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I didn't realize there was this much price variance in Taco Bell. That's the most interesting feature, to me.

cortesoft 2y ago
I have an autistic kid who went through a phase where she would only eat McDonalds chicken nuggets... I live in a city and have 3 McDonald's pretty close to me, and the price for the same order of nuggets would vary by up to 50 cents between the 3... the cheapest place is only a half mile away from the most expensive one. It really is strange.
- wincy 2y ago
  Ah geez, we have a five year old who has a physical disability so ate via feeding tube for a long time, and when she finally started on actual foods had the McDonald’s chicken nuggets phase. We bought an air fryer and she prefers those nuggets now thank goodness, and has been branching out to other foods. And since we were getting her McDonald’s, we often ended up getting it, especially during Covid, and gained weight, and it was a vicious cycle.
  - gscott 2y ago
    You can apparently eat them 15 years straight before it causes a problem https://www.cbsnews.com/news/british-teen-stacey-irvine-hospitalized-after-eating-nothing-but-chicken-nuggets-for-15-years/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/british-teen-stacey-irvine-hosp...
    - aucisson_masque 2y ago
      I know you're joking but just in case someone miss it, even 1 meal of McDonald chicken nugget is bad for health. Its just that after 15 years you die of it, before you are very unhealthy, especially for kids.
      - whamlastxmas 2y ago
        Almost anything is fine in moderation. It’s honestly not that bad beyond the saturated fats, and even then an otherwise healthy and active person who eats other healthy things during the day would be totally fine having nuggets for dinner every day
      - yathern 2y ago
        > even 1 meal of McDonald chicken nugget is bad for health I think this isn't true in any meaningful way. Absolutely, making it (or any fast food) a big component of your diet is not going to promote good health. The more often you eat them, the more likely it will have an impact on your health, mostly from the increased sodium and trans fats. Consistently living with high blood sugar and higher LDL will increase your bad health outcomes. But in the example of the parent, it's not just the negative consequences of consuming fast food, but the negative consequences of not eating anything else (so lacking in many micronutrients). The good news is this makes the marginal impact of one meal over your lifetime is absolutely miniscule. It's not like each meal increases your risk of mortality a linear amount.
        aucisson_masque 2y ago
        I understand it's not fair to compare a dog to a baby but I'll just throw it out there. When my dogs refuse to eat the food I give him, I just take it back and surely enough 12 hours later he is eating the very same food he refused before. A kid isn't a dog but sometimes it got to get worst before it gets better. About macnuggets : I might be extremist in the way I consider alimentation but I consider that even one McDonald's nuggets is bad for health not only for the immediate impact on your body, which is indeed minimal from one meal, but mostly because it gives a bad Habit. Everyone likes junk food, it always tastes better than healthy food so you're putting yourself at disadvantage at the very first bite in a chicken nugget. A bit like what happens with drugs, the first time is the most important and the more you do after the worst it's going to be to get out of it.
        cortesoft 2y ago
        Trying to enforce healthier eating on our daughter lead to her being underweight. Her nutritionist, pediatrician, endocrinologist, and therapist all advised us it was better to allow her to eat her comfort foods rather than fight her on it. So no, kids aren't like dogs.
    - sockaddr 2y ago
      It didn't take 15 years to cause a problem. There was a problem long before the problem became unbearable and she needed treatment. Likely also significant nutritional and metabolic damage along the way.
- ranger_danger 2y ago
  I don't mean to be rude but I'm just curious... did you try simply not giving them junk food? I have done some research on this and have not found any good evidence that most autistic children will actually starve themselves for any meaningful amount of time if their picky foods are not provided.
  - Yodel0914 2y ago
    Not the OP, but I do have an food sensitive autistic son. He will absolutely not eat rather than eat something he despises. There are obvious moral limitations on testing his resolve, but he has skipped meals (without causing a fuss) plenty of times.
  - rightbyte 2y ago
    I guess McNuggets are better than a deficiency of calories or forced tube feeding.
  - crooked-v 2y ago
    Framing it as "being picky" is really not helpful. As somebody on the spectrum, my (fortunately very few) food sensitivities aren't a mere matter of preference... they're the result of me experiencing visceral, nauseating revulsion at specific tastes/textures/smells. If it's the only option, I will absolutely skip a meal entirely rather than deal with it. I would probably have to be at the point of literally (not figuratively) starving to fight past that response, and even then I wouldn't be sure about keeping it down.
    - SapporoChris 2y ago
      Not giving them junk food doesn't equate to ignoring food sensitivities. If someone is tolerating chicken nuggets, there's a whole host of healthier food with similar textures, tastes and smells.
      - forgotusername6 2y ago
        You have to battle the psychological aspect which says that they are different even if they smell, taste, feel the same. It really isn't that easy, if it was, parents of autistic kids would be doing it. There is also a reason why McDonald's nuggets are the go to for autistic kids the world over. They have been engineered over many decades to be the most acceptable taste and texture for children.
Mountain_Skies 2y ago
There are two Taco Bell locations in walking distance of my home. One is independently owned and the other is a corporate location. The independent location is constantly priced higher than the corporate location. For some things like the Crave Box, the price can be as much as 67% more expensive but almost everything is at least 20% higher in price. The only exception are items that are part of an ad campaign that specifies price. In those cases, the independent franchise location fully participates. The corporate is located on a major collector street with many other fast food options while the franchise location is in the transition zone between a walkable downtown and car oriented development but both have a drive-thru. Not sure if it's just corporate policy to keep prices at a low baseline for their locations or it's due to there being competition from other fast food restaurants nearby but it's just half a mile between them so a 67% price difference is pretty strange.

