Wheel Food - are you amazed by the number of drive-thrus?

I just read an article in the Experience Life magazine about drive thru stats. I do have to preface this by saying at least my rule is, if I am going to eat out at a fast food restaurant or have ice cream, I park my car, get out and walk inside, at least I am feel like I am walking off about 5 calories or so.

We American's are gluttens truly, 22% of all restaurant meals are ordered through a car window and we wonder why our obesity rate is so high. This is just one of the many interesting driving-related factoids turned up by Tom Vanderbilt in his book, Traffic: Why we drive the way we do.

I think if we could educate ourselves we would find out that there are quite a few people reading this right now that would be in the obese category and not even realize it. When we think of obese, we may be thinking of someone that is much much larger than us and saying to ourselves oh I will never let myself go that far.

Be careful with that thought process, our weight doesn't just creep up on us like we think. It is a process that occurs over time and neglecting ourselves.

The expanding cup holder only became standard car equipment in the 1980's. It is now considered a "vital enabler of dashboard dining". I have never been a fan of eating in the car and it may be because I suck at it, I can only drink water in the car, if I spill it then it cleans up much better. If I am traveling and do eat occasionally while on the road, I can't believe how much dropped under the seat and I didn't even know it.

Today there are 84 billion plus mobile snacks and meals - termed "on the go eating occasions" by the food industry in the United States and Europe. McDonald's has added a second drive-thru lane to hundreds of its U.S. restaurants to speed up traffic.

Some fast-food restaurants hire marketers to test which foods are easiest to eat in actual traffic. Have you really thought about how many napkins you use when eating in the car? Maybe they will start charging extra for those napkins.

One little thing you could change up would be to get out of your car, walk inside and order your food the next time. I actually find it to be faster. Have you seen those long lines in the drive up?