I know plenty of people who eat a fourth meal. They're my fellow college students, many of whom need some extra callories to get them through the all-too-frequent all-nighters.

College students usually aren't eating three *regular* meals; they're almost always skipping one or more of the usual three and compensating with night-time snacking or meals.

Being blessed with residence in the fattest state in the union as I am, I did not find amusing the big signs suggesting that a Fourth Meal was the answer to all one's woes (but apparently not actually suggesting that one should *eat* a fourth meal, so now I'm not sure what they want us to do with it).

This would fall under "Exactly the opposite of helpful", I think. Not that I mean to blame Taco Hell for the fact that people will eat fast food in the middle of the night if allowed, but can we PLEASE let it remain socially unacceptable at least??

If I was White Castle's marketing VP, I'd intro the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Meals.

The 'Fourthmeal' campaign is not encouraging people to eat a literal fourth meal. It is actually branding a meal that people are already eating.

Oh, well, carry on then.

(as if THAT makes it okay)

jesus people. anything over one meal, consisting entirely of celery and diet coke, and you are showing a severe lack of self esteem.

BMI 25, and I eat 4 times a day. Granted, I eat like a bird, and it's not usually Taco Bell, but I do it. Just call me a Hobbitt....

I personally thought that their "Fourth Meal" promotion thing was kind of funny.

.....I eat about 5 meals per day on my off-days. Breakfast at 9:00, lunch at 12, afternoon snack at 4:00, dinner at 7:00, and massive junk-food chip binge at 10:00. If I stay up late, I might make a sandwich at 1:00 AM, too.

.....On work days, I have breakfast at 5:30 AM, maybe eat an apple or some grapes on the run during the day, and thus starved, I inhale a massive three plate dinner at 9:00 PM.

All of the diets put out by nutritionists suggest eating five or six meals a day. Granted, none of those five or six meals involve trips to Taco Bell, but still.

At anyrate, you should seriously consider putting this on a T-shirt.

"This is a free country. Health care is not socialized. People in this country are living longer, healthier lives than at any other time in the history of the earth. People can eat whatever the fuck they want, when they want and in any absurd volume they want, and there's nothing you anti-capitalist hippy pansies can do about it."

I'd buy it.

Actually, we do pay through copays, deductables, and higher insurance premiums.

I must say, their spicy chicken crunchwrap supreme is pretty tasty.

Quid writes:

"In your libertarian enthusiasm you claim that, "This is a free country. Health care is not socialized. People in this country are living longer, healthier lives than at any other time in the history of the earth." All of these claims are, at best, debatable. Quite apart from the Bush administration having considerable curtailed our liberties, Americans are not currently the world's healthiest people. We have higher infant mortality, shorter life spans, and higher rates of a number of diseases than many industrialized nations. Medicine is not yet completely socialized but it will be as more and more folks get sicker and fewer and fewer private business want to carry the cost. In any case, whether medicine is socialized or not is irrelevant to an argument that we are free to eat as and as much as we can afford."