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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Which country is so regulated that they only have healthy options and busy people can pick up food that is guaranteed healthy and economical to boot?

[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

No. We will only do better when we accept that the PP has made two valid points. Americans accept and embrace obesity. We celebrate it. We get angry when obesity is called out as a problem. We took a hard hit from Covid because we are a fat country in denial.

[Anonymous]

Food (the unhealthy fast kind with lots of calories but low nutrition) is relatively cheap in the US. Its also serving as entertainment much of the time. Food is pricier at stores in other countries but can be found cheaper at farmers markets which are not just on weekends. More expensive food and lack of easier fast food and convenience foods leads to just less eating for many. Many countries are now experiencing surges in obesity due to new huge quantities of affordable and available junk food.
To add to that nutrition science which shows and humans prefer sweet and salty and fatty foods. Our bodies evolved to seeking max calories to survive and now we cant burn them all by our lifestyles. Never previously in history had there been so much food available. Before modern conveniences and industrial food manufacturing and freezer trucks, so much of the work and daily routine was about procuring food. Now we habe free time and we are bored and watch tv and read our phones but eat the same number of calories as a farmer.

[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.

Omg. This thread is not about OP. It’s so easy to pick on him/her, rather than actually address the issues that they raised.

[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.

Sorry, more excuses. People used to be a lot busier, work more hours and harder, and had less money and less help from government. Yet they still managed to feed themselves meals that didn’t come from a freezer box or a fast food joint. People have more free time and more conveniences from modern living and technology than ever before. Too busy to cook, but not too busy to wait 25 min in line at chick-fil-a

[Anonymous]

It's honestly crazy to me how reactionary and uninformed this thread is. There is no doubt the US is an obesogenic environment. It's not even debatable. Reading this thread is like some weird angry time capsule. I didn't know smart people even still thought like some of the PPs.

[Anonymous]

Man, I wish y’all cared about drug addiction and kids in poor schools as much as you judge fat people and how lazy you think they are.


Seems so easy to judge and feel superior to fat people though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Man, I wish y’all cared about drug addiction and kids in poor schools as much as you judge fat people and how lazy you think they are.


Seems so easy to judge and feel superior to fat people though.

Obesity is national health crisis that is not being managed. No judgment - just fact. Doing nothing brought us Covid deaths. You highlight the exact issue - an assumption that a conversation is judgment and therefore, we must protect the feelings of obese people - so we do nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's honestly crazy to me how reactionary and uninformed this thread is. There is no doubt the US is an obesogenic environment. It's not even debatable. Reading this thread is like some weird angry time capsule. I didn't know smart people even still thought like some of the PPs.

+1 the denial is crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sorry, more excuses. People used to be a lot busier, work more hours and harder, and had less money and less help from government. Yet they still managed to feed themselves meals that didn’t come from a freezer box or a fast food joint. People have more free time and more conveniences from modern living and technology than ever before. Too busy to cook, but not too busy to wait 25 min in line at chick-fil-a

You mean because women were home 24/7 doing these things, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sorry, more excuses. People used to be a lot busier, work more hours and harder, and had less money and less help from government. Yet they still managed to feed themselves meals that didn’t come from a freezer box or a fast food joint. People have more free time and more conveniences from modern living and technology than ever before. Too busy to cook, but not too busy to wait 25 min in line at chick-fil-a

You mean because women were home 24/7 doing these things, right?

Are you talking about 50s? When women stayed home and we didn’t have junky foos?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve lived in Europe (Germany) and they food quality wasn’t really different than downtown DC. People are being absurd in this thread.

HAHAHA. You DO realize that downtown DC is not the same as the rest of America??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m staying at an upscale hotel in Nashville and for lunch my choices are either mystery bread and meat burgers with french fries or some weird salads with a thousand calorie dressing, as well as some cookie skillet.

I guess should just go, find a farmer’s market and cook it in my hotel room.

Name the hotel.

Gaylord Opryland

^Upscale?! BWAAHAHHAHAHAHA I've stayed there and it is no more upscale than eating at Disney. You pay a pretty penny to stay in a touristy superspreader hotel

Super-entitled 1%ter. Wow, astonishing. Do you realize that that hotel is not even affordable for majority of Americans?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's honestly crazy to me how reactionary and uninformed this thread is. There is no doubt the US is an obesogenic environment. It's not even debatable. Reading this thread is like some weird angry time capsule. I didn't know smart people even still thought like some of the PPs.

I’m curious what country the US should model itself after. Which country is not obesogenic and how are they doing it better? I have traveled quite a bit throughout Europe, Asia, and Central America and in all those places, the nutritional value of the food seems similar to what you can get here—meaning there are both healthy and unhealthy options and it’s up to the individual to decide what they want to eat. I’m a person who is normal weight and has no problem finding healthful things to eat in the regular supermarket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m staying at an upscale hotel in Nashville and for lunch my choices are either mystery bread and meat burgers with french fries or some weird salads with a thousand calorie dressing, as well as some cookie skillet.

I guess should just go, find a farmer’s market and cook it in my hotel room.

As you're staying in an "upscale hotel" that either you or your company can afford, you can surely afford to go out and get a healthier alternative or, if not, I'm sure the upscale hotel in Nashville has access to healthier food options via DoorDash or similar services.

Or you can just eat the burger and then claim "IT'S NOT MY FAULT! I'M A VICTIM OF MYSTERY MEAT!!!"

And how do you not see that's the problem? That eating healthier is ALWAYS about spending more $$, it is always more expensive.