e. Buxton and Scottish waters, cumbria and other areas). The whole situation reminded me of Only Fools and Horses.

I know I dug this up from a while back, but I was going over posts that appeared before I joined 3FC. Ideal... I've been eating the Apple & Caramel dippers from WaWa. If you're on WW, they're only 4 points -- 220 cal., 0 fat, 3 fiber). Yes, the caramel is pure sugar, but it helps me with my sweet tooth and the apples get me some extra fiber and another fruit serving. It just feels so decadent to dip lovely crisp slices of green apple into that soft, creamy caramel ... and to know that it's on program is the icing on the cake, so to speak! Knowing I have one at home waiting for me is enough to keep me away from snacks during the day and even desserts when I go out.

i think this is an interesting topic(s).

I think even if you choose a fruit and walnut salad with all the calories and everything it is still better than eating the greasy fried options they offer too. by no means is this better than preparing you're own homemade fruit and walnut salad (& preservative free) at home, not to mention cheaper, but if your going to use the drive thru or have to stop somewhere to eat because you won't have access to food or time to stop at a grocery store. The healthy fats in the walnuts, the fiber and vitamins in the fruit are totally going to win over any fried or burger option anyday.

I don't know if it's just me or what, but I am very confused as to why there are quotes from someone and references to posts that aren't on this thread? are they posted somewhere else??? I don't get it

Anyways, I'm glad I read this, I never new lemon or lime juice keeps apples from turning brown! You learn something new every day!

I have a problem eating fast food myself... I even saw the SSMe movie and still think their french fries are good. It didn't have the impact on me that I had hoped. It was quite unrealistic in that, of course your going to blow up if you eat it 3 meals a day for 30 days. It just was silly to me. Sooo, I have to look to other reasons not give in and resort to convenience.

...mmm... I forgot what else I was going to say but now I remembered! I know you can definetly tell that Dasani is just plain ole tap water just from the taste, it's kinda nasty. But I heard that the Dasani tap water comes from a river that has a (human) waste treament plant dumped into it upstream. I know, I know the waste water is treated before its put into the river, but that's just kinda sickening to me. I know some cities get their water from rivers, where I live we are fortunate enough to have a large underground lake with water filtered through many layers of limestone or whatever, but that is so nasty to think about it's basically sewer water. eww! Anyway I'm really picky about my water and I only drink Evian (I like the minerals) or Aquafina, while I don't know where they come from I think they both taste good. The Aquafina has a really clear pure taste to it. I love it! It's probably filtered tap water but at least it doesn't taste like it. I try to drink tap from home sometimes because bottled water, isn't fluorinated and therefore no good for your teeth. But our tap water tastes pretty good here.

I have a sister with a severe allergy to preservatives and additives, and I can say that most of the food we eat in this country contains preservatives. She cannot shop at a regular grocery store, because even fruits and vegetables contain pesticides, wax and preservatives, and chemicals to make the produce grow larger and shinier.

Most organic produce at health food stores are now grown in a portion of Mexico and California that is known for organic produce. The stuff from Mexico is shipped over the border and must be sprayed with sulphites to preserve and other things to ensure that there are no insects. Most of the organic produce farms in California have been bought out by big business and now use chemicals that are considered "organic" by CA and national standards. It was recently ruled by the FDA that it is up to farmers to decide what "organic" is, and that's bad news for us consumers who buy organic expecting it to be natural produce. In fact, she only knows of 3 farms so far that are actually organic, meaning nothing-added to the produce. Many say that they are until you contact them directly, and some of them only admitted so when she called them because she had a reaction.

All of this contributes to the fact that 99% of what we eat contains additives in some form. If you buy a thing of oatmeal and read the ingredients they might read "Ingredients: Rolled oats" What they DON'T have to list or tell you about are the preservatives and chemicals that they put in the packaging to ensure that the product stays fresh. The labelling system in this country is incredibly misleading.

So the fact that McDonald's is open in listing that they use a preservative is actually a positive step. Most companies and farms don't.

Dasani water (as well as Aquafina and other brands of purified drinking water) generally is bottled from LOCAL water sources - e.g. if you live in the UK, the water came from the UK; if you live in California, the water is from California, and so on. It's really not a big secret.

You might want to check out this Consumer Reports article titled "What's in That Bottle?" for more info, particularly this part:

I think I referred to this FDA article earlier: Bottled Water - Better than the Tap?

It's basically a personal decision, whether to purchase bottled water and if so, what water to buy. As I've stated, our tap water tastes like ca-ca, so we have Arrowhead delivered monthly.

In response to the original comment and others' comments on Supersize Me, there is an extra on the DVD showing a demonstration Morgan tried. He took food from McDonalds and other restaurants (local hot dog stand-type places) and put them in jars on a shelf. He checked back on the food over a period of time. The food from the non-chain quickly rotted, as expected. The McDonalds food took a much longer time to rot. And the McDonald's fries? They didn't change in appearance over the demonstration, aside from getting wilted. They were still that golden brown color weeks later, whereas he had to toss the non-chain's fries weeks earlier. Check that out sometime if you're concerned with preservatives!

Someone else said that the movie inaccurately portrayed McD's because he "always" ordered the supersized portion, and someone else corrected that misconception (it's a good idea to watch a movie before you rip on it). I've also heard about the woman who lost weight by eating at McD's all the time, and I can certainly imagine how that's possible. If you watch your portion sizes and caloric intake, you lose weight.

It should be noted that Morgan Spurlock said that the movie was not only about how McDonald's is to blame for Americans becoming supersized. He always claimed that it was ALSO about personal responsibility. The idea is that knowing that McD's will always try to make a bigger sale (being a business), it is up to individuals to say "No thanks, the Happy Meal will be enough!" (My personal favorite because it's perfectly portioned).

Do you have a link to this?

From what I've read, it is not the FDA but the USDA who runs the National Organic Program.

Also, apparently each state creates its own State Organic Program (SOP) which must be approved by the USDA. Here's the homepage for California's Organic Program.

Actually I don't believe that is specifically correct. According to the FDA's Food Labeling Requirements preservatives (and the reason for adding them) MUST be included on the packaging:

For folks who are having difficulties deciphering the "Nutrition Facts" label, here is the FDA's consumer page on "How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label".