and we wonder why people need to go to Sea World for their MRI scans

Mmmmmm, fat!

They missed the Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger from jack, with 77 grams of fat.

Also, I love awful, fatty foods. I'm lucky enough to be blessed with a high metabolism so I don't turn into a fatass. Although I'll probably die of a heart attack when I'm 35.

But damn, these foods are sooo good. But I've never had a Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger, nor any of the foods mentioned in the article.

If we had Dairy Queen in the UK I'd be screwed.

England has fastfood, right? I'd like to hear about some the UKs fatty fastfoods.

We have McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, but the only thing I buy from McD is the occasional Egg McMuffin or McFlurry. I never use the other ones.

We have fish & chip shops, lots of Chinese and Indian takeaways and, of course, the doner kebab (which I think is called gyro in the US). Doner kebabs are very popular with students and drunks. No-one who is grown-up or sober would eat them.

In East London the fast food of choice used to be the pie and mash shop, a few of which still remain, selling stewed or jellied eels, and meat pie & mashed potato, served with 'liquor', which is a kind of parsley sauce, the recipe for which is always kept secret, handed down through generations of pie and mash shop families. The nearest pie & mash shop to where I live is Manze's in Walthamstow.

Many of the remaining pie and mash shops have retained their marble counters, tiled walls and wooden booths. Manze's is a lovely example of an old-fashioned pie and mash shop.

That so does not look appetizing. Jellied eels? WTF!?

I confess I have never tried jellied eels. They always look as if someone's already eaten them once before.

GAH! They look worse than they sound! This has to be part of the propensity for various cultures in the Greater British Isles to base their recipies on drunken dares - which then become ill-reasoned "traditions" and carried onward through the drunken haze of generations.

Wow, who looked at an eel and said "Oh yeah, I want to jelly that thing and then eat it?" Nasty!

Eel was an incredibly popular and common food in the U.S. until at least the early part of the 20th century. There are people in New England who still consider it quite a delicacy. In fall the eels are running -- they're anadromous and they swim upriver to mate -- and there's a sizeable contingent of folks who go out and trap them. Mostly Natives, ooold Yankee families, and people of Italian descent.

I haven't tried it yet, but in research we always come across tons of recipes for eel pies, grilled and broiled eel, and so on. It's supposed to be a ery sweet-tasting fish.

I had eel at a vietnamese restaurant once. It was good.

I've had eel sushi before but I just don't get the jellification of them.

Miko, thanks for the gastronomic history lesson!

jellied eel and toasted coconut donuts
jellied eel and pineapple smoothies
jellied eel and caramel cheesecake
jellied eel and chocolate chip pancakes
jellied eel and peanut butter ice cream

Just thinking out loud.

There's a reason I'm diabetic (I was already overweight, have been since puberty):

I used to eat two regular sized Cinnabons for breakfast Saturday and Sunday (for a total of four per weekend). The problem with unhealthy food is that it tastes so very, very good. Make broccoli taste like Cinnabons or pizza and I'd be eating it by the truckload.

And, as usual, MetaFilter is doing oh, so well with another fat thread. Some people will never come to grips that for some other people it's not as simple as "eat less and exercise more". Asshats.

And I really resent the fact that some people can eat crap by the metric ton and stay (relatively) healthy and not gain weight. Genetics are a bitch.

If anyone cares - I started Weight Watchers in March. Although I haven't lost a lot of weight (which is weird since I'm walking 2 miles a day and eating well), my blood glucose readings are now where they should be. Yay me.

Yay deborah! Good luck! And ignore the asshats. They are, after all, asshats.

Yay, deb.

The problem with unhealthy food is that it tastes so very, very good

When you get off it for a significant while, it stops tasting as good as it used to seem to. In the last few years I've become salad/ whole-food/nuts-and-berries girl. But I'm not a total purist. So every now and then I'll think I really miss Cheetos or fast food burgers or Ring Dings or something like that. But I find if I eat one, it's not quite as wonderful an indulgence as I remember. Sweet things taste really flatly, one-dimensionally sweet. Salty/crunchy things taste chalky, fatty thing just taste like grease. I think it takes a long time to re-educate the palate.

On the other hand, you can get a lot more enjoyment out of the occasional high-fat, high-calorie indulgence when it's not an everyday occurrence. What I save the splurges for are really great fresh-cut french fries or ice cream cones. I know I'm enjoying them a lot more than I did when I ate that kind of stuff every week.

Miko speaks truth. Kick the fat food habit for a time and you will find yourself getting sick, usually the runs, from eating a big fatty meal like a Big Mac. I think the Vegans are on to something, even if I am not quite there. I find my diet getting more and more vegan every day. I still love my meat, but now in such small quantities as to almost disappear. Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat..... the longer you live.