Growing up in Amherst, one of the most outspokenly liberal and granola towns in New England, fast food was an unspeakable topic. In a town where most of the food eaten is grown at an organic farm a few miles down the road, the idea of any processed or imported food is barely tolerated. Forget McDonalds, being seen in Big Y is bad enough.

By the time we were old enough to think for ourselves, all of the pressures of an organic small-town society, combined with a school-wide viewing of Super Size Me, convinced everyone in my elementary school: fast food is bad. Period.

The incessant health propaganda almost had me ready to swear off McDonalds, along with everybody else in my town. But I still had a few lingering questions: if fast food is so horrible, why does everybody eat it? And if everybody eats it, how come everybody isn’t dead? Despite what everyone told me, I still believed in the back of my mind that fast food couldn’t be all bad for you.

The truth is, it’s not so much where you eat that matters, it’s the decisions you make about what you eat.

Maybe it’s because of the copious amounts of oil used in frying, or maybe it’s just the general suspicion of any food that takes less than five minutes to prepare, but the common belief is that fast food is less healthy than regular food. According to a Gallup poll, 51% of participants believe that fast food is “not too good” for you and another 26% say it is “not good at all.” That is partly true, but every fast food restaurant, whether it’s McDonald’s, or Kentucky Fried Chicken, or Chipotle, has some healthy options as well.

These healthy options are not always apparent, but actions are undertaken every day to increase awareness about fast food nutrition. Ten years ago, according to the documentary Super Size Me, only “half of all Mc Donald’s had posted nutritional information about their products.” Now, most fast food restaurants have nutrition facts available, and websites like fastfoodnutrition.org offer this information to anyone on the internet.

One of the most widespread nutritional philosophies is based off of the idea of moderation. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics comments on the importance of the “overall pattern of food eaten” and says that “all foods can fit within this pattern if consumed in moderation with appropriate portion size and combined with physical activity.” It discourages the concept of certain foods being “good” and other foods being “bad.” Instead it “emphasizes a balance of food and beverages within energy needs, rather than any one food or meal.”

So, assuming that you could find the healthier fast food options and eat them in moderation, the question remains: would it really work? Could you really stay healthy?

This question has already been undertaken by John Cisna and his biology class in Ankeny, Iowa. Cisna spent 90 days eating a healthy, 2000 calorie diet designed by his students – all from McDonalds. This diet “adhered to 15 nutritional guidelines as recommended by the Food and Drug Administration.” Cisna also told The Huffington Post that it included all of the items on the McDonalds menu, because “I didn’t want people saying I lived off fruit parfaits and Egg White Delights.”

By the end of the 90 day trial, Cisna had lost 37 pounds and his cholesterol had dropped 79 points. After the study, Cisna admitted “What is cool is when you see one kid say, ‘It’s not McDonald’s that makes you fat. It’s your choices that make you fat.'”

This study stands as proof that it’s not the food you eat that is important, it is the choices we make when eating it. Not everyone is diligent enough to eat a strict McDonalds diet for 90 days, but it is possible. The occasional trip certainly won’t kill you.