Image courtesy of bryangeek

One of the biggest challenges that we face in the modern era when it comes to having a balanced diet is that cheap, unhealthy food is considerably easier to get than the healthier alternatives.  Low-calorie, low-fat,  and nutritious food is frustratingly expensive when compared to the dollar menu at your local fast food chain, and if you’re dieting on a budget those pennies can add up quickly.   What’s worse is that when you are really hungry it sure seems like it’s a heck of a lot easier to run for the border than actually go through the effort of cooking something that is good for you.

Well, it turns out that perception may not be too terribly far from reality in America.  Unless, that is, you literally live in the middle of nowhere.

While on a recent road trip out in California, Stephen Von Worley from the blog Weather Sealed wondered to himself just how far he would have to go to get away from the nearest McDonalds.  It turns out that it is a lot harder to get away from that creepy smiling clown with his calorie bombs than you might think.  With the help of a spreadsheet provided by AggData he created a heat map showing all of the McDonalds locations in America and the results were a bit startling.  It turns out that at the absolute farthest you’re only 107 miles from a McDonalds, and that’s smack dab in the middle of the high plains of South Dakota.

That’s right, my friends.  No matter where you are in America you’re never more than two hours away from being able to gorge yourself on cheap, unhealthy food.  What’s even “better” is that many of those locations are open late into the night, especially those along the interstate system.

I do realize that nobody has ever been forced into a McDonalds to satisfy their food cravings, but with the ready availability of food with little to no nutritional value in our society is it any wonder why more and more of us are crossing over into the obese category?  We’ve been conditioned to go for easy, quick, and cheap when it comes to our dining choices and the folks over at McDonalds have made sure that they are there for us when we want them.  The same can’t be said for the local farmer’s market, and at this point I’m not really sure it’s even possible to tip the scales back in the other direction.