Why don’t Americans give a f*** about what they eat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you are truly surrounded by unhealthy foods with no healthy options within driving distance then you really should move. None of my friends or acquaintances in the dmv area have these problems. We know how to find healthy food whether we are eating out or at home. This is a problem with a solution.

Have you been outside dmv? Have you been South or Midwest?

This is a weird stereotype that there’s just no healthy food in the south or Midwest.

Have you been to small towns in the Midwest or South? Healthy living is not an option

+1

Not an option in small towns and not easy in big cities.

There are some provincial posters on this thread who have never ventured out of the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Why are you expecting to eat healthy restaurant food? That’s one of the fundamental food issues in this country. People want to eat convenience food or restaurant food instead of cooking.

Why not? Why can’t we have expectations that the convenience and restaurant food should be healthy? Why can’t we have these standards?
Europeans do. French eat out all the time and their food is healthy. Why can’t we?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you are truly surrounded by unhealthy foods with no healthy options within driving distance then you really should move. None of my friends or acquaintances in the dmv area have these problems. We know how to find healthy food whether we are eating out or at home. This is a problem with a solution.

Have you been outside dmv? Have you been South or Midwest?

This is a weird stereotype that there’s just no healthy food in the south or Midwest.

Have you been to small towns in the Midwest or South? Healthy living is not an option

+1

Not an option in small towns and not easy in big cities.

There are some provincial posters on this thread who have never ventured out of the DMV.

This just is not true. There are plenty of small towns with plenty of healthy food options. And “not easy” in big cities?

Look you can blame others all you want, but the reality is that you can make good food choices, you’re choosing not to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you are truly surrounded by unhealthy foods with no healthy options within driving distance then you really should move. None of my friends or acquaintances in the dmv area have these problems. We know how to find healthy food whether we are eating out or at home. This is a problem with a solution.

Have you been outside dmv? Have you been South or Midwest?

This is a weird stereotype that there’s just no healthy food in the south or Midwest.

Have you been to small towns in the Midwest or South? Healthy living is not an option

+1

Not an option in small towns and not easy in big cities.

There are some provincial posters on this thread who have never ventured out of the DMV.

This just is not true. There are plenty of small towns with plenty of healthy food options. And “not easy” in big cities?

Look you can blame others all you want, but the reality is that you can make good food choices, you’re choosing not to.

The concept of “food desert” is a real thing and it has devastating effects on communities. My cousins live in small Midwestern town. I was shocked at the inability to source healthy foods for kids and family, and I’m someone who is very rigid about diet. Plus, the food prep culture is terrible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Why are you expecting to eat healthy restaurant food? That’s one of the fundamental food issues in this country. People want to eat convenience food or restaurant food instead of cooking.

Why not? Why can’t we have expectations that the convenience and restaurant food should be healthy? Why can’t we have these standards?
Europeans do. French eat out all the time and their food is healthy. Why can’t we?

French food uses a ton of butter/cream etc. It’s not particularly healthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This just is not true. There are plenty of small towns with plenty of healthy food options. And “not easy” in big cities?

Look you can blame others all you want, but the reality is that you can make good food choices, you’re choosing not to.

This absolutely true. I have been to plenty small towns in the South. They usually have a Mexican restaurant with processed food, a Chinese buffet with very questionable food, a bunch of fast food places like Krystal, Arbys, Taco Bell and sometimes a local restaurant that serves American food - burgers with fries, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No, no it’s not. Drive yourself to the nearest grocery store, buy fresh fruits and vegetables and lean proteins, drive back home and cook them yourself. Do not go to Taco Bell or McDonald’s or Starbucks on the way home. Et voila.

That’s it. I can only eat healthy if I cook myself at home. Once I go outside I’m surrounded by shitty food.

I have to prepare DC’s lunch because school lunches are not healthy. I’m staying in a hotel that is not cheap and has multiple restaurants and the food is crap. When I go out for dinner 80-90% of restaurant food is not healthy. If I’m driving and I need to stop for lunch there are no healthy choices. When DC goes to a party the food will be crap.

You see my point?

DP. I see that the Americans you criticize are in the same boat as you, and I'm not sure how this translates into other individuals here being worse than you. You found yourself in the same boat as them, and you ended up at the same place.

That seems like it should lead to a criticism of corporate interests, etc., not individual people. I mean, I presume you can vote and do whatever advocacy you feel is warranted, just as much as those individuals can, and that it has just the same odds of success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I made bad choices. When I moved here I didn’t know that the food could be “bad”. In my country you gained weight if you ate too many sweets. I didn’t know that restaurant food could be processed junk filled with chemicals. They didn’t put chemicals in food in my country. I didn’t know food in USA was a minefield and you have to watch every step.

My friend’s daughter, 11, almost died last summer from undiagnosed diabetes. No one even considered it, the girl is thin as a model and ate a normal American kid diet.

Most of pre diabetics don’t even know they have it unless you check for it specifically.

You wrote almost the same story in the previous thread. So you still don't even know the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes despite me trying to educate you a little?! Wow.

