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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

You are right, but you have to understand that the PPs in this thread bleating in about personal choice are addicts who are panicking at the thought of government regulation of junk food. They will fight tooth and nail for continued free access to their drug of choice.

When the government finally stepped in and regulated tobacco -- after probably millions of deaths, but they finally did it -- there was a lot of very similar commentary from nicotine addicts. You can read the history of nicotine regulation and it's practically a guidebook to what is going on with junk food now.

You seem really, really confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

1. Nobody said anything about "spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn't eat junk every day at school." Why would you do that? It is quite possible to quickly prepare healthy school lunches.

2. You claimed that "no one does this in France." Yes, they do. I live a few hours from the French border and (in non-Covid times) we regularly spend time there shopping or on holiday. There are plenty of chubby people in France and there is plenty of easily available junk food in France. People there are getting fatter. You probably like to read those stupid self-help books claiming to help you eat or dress like a French person, right? What you imagine to be the way all French people live is in truth mainly a Parisian phenomenon. And that's wealthy and middle class Parisians, not the many people who live in the poorest arrondissements and ghettos of Paris.

DP. It is statistically true that the percentage of obesity in France is much lower. It is also true that poorer people in particular in France are getting fatter, but that supports OPs point more than yours.

No, it doesn't. People in France are getting fatter because they are now flooded with easy, cheap junk food. They were slimmer before this phenomenon, because they did what was easiest then and ate what was available; they were not making specific, calculated choices to be healthy. Now that easy junk food is an option, people need to learn what making those choices means to their health.

OP herself may have been from a country that didn't have easily available, cheap junk food. She may have been healthier, but not because she ever thought about food choices, but because what was available to her just happened to be be healthy. When she came to the US, she was suddenly surrounded by easy, cheap junk food, and since she wasn't educated about nutrition and food choices, she made the wrong choices. The obvious solution is to educate people about how to find and prepare inexpensive, healthy food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

You are right, but you have to understand that the PPs in this thread bleating in about personal choice are addicts who are panicking at the thought of government regulation of junk food. They will fight tooth and nail for continued free access to their drug of choice.

When the government finally stepped in and regulated tobacco -- after probably millions of deaths, but they finally did it -- there was a lot of very similar commentary from nicotine addicts. You can read the history of nicotine regulation and it's practically a guidebook to what is going on with junk food now.

You seem really, really confused.

+1

If anything, this thread is showing me exactly why some people don't understand the reasons they are overweight. I think for some of them, it really might be impossible to make them understand, and yes, they would do better with being told exactly what they may and may not eat. (But that isn't going to happen).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

You are right, but you have to understand that the PPs in this thread bleating in about personal choice are addicts who are panicking at the thought of government regulation of junk food. They will fight tooth and nail for continued free access to their drug of choice.

When the government finally stepped in and regulated tobacco -- after probably millions of deaths, but they finally did it -- there was a lot of very similar commentary from nicotine addicts. You can read the history of nicotine regulation and it's practically a guidebook to what is going on with junk food now.

DP. If only it were so easy. Junk food is only a small part of the problem.

Portion sizes, calories, that's the problem. And how can the government fix that? They can require places to include calorie counts on packages and menus. But people still have to read the information and make choices based on that.

If there was strict regulation on sale of junk food and soda, that would be a huge start. With tobacco, regulations started similarly small, but picked up speed when people saw the benefits.

If we banned the sale of chips/soda/candy in schools, banned sales to under 18s, taxed them heavily, and put limits on volume of sales in most stores (like cigarettes), millions of children would be markedly healthier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

You are right, but you have to understand that the PPs in this thread bleating in about personal choice are addicts who are panicking at the thought of government regulation of junk food. They will fight tooth and nail for continued free access to their drug of choice.

When the government finally stepped in and regulated tobacco -- after probably millions of deaths, but they finally did it -- there was a lot of very similar commentary from nicotine addicts. You can read the history of nicotine regulation and it's practically a guidebook to what is going on with junk food now.

You seem really, really confused.

And you are behaving exactly like addict you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

1. Nobody said anything about "spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn't eat junk every day at school." Why would you do that? It is quite possible to quickly prepare healthy school lunches.

2. You claimed that "no one does this in France." Yes, they do. I live a few hours from the French border and (in non-Covid times) we regularly spend time there shopping or on holiday. There are plenty of chubby people in France and there is plenty of easily available junk food in France. People there are getting fatter. You probably like to read those stupid self-help books claiming to help you eat or dress like a French person, right? What you imagine to be the way all French people live is in truth mainly a Parisian phenomenon. And that's wealthy and middle class Parisians, not the many people who live in the poorest arrondissements and ghettos of Paris.

DP. It is statistically true that the percentage of obesity in France is much lower. It is also true that poorer people in particular in France are getting fatter, but that supports OPs point more than yours.

No, it doesn't. People in France are getting fatter because they are now flooded with easy, cheap junk food. They were slimmer before this phenomenon, because they did what was easiest then and ate what was available; they were not making specific, calculated choices to be healthy. Now that easy junk food is an option, people need to learn what making those choices means to their health.