I have an autistic kid who went through a phase where she would only eat McDonalds chicken nuggets... I live in a city and have 3 McDonald's pretty close to me, and the price for the same order of nuggets would vary by up to 50 cents between the 3... the cheapest place is only a half mile away from the most expensive one. It really is strange.

wincy 2y ago
Ah geez, we have a five year old who has a physical disability so ate via feeding tube for a long time, and when she finally started on actual foods had the McDonald’s chicken nuggets phase. We bought an air fryer and she prefers those nuggets now thank goodness, and has been branching out to other foods. And since we were getting her McDonald’s, we often ended up getting it, especially during Covid, and gained weight, and it was a vicious cycle.
- gscott 2y ago
  You can apparently eat them 15 years straight before it causes a problem https://www.cbsnews.com/news/british-teen-stacey-irvine-hospitalized-after-eating-nothing-but-chicken-nuggets-for-15-years/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/british-teen-stacey-irvine-hosp...
  - aucisson_masque 2y ago
    I know you're joking but just in case someone miss it, even 1 meal of McDonald chicken nugget is bad for health. Its just that after 15 years you die of it, before you are very unhealthy, especially for kids.
    - whamlastxmas 2y ago
      Almost anything is fine in moderation. It’s honestly not that bad beyond the saturated fats, and even then an otherwise healthy and active person who eats other healthy things during the day would be totally fine having nuggets for dinner every day
    - yathern 2y ago
      > even 1 meal of McDonald chicken nugget is bad for health I think this isn't true in any meaningful way. Absolutely, making it (or any fast food) a big component of your diet is not going to promote good health. The more often you eat them, the more likely it will have an impact on your health, mostly from the increased sodium and trans fats. Consistently living with high blood sugar and higher LDL will increase your bad health outcomes. But in the example of the parent, it's not just the negative consequences of consuming fast food, but the negative consequences of not eating anything else (so lacking in many micronutrients). The good news is this makes the marginal impact of one meal over your lifetime is absolutely miniscule. It's not like each meal increases your risk of mortality a linear amount.
      - aucisson_masque 2y ago
        I understand it's not fair to compare a dog to a baby but I'll just throw it out there. When my dogs refuse to eat the food I give him, I just take it back and surely enough 12 hours later he is eating the very same food he refused before. A kid isn't a dog but sometimes it got to get worst before it gets better. About macnuggets : I might be extremist in the way I consider alimentation but I consider that even one McDonald's nuggets is bad for health not only for the immediate impact on your body, which is indeed minimal from one meal, but mostly because it gives a bad Habit. Everyone likes junk food, it always tastes better than healthy food so you're putting yourself at disadvantage at the very first bite in a chicken nugget. A bit like what happens with drugs, the first time is the most important and the more you do after the worst it's going to be to get out of it.
        cortesoft 2y ago
        Trying to enforce healthier eating on our daughter lead to her being underweight. Her nutritionist, pediatrician, endocrinologist, and therapist all advised us it was better to allow her to eat her comfort foods rather than fight her on it. So no, kids aren't like dogs.
  - sockaddr 2y ago
    It didn't take 15 years to cause a problem. There was a problem long before the problem became unbearable and she needed treatment. Likely also significant nutritional and metabolic damage along the way.
ranger_danger 2y ago
I don't mean to be rude but I'm just curious... did you try simply not giving them junk food? I have done some research on this and have not found any good evidence that most autistic children will actually starve themselves for any meaningful amount of time if their picky foods are not provided.
- Yodel0914 2y ago
  Not the OP, but I do have an food sensitive autistic son. He will absolutely not eat rather than eat something he despises. There are obvious moral limitations on testing his resolve, but he has skipped meals (without causing a fuss) plenty of times.
- rightbyte 2y ago
  I guess McNuggets are better than a deficiency of calories or forced tube feeding.
- crooked-v 2y ago
  Framing it as "being picky" is really not helpful. As somebody on the spectrum, my (fortunately very few) food sensitivities aren't a mere matter of preference... they're the result of me experiencing visceral, nauseating revulsion at specific tastes/textures/smells. If it's the only option, I will absolutely skip a meal entirely rather than deal with it. I would probably have to be at the point of literally (not figuratively) starving to fight past that response, and even then I wouldn't be sure about keeping it down.
  - SapporoChris 2y ago
    Not giving them junk food doesn't equate to ignoring food sensitivities. If someone is tolerating chicken nuggets, there's a whole host of healthier food with similar textures, tastes and smells.
    - forgotusername6 2y ago
      You have to battle the psychological aspect which says that they are different even if they smell, taste, feel the same. It really isn't that easy, if it was, parents of autistic kids would be doing it. There is also a reason why McDonald's nuggets are the go to for autistic kids the world over. They have been engineered over many decades to be the most acceptable taste and texture for children.

Mountain_Skies 2y ago

There are two Taco Bell locations in walking distance of my home. One is independently owned and the other is a corporate location. The independent location is constantly priced higher than the corporate location. For some things like the Crave Box, the price can be as much as 67% more expensive but almost everything is at least 20% higher in price. The only exception are items that are part of an ad campaign that specifies price. In those cases, the independent franchise location fully participates. The corporate is located on a major collector street with many other fast food options while the franchise location is in the transition zone between a walkable downtown and car oriented development but both have a drive-thru. Not sure if it's just corporate policy to keep prices at a low baseline for their locations or it's due to there being competition from other fast food restaurants nearby but it's just half a mile between them so a 67% price difference is pretty strange.