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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Awesome example of why we need the feds involved in nutrition standards, in spite of what the FREEDOM crowd says:

Outshine No Sugar Added Strawberry Fruit Ice Bars
https