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

Anonymous
1) Americans are lazy. Most don't exercise regularly and don't want to leave their homes, which leads to...

2) They want everything delivered to their door because they're too lazy to get off their fat asses and buy a meal (and even then, it's from the drive-thru), let alone cook something healthy from scratch.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:1) Americans are lazy. Most don't exercise regularly and don't want to leave their homes, which leads to...

2) They want everything delivered to their door because they're too lazy to get off their fat asses and buy a meal (and even then, it's from the drive-thru), let alone cook something healthy from scratch.


And the predictable tantrum happened, right in schedule.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Um yeah OP blaming “American food” for her poor choices is ridiculous. Sorry, you’re pre-diabetic and just decided now to give a f*ck. You’re in the minority, as you pointed out.


I didn’t just woke up. I’ve been fighting this battle for years. Do you know how hard it is for your kid not to get candy and cookies at school every day of their life in America?


My kids went through public K-12 and managed to make it through without eating candy and cookies everyday. They would have these things on occasion if they went to a party or had a special event, but it certainly was not the norm. I never bought them for the home. They participated in varsity sports. We are an active family. I cooked for my family from scratch with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, meats, fish, and grains. I used plenty of spices for flavor. I make homemade pizza or Mac and cheese sometimes and a lot of ethnic foods. No one in my immediate family is overweight, obese, or prediabetic or diabetic.

We are not 1-percenters. We do live close-in to DC and I notice that the further outside the beltway you get, the fatter. Once I had to stop by a store in Germantown to pick something up and I was shocked at the number of morbidly obese people shopping. It was culture shock.


I don’t believe OP about the junk food from the school on a daily basis, and I also am skeptical about the hotel breakfast. I have literally never been to a nice hotel that did not offer something like fresh fruit, cereal, and yogurt as the breakfast options. Perhaps OP was staying at a B&B with limited options, but I doubt it. It all seems kinda made up.


+1. Even at a budget hotel, you could eat fruit and cereal/oatmeal. Not great, but not terrible for a day or two.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1) Americans are lazy. Most don't exercise regularly and don't want to leave their homes, which leads to...

2) They want everything delivered to their door because they're too lazy to get off their fat asses and buy a meal (and even then, it's from the drive-thru), let alone cook something healthy from scratch.


And the predictable tantrum happened, right in schedule.


It's not wrong, though.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1) Americans are lazy. Most don't exercise regularly and don't want to leave their homes, which leads to...

2) They want everything delivered to their door because they're too lazy to get off their fat asses and buy a meal (and even then, it's from the drive-thru), let alone cook something healthy from scratch.


And the predictable tantrum happened, right in schedule.


It's not wrong, though.

Actually, it is. And it's the kind of narrative that's preventing us from doing better
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1) Americans are lazy. Most don't exercise regularly and don't want to leave their homes, which leads to...

2) They want everything delivered to their door because they're too lazy to get off their fat asses and buy a meal (and even then, it's from the drive-thru), let alone cook something healthy from scratch.


And the predictable tantrum happened, right in schedule.


It's not wrong, though.


Crude...but this is true for a LOT of the population. And some many stores and restaurants have shifted from covid; not needing to move your body out of your house, or move at all, for anything is easier than ever.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There is healthy, cheap food in the U.S. No one wants to buy it or spend the trouble preparing it. We all expect this endless variety of palate-tickling delicacies. Does anyone remember growing up like we did when you had a PBJ and an apple for lunch most days and chicken and rice or spaghetti or greens and cornbread with peas every week at dinner and dessert was Nilla wafers?

Thanks for discounting the experience of the huge number of immigrants and ethnic minorities in the US. Many of us didn't grow up eating these things, even if we grew up in the US.

Along these lines, it's not that, "No one wants to buy it or spend the trouble preparing it." Many people don't have the time to do this, because they need to work two jobs to keep a roof over their head. And they may not even have the facilities to prepare it, even if they have the time.