OP herself may have been from a country that didn't have easily available, cheap junk food. She may have been healthier, but not because she ever thought about food choices, but because what was available to her just happened to be be healthy. When she came to the US, she was suddenly surrounded by easy, cheap junk food, and since she wasn't educated about nutrition and food choices, she made the wrong choices. The obvious solution is to educate people about how to find and prepare inexpensive, healthy food.

And I still don't believe OP is from another country at all. She's a poorly educated person making up lies to justify the poor personal choices she makes but does not understand. I've asked her several times to name the country and she won't do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

You are right, but you have to understand that the PPs in this thread bleating in about personal choice are addicts who are panicking at the thought of government regulation of junk food. They will fight tooth and nail for continued free access to their drug of choice.

When the government finally stepped in and regulated tobacco -- after probably millions of deaths, but they finally did it -- there was a lot of very similar commentary from nicotine addicts. You can read the history of nicotine regulation and it's practically a guidebook to what is going on with junk food now.

You seem really, really confused.

And you are behaving exactly like addict you are.

I'm going with PP. You're confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

You are right, but you have to understand that the PPs in this thread bleating in about personal choice are addicts who are panicking at the thought of government regulation of junk food. They will fight tooth and nail for continued free access to their drug of choice.

When the government finally stepped in and regulated tobacco -- after probably millions of deaths, but they finally did it -- there was a lot of very similar commentary from nicotine addicts. You can read the history of nicotine regulation and it's practically a guidebook to what is going on with junk food now.

You seem really, really confused.

And you are behaving exactly like addict you are.

I'm not the poster you are responding to here, but you ARE confused. Why would you assume people disagreeing with you are "addicts"? I for one am slim and in good health because I make good choices, so am certainly not an "addict." Many people here are trying to help you. Listen to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

You are right, but you have to understand that the PPs in this thread bleating in about personal choice are addicts who are panicking at the thought of government regulation of junk food. They will fight tooth and nail for continued free access to their drug of choice.

When the government finally stepped in and regulated tobacco -- after probably millions of deaths, but they finally did it -- there was a lot of very similar commentary from nicotine addicts. You can read the history of nicotine regulation and it's practically a guidebook to what is going on with junk food now.

You seem really, really confused.

And you are behaving exactly like addict you are.

I would love it if the government would tax junk food so people who *choose* to eat it are paying a premium that can fund their inevitable drain on the healthcare system. It can be both personal choice and regulated by the government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

You are right, but you have to understand that the PPs in this thread bleating in about personal choice are addicts who are panicking at the thought of government regulation of junk food. They will fight tooth and nail for continued free access to their drug of choice.

When the government finally stepped in and regulated tobacco -- after probably millions of deaths, but they finally did it -- there was a lot of very similar commentary from nicotine addicts. You can read the history of nicotine regulation and it's practically a guidebook to what is going on with junk food now.

You seem really, really confused.

And you are behaving exactly like addict you are.

I'm not the poster you are responding to here, but you ARE confused. Why would you assume people disagreeing with you are "addicts"? I for one am slim and in good health because I make good choices, so am certainly not an "addict." Many people here are trying to help you. Listen to them.

Why do you think I am talking about me personally? I'm not. I am fit, in good health, work out at minimum an hour a day, and have good food at home. But I care deeply about this horrifying public health crisis, and what I see is people like you who desperately want continued access to addictive foods stopping any sort of forward progress on regulations (which is the only thing that will stop this crisis).

You are behaving exactly like an addict does: fighting any attempted regulatory efforts here, terrified about protecting your continued unfettered access to junk food. I don't care that you are skinny; you can still be an addict, still suffer from the metabolic diseases triggered by our unhealthy food landscape.

If you truly cared about public health, you would line up to implement regulations to prevent a catastrophic health crisis. But you don't. You care first and foremost about keeping the junk food spigot flowing. You are an addict.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

2. You claimed that "no one does this in France." Yes, they do. I live a few hours from the French border and (in non-Covid times) we regularly spend time there shopping or on holiday. There are plenty of chubby people in France and there is plenty of easily available junk food in France. People there are getting fatter. You probably like to read those stupid self-help books claiming to help you eat or dress like a French person, right? What you imagine to be the way all French people live is in truth mainly a Parisian phenomenon. And that's wealthy and middle class Parisians, not the many people who live in the poorest arrondissements and ghettos of Paris.

I’ve been to France, Toulouse and South, not Paris. I saw crowds of people eating lunch in cafes, eating dinners in restaurants. The food was of much better quality. I ate more there than ever and actually lost weight. I saw very few overweight people.

I live I’m middle class America and it’s a struggle to get healthy lunch, a struggle when I want to eat out, a struggle to eat healthy when I travel across country, a struggle to have my kid develop healthy habits in this environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

You are right, but you have to understand that the PPs in this thread bleating in about personal choice are addicts who are panicking at the thought of government regulation of junk food. They will fight tooth and nail for continued free access to their drug of choice.

