apple2991 and mcadam, I have found your discussion interesting.
As many in this thread have said what one eats is their choice and their responsibility. I fully agree with that sentiment and that it is not the fast food industries responsibility to serve healthy food. It is a business - it works on the principle of supply and demand. They keep selling this junk because people want it. Some of that junk is tasty and I indulge in it from time to time - but when I do, I am not in some delusion that what I am eating is good for me.
As you two have touched on, the problem goes much deeper than personal responsibility for one's eating habits. It is a cultural problem that stems from ignorance and apathy. Even in this thread, many people seem to think the only problem with this new breakfast sandwich is the calories. "Oh, you can eat this sandwich and just be sure to burn off the calories." Nutrition is more complicated than that. This sandwich is filled with saturated fat that clogs your arteries and high in sodium that raises your blood pressure. It has crap bread with no fiber. The large amount of calories is only one problem with the sandwich - of equal or greater concern is that there is little or no nutrients in this sandwich.
Most Americans are ignorant about nutrition. I would say that most realize that fast food is unhealthy but I doubt they fully comprehend why it is unhealthy. Most children are ignorant of how to lead a healthy lifestyle because their parents do not teach them because they themselves are ignorant.
I am not trying to be judgmental here. I grew up in a poor suburb of Detroit where ignorance runs rampant. I was fortunate enough to have a mother who valued education and raised me to have a little more sense. However, many children aren't so lucky - so there ends up being a self-perpetuating cycle that produces good, little, ignorant consumers who just keep consuming and large corporations like it that way. It is not the corporations fault, but they certainly won't get an "integrity award" from me for how they exploit the system.
So yeah, this is a problem deeply rooted in American culture. How do we fix it? I'm not sure, I would start with education - but that's not enough because too many of these factors start in the home. We could create the best educational system and it won't matter unless education is valued and reinforced in the home. I think Americans could benefit from politicians having enough spine to condemn the amount of piss-poor parenting going on in our country - but it wouldn't help their popularity polls, so that's out of the question.
I don't know... if I had answers I would be a politician or writing a book or doing something more productive than posting cynical insights on an internet forum.