Sure, some Americans are lazy and have bad habits. But the same can be said for Asians, Europeans, Africans, etc. A big difference here is that our government's efforts to "regulate" the food industry don't stop them from selling us chemical and fat-laden food that is terrible for our health. Do you know that it's nearly impossible to buy a Whole 30 compliant rotisserie chicken at the grocery store, because they almost all have added fillers and sugar? I think there's literally one brand and flavor at Whole Foods that matches, none at your standard grocery stores. This is absurd, and it doesn't need to be that way. Most Americans also don't receive great education on nutrition, instead being taught food-industry approved messaging starting in elementary school (where they also have access to sugar-infused milk and juices, which are served as health options). We can and should do better. What we're doing now is literally killing us, and yet Americans who know better would rather criticize those who don't than advocate for real change. It's a really sad commentary on America.


Oh, thank you. I apologize. I hope I didn't give the impression that I meant to exclude anyone. In saying "like we did" I meant as children of people who had limited budgets and ate the same staples over and over again. A comedian from the Philippines described the huge sacks of rice his mother bought and how they had it every day. I am a black expat Southerner.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So in order to eat and feed my family healthily in the U.S. I have to wake up at 3 am to bake bread, then roast the chicken, then milk the cow and proceed in this manner all day long?!
Or spend 6 dollars on some frozen bread?
Bravo America and Americans!
In my European county, I just buy bread in the morning or breakfast from the bakery!


I don’t have to wake up at 3 am to bake bread. You can make no knead bread without fancy equipment and with minimal prep time. A lot of the work is done by the yeast while you’re sleeping or eating. Roasting chicken is another thing where it takes a few minutes to marinate and then throw it in the oven for 45 minutes. Put some veggies in there to roast too. Quick and easy.

OMG, how tone deaf can your responses be?! No one is saying that it's impossible to do these things, but it's close to impossible if you don't have a proper kitchen (like many low income Americans) or an unpredictable schedule (also like many low income Americans). And the larger point is that it doesn't have to be this way. There are countries where you can buy sliced bread at the market that isn't full of sugar (or doesn't cost 3x a regular loaf). This isn't a recipe thread, it's a discussion about what's wrong with the food system in the US.


But is OP someone without a working kitchen? Is she someone working three jobs without benefits? I doubt it. She doesn’t have a excuse.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1) Americans are lazy. Most don't exercise regularly and don't want to leave their homes, which leads to...

2) They want everything delivered to their door because they're too lazy to get off their fat asses and buy a meal (and even then, it's from the drive-thru), let alone cook something healthy from scratch.


And the predictable tantrum happened, right in schedule.


It's not wrong, though.

Actually, it is. And it's the kind of narrative that's preventing us from doing better


+1

Wildly wrong, and a mentality that stops the change needed.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1) Americans are lazy. Most don't exercise regularly and don't want to leave their homes, which leads to...

2) They want everything delivered to their door because they're too lazy to get off their fat asses and buy a meal (and even then, it's from the drive-thru), let alone cook something healthy from scratch.


And the predictable tantrum happened, right in schedule.


It's not wrong, though.

Actually, it is. And it's the kind of narrative that's preventing us from doing better


+1

Wildly wrong, and a mentality that stops the change needed.


You are delusional. In no way in this wrong. We all know several people like this. You do too. Even reading here is proof this is happening all over. Not too long ago, on this forum, some lady posted a rant about having to wait in her car too long for her Smoothie King order. I guess they were so busy they were way backed up. So yeah, lots and lots of people are putting in orders and waiting in their cars to be delivered their 1000 calorie smoothie. Just an example..but you get the picture.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So in order to eat and feed my family healthily in the U.S. I have to wake up at 3 am to bake bread, then roast the chicken, then milk the cow and proceed in this manner all day long?!
Or spend 6 dollars on some frozen bread?
Bravo America and Americans!
In my European county, I just buy bread in the morning or breakfast from the bakery!


