Why are People Still Eating McDonald's Food?

People eat McDonald's food because it is delicious and it is cheap.

I'm going to get lots of sarcastic responses to my "delicious" comment. I cook dinner at home 4 nights each week, my wife does it 3 times, and any outsider would consider what we produce to be gourmet. For six years I owned a gourmet restaurant in Berkeley that was very highly rated, called "Inn Season". It competed directly with Chez Panisse: our food was 85% as delicious, and cost half as much.   I almost never eat at McDonald's.

My favorite dishes to prepare at home are salmon (still red and fleshy) with capers and Sherry; and chicken cooked in a complex peanut sauce

But when I do eat at McDonald's, I am astonished at the nourishment I can buy for $1.  Indeed, their $1 hamburger (that they had last time I ate there) was a sufficient dinner; it provided all the calories I needed, and with the lettuce topping and bread bun it was a decently balanced meal.  Fast food is unhealthy primarily because you eat it so quickly that your body doesn't have to reduce your hunger sensations -- so you overeat.  Overeating is the primary problem with fast food.

In terms of quality, their hamburgers would be considered gourmet by anyone who judged it by the food standards of 100 years ago. As I said, I rarely eat them myself because I prefer more variety and delicate flavors.  But from the perspective of most people in the world, they are delicious -- and amazingly cheap.