This post is part of a feature on companies and products that our bloggers think are in need of a makeover. See all 26.

McDonald's has been hit by one serious critique after another of food safety and nutrition. The company has gone from being a family chain to something only those desperate to save time or money want. There have been half-hearted efforts to modernize, but what McDonald's really needs is a complete menu makeover.

I'm not talking about changing away from hamburgers in all their infinite variety, either. But over the last couple decades the eating public has gotten a lot more picky and worried about getting fat or sick from mad cow disease or some contaminant.

There have been many serious critiques of their impact on worldwide nutrition. Eric Schlosser described in Fast Food Nation how mega-producer McDonald's uses butchering assembly lines. In an era of food safety concern, "a single fast-food hamburger now contains meat from dozens or even hundreds of different cattle." Morgan Spurlock examined in the movie Supersize Me and a related book what happens when an individual -- or a whole country -- eats too much McDonald's.

Of course, McDonald's is facing pressure from the other side, too. We want cheap food. Especially in a recession, people love the dollar menu. But McDonald's has just got to improve the food.

Arby's, a unit of Triarc Companies (NYSE: TRY), has just taken first prize in its attempt to one-up the "super-size" fast-food menu with its "Pick 5 for 5.95" value meal.

If you've read Eric Buscemi's Battle of the Brands post: McDonald's vs. Burger King, you know the Big Mac and Whopper do not fall in the category of "healthy" foods. Add in fries and a drink and you've already clogged your first artery. But Arby's takes it one step further: they give you your pick of five fast-food items on a special menu -- two more than the standard value meal at McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) or Burger King (NYSE: BKC).

I went to Arby's for lunch today to pick my "5 for 5.95" and I must say it's overwhelming.

I decided upon an Arby's Melt sandwich with medium curly fries, a medium drink (sounds like the standard fast-food value meal so far but I had two more choices) mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce and a small jamocha shake.

Needless to say, I couldn't finish everything. I sat at my table staring at my unfinished meal thinking of Thomas Aquinas and what he said about gluttony in his SUMMA THEOLOGIÆ, "Gluttony denotes, not any desire of eating and drinking, but an inordinate desire ... leaving the order of reason, wherein the good of moral virtue consists."

This was just too much food, I thought. It defies all reason. How bad is this for you?