When the government finally stepped in and regulated tobacco -- after probably millions of deaths, but they finally did it -- there was a lot of very similar commentary from nicotine addicts. You can read the history of nicotine regulation and it's practically a guidebook to what is going on with junk food now.

You seem really, really confused.

And you are behaving exactly like addict you are.

I'm not the poster you are responding to here, but you ARE confused. Why would you assume people disagreeing with you are "addicts"? I for one am slim and in good health because I make good choices, so am certainly not an "addict." Many people here are trying to help you. Listen to them.

Why do you think I am talking about me personally? I'm not. I am fit, in good health, work out at minimum an hour a day, and have good food at home. But I care deeply about this horrifying public health crisis, and what I see is people like you who desperately want continued access to addictive foods stopping any sort of forward progress on regulations (which is the only thing that will stop this crisis).

You are behaving exactly like an addict does: fighting any attempted regulatory efforts here, terrified about protecting your continued unfettered access to junk food. I don't care that you are skinny; you can still be an addict, still suffer from the metabolic diseases triggered by our unhealthy food landscape.

If you truly cared about public health, you would line up to implement regulations to prevent a catastrophic health crisis. But you don't. You care first and foremost about keeping the junk food spigot flowing. You are an addict.

Maybe you should pair up with someone more logical than you to advocate for the changes that you hope to see, because you aren’t helping your cause by blindly lashing out like an illogical toddler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so stupid to think you are free while you have to go through trouble of hunting down healthy foods on sale and spending compounded hours cooking so your kid doesn’t eat junk every day at school and educating people how they should not eat outside their house.

No one does this in France. No one goes around saying “Larla, you lazy slob, shouldn’t eat in a cafe because you’re sacrificing quality for convenience” because the food in a cafe is going to be healthy. No one thinks of sending kids lunches to school because their lunches are well balanced and healthy. See how easy it is to live like that?

The government is us. We decide how we want to live as a country. We set the standards.

You are right, but you have to understand that the PPs in this thread bleating in about personal choice are addicts who are panicking at the thought of government regulation of junk food. They will fight tooth and nail for continued free access to their drug of choice.

When the government finally stepped in and regulated tobacco -- after probably millions of deaths, but they finally did it -- there was a lot of very similar commentary from nicotine addicts. You can read the history of nicotine regulation and it's practically a guidebook to what is going on with junk food now.

You seem really, really confused.

And you are behaving exactly like addict you are.

I'm not the poster you are responding to here, but you ARE confused. Why would you assume people disagreeing with you are "addicts"? I for one am slim and in good health because I make good choices, so am certainly not an "addict." Many people here are trying to help you. Listen to them.

Why do you think I am talking about me personally? I'm not. I am fit, in good health, work out at minimum an hour a day, and have good food at home. But I care deeply about this horrifying public health crisis, and what I see is people like you who desperately want continued access to addictive foods stopping any sort of forward progress on regulations (which is the only thing that will stop this crisis).

You are behaving exactly like an addict does: fighting any attempted regulatory efforts here, terrified about protecting your continued unfettered access to junk food. I don't care that you are skinny; you can still be an addict, still suffer from the metabolic diseases triggered by our unhealthy food landscape.

If you truly cared about public health, you would line up to implement regulations to prevent a catastrophic health crisis. But you don't. You care first and foremost about keeping the junk food spigot flowing. You are an addict.

Logic and reading comprehension are clearly very challenging for you, but I'll try again. Just because I don't agree with you regarding the cause of the issue does not mean that I wish "the junk food spigot [to keep] flowing" because I am "an addict." Google "false dilemma fallacy."

[Anonymous]

I have lived in multiple different countries. I lose 20 lbs. effortlessly when I live abroad, and easily maintain. It comes back when I move back to the US and I have to fight tooth and nail not to gain more.

I'm planning retirement outside the US. This is no way to live. It's literally making me ill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

2. You claimed that "no one does this in France." Yes, they do. I live a few hours from the French border and (in non-Covid times) we regularly spend time there shopping or on holiday. There are plenty of chubby people in France and there is plenty of easily available junk food in France. People there are getting fatter. You probably like to read those stupid self-help books claiming to help you eat or dress like a French person, right? What you imagine to be the way all French people live is in truth mainly a Parisian phenomenon. And that's wealthy and middle class Parisians, not the many people who live in the poorest arrondissements and ghettos of Paris.

I’ve been to France, Toulouse and South, not Paris. I saw crowds of people eating lunch in cafes, eating dinners in restaurants. The food was of much better quality. I ate more there than ever and actually lost weight. I saw very few overweight people.

I live I’m middle class America and it’s a struggle to get healthy lunch, a struggle when I want to eat out, a struggle to eat healthy when I travel across country, a struggle to have my kid develop healthy habits in this environment.

That's nice, sweetie. You visited tourist hotspots in a handful of places. That does not allow you to speak with any degree of comfort about what is typical for the region as a whole.