I basically NEVER EVER ate at fast-food restaurants for a 50 year period of my life...ever since they showed up in my hometown around the late 60's. This was due to me ALWAYS being on a diet, finances (lack of) and transportation (also lack of). Back then a McD order consisted of a hamburger, fries and milkshake...I'm not sure there was much else on offer at McDonalds but none of those were ever listed on my Weight Watchers food options.
But then COVID hit in 2020 and I volunteered to stay home-bound with my 95-year old mother so she could be isolated from the rest of the family. That's when we started eating in the car. And eating in the car. And eating in the car. I could probably recite the menus from McDonalds and Wendy's, although I've still never eaten at a Burger King or Arby's. Oh, I did have a taco at Taco Bell and this would be the ONLY meal I ever had at Taco Bell because of that first experience. Those encapsulate the fast food options in my local area.
Plus I don't cook much meat because I suck at cooking meat in general and red meat in particular. So it was a horrifying realization to read in an (albeit OLD) Consumer Report article from 2019 about the antibiotics used in the cattle for fast-food beef. Research and the published results of antibiotics used in chicken had resulted in fast-food companies reducing the amounts. But this 2019 article was again researched in 2021 and the results barely changed, even though companies in 2019 said they would change their policies. Apparently they didn't.
Here is the scorecard from 2019 and I've annotated the three companies that slightly changed from 2019 to 2021:

Huh. Looks like that was a load of beef.
But then COVID hit in 2020 and I volunteered to stay home-bound with my 95-year old mother so she could be isolated from the rest of the family. That's when we started eating in the car. And eating in the car. And eating in the car. I could probably recite the menus from McDonalds and Wendy's, although I've still never eaten at a Burger King or Arby's. Oh, I did have a taco at Taco Bell and this would be the ONLY meal I ever had at Taco Bell because of that first experience. Those encapsulate the fast food options in my local area.
Plus I don't cook much meat because I suck at cooking meat in general and red meat in particular. So it was a horrifying realization to read in an (albeit OLD) Consumer Report article from 2019 about the antibiotics used in the cattle for fast-food beef. Research and the published results of antibiotics used in chicken had resulted in fast-food companies reducing the amounts. But this 2019 article was again researched in 2021 and the results barely changed, even though companies in 2019 said they would change their policies. Apparently they didn't.
Here is the scorecard from 2019 and I've annotated the three companies that slightly changed from 2019 to 2021:
- Wendy's went from a D+ to a C
- IHOP and Applebee's went from an F to a D.

Huh. Looks like that was a load of beef.