I don’t have to wake up at 3 am to bake bread. You can make no knead bread without fancy equipment and with minimal prep time. A lot of the work is done by the yeast while you’re sleeping or eating. Roasting chicken is another thing where it takes a few minutes to marinate and then throw it in the oven for 45 minutes. Put some veggies in there to roast too. Quick and easy.

OMG, how tone deaf can your responses be?! No one is saying that it's impossible to do these things, but it's close to impossible if you don't have a proper kitchen (like many low income Americans) or an unpredictable schedule (also like many low income Americans). And the larger point is that it doesn't have to be this way. There are countries where you can buy sliced bread at the market that isn't full of sugar (or doesn't cost 3x a regular loaf). This isn't a recipe thread, it's a discussion about what's wrong with the food system in the US.


But is OP someone without a working kitchen? Is she someone working three jobs without benefits? I doubt it. She doesn’t have a excuse.


OP here. I have a full time job and I have a child that has to be taken to activities after school. I have to get up at 6AM and make DC a healthy lunch, then I make myself lunch, a dinner. That's a lot of cooking. I don't have time to make homemade bread and my own healthy version of ketchup. We're not Amish.

The difference is in other countries it's easy and convenient to find healthy, delicious food outside the home. In US it's practically impossible.

Can you persevere and eat healthy in spite all that? Sure. But how many of you can? 20%? And at what cost? How many women quit careers because they don't have time to take care of kids? And now they have to bake bread too in order for their families to be healthy?

Do you see how absurd it is and how wonderful our life would be if food industry was regulated?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:

I’m not disputing that there are a lot of bad food options. I’m just saying that are plenty of inexpensive healthy options too if you learn how to cook.

And why aren't those inexpensive healthy food options at school? Why can't school cooks learn to cook? If parents let their kids down, why does the government?
+100

If we can cook, why can't school cooks learn how to cook?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So in order to eat and feed my family healthily in the U.S. I have to wake up at 3 am to bake bread, then roast the chicken, then milk the cow and proceed in this manner all day long?!
Or spend 6 dollars on some frozen bread?
Bravo America and Americans!
In my European county, I just buy bread in the morning or breakfast from the bakery!


I don’t have to wake up at 3 am to bake bread. You can make no knead bread without fancy equipment and with minimal prep time. A lot of the work is done by the yeast while you’re sleeping or eating. Roasting chicken is another thing where it takes a few minutes to marinate and then throw it in the oven for 45 minutes. Put some veggies in there to roast too. Quick and easy.

OMG, how tone deaf can your responses be?! No one is saying that it's impossible to do these things, but it's close to impossible if you don't have a proper kitchen (like many low income Americans) or an unpredictable schedule (also like many low income Americans). And the larger point is that it doesn't have to be this way. There are countries where you can buy sliced bread at the market that isn't full of sugar (or doesn't cost 3x a regular loaf). This isn't a recipe thread, it's a discussion about what's wrong with the food system in the US.

But is OP someone without a working kitchen? Is she someone working three jobs without benefits? I doubt it. She doesn’t have a excuse.

This response was to something that was very clearly not about OP but instead a general commentary on food quality in the US.
Anonymous
I just want to add that we need be ALARMED about all this. In addition to terrible American diet we have disastrous medical system. You add these two together and the country will collapse.

I live in the South, not in a big city. You can't find a primary doctor here because most of them don't accept new patients. An appointment with a specialist has 2 months wait time.

Last week we had to go to ER. OMG, our ERs don't have capacity to deal with health crisis. They're already full, on a regular Monday or Tuesday. The wait is up to 6 hours. And we hardly have any Covid cases. The idea of them being able to handle a pandemic is laughable.

There are ALREADY not enough doctors and nurses in rural areas and smaller cities. And with this poor diet things are only going to get worse, a lot worse.

We are basically destroying our country while the corporations get rich at the expense of our health.
Anonymous
It is all just part of evolution. The fittest and smartest will survive.
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