Your friend's daughter definitely has Type 1, previously aka juvenile diabetes. It is VERY different from Type 2, is not caused by eating too much food or eating wrong food, or not moving enough. In fact, the cause (or, probably, causes) are still unknown. Unlike T1, T2 is not reversible. Please don't ever bring up your daughter's Type 1 diabetes into any similar discussion.

Signed,

Mom of T2 child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you are truly surrounded by unhealthy foods with no healthy options within driving distance then you really should move. None of my friends or acquaintances in the dmv area have these problems. We know how to find healthy food whether we are eating out or at home. This is a problem with a solution.

Have you been outside dmv? Have you been South or Midwest?

Yes, honey. I am from the south and my husband is from the most rural of midwest locales, where we visit every year. Lots of fat people there, a fact that we observe while out and about shopping for healthy food and avoiding the nearest Dairy Queen. It took me a lot longer to shop for groceries on a regular basis when I lived in Milan than it does when I visit my in laws in the Middle of Nowhere, USA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you are truly surrounded by unhealthy foods with no healthy options within driving distance then you really should move. None of my friends or acquaintances in the dmv area have these problems. We know how to find healthy food whether we are eating out or at home. This is a problem with a solution.

Have you been outside dmv? Have you been South or Midwest?

This is a weird stereotype that there’s just no healthy food in the south or Midwest.

Have you been to small towns in the Midwest or South? Healthy living is not an option

+1

Not an option in small towns and not easy in big cities.

There are some provincial posters on this thread who have never ventured out of the DMV.

I grew up in a small town. We have grocery stores with produce just like here. You just have to drive further to get everywhere. The sedentary lifestyle is the real problem.

[Anonymous]

Pp here. Oops, that should have said -
Mom of T1 diabetes child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

French food uses a ton of butter/cream etc. It’s not particularly healthy.

The myth that fat is bad for you has been disproven for some time now. French use a variety of veggies and meats/seafood. Their bread is of amazing quality. They don’t add sugar to everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you are truly surrounded by unhealthy foods with no healthy options within driving distance then you really should move. None of my friends or acquaintances in the dmv area have these problems. We know how to find healthy food whether we are eating out or at home. This is a problem with a solution.

Have you been outside dmv? Have you been South or Midwest?

This is a weird stereotype that there’s just no healthy food in the south or Midwest.

Have you been to small towns in the Midwest or South? Healthy living is not an option

+1

Not an option in small towns and not easy in big cities.

There are some provincial posters on this thread who have never ventured out of the DMV.

This just is not true. There are plenty of small towns with plenty of healthy food options. And “not easy” in big cities?

Look you can blame others all you want, but the reality is that you can make good food choices, you’re choosing not to.

The concept of “food desert” is a real thing and it has devastating effects on communities. My cousins live in small Midwestern town. I was shocked at the inability to source healthy foods for kids and family, and I’m someone who is very rigid about diet. Plus, the food prep culture is terrible

If PP had been talking specifically about food deserts, then fine. Instead she generalized the “south” and all “small towns” and even “big cities”. That’s simply not true that all small towns make it just impossible to make healthy choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I made bad choices. When I moved here I didn’t know that the food could be “bad”. In my country you gained weight if you ate too many sweets. I didn’t know that restaurant food could be processed junk filled with chemicals. They didn’t put chemicals in food in my country. I didn’t know food in USA was a minefield and you have to watch every step.

My friend’s daughter, 11, almost died last summer from undiagnosed diabetes. No one even considered it, the girl is thin as a model and ate a normal American kid diet.

Most of pre diabetics don’t even know they have it unless you check for it specifically.

You wrote almost the same story in the previous thread. So you still don't even know the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes despite me trying to educate you a little?! Wow.

Your friend's daughter definitely has Type 1, previously aka juvenile diabetes. It is VERY different from Type 2, is not caused by eating too much food or eating wrong food, or not moving enough. In fact, the cause (or, probably, causes) are still unknown. Unlike T1, T2 is not reversible. Please don't ever bring up your daughter's Type 1 diabetes into any similar discussion.

Signed,

Mom of T2 child.

Gosh, I messed up, another correction - should have been 'Unlike T2, T1 is not reversible.'

I just hate that when some people hear a child had T1, they think parents fed her/him too many sweets. Those two types of diabetes should have been named completely different. Because they are fundamentally different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

DP. I see that the Americans you criticize are in the same boat as you, and I'm not sure how this translates into other individuals here being worse than you. You found yourself in the same boat as them, and you ended up at the same place.

That seems like it should lead to a criticism of corporate interests, etc., not individual people. I mean, I presume you can vote and do whatever advocacy you feel is warranted, just as much as those individuals can, and that it has just the same odds of success.

That’s the point. We should be advocating for healthy school lunches and regulating food industry, setting standards for restaurant and store bought food and their marketing campaigns.

But no one cares. Like this thread people think it’s about personal choice and don’t hold the system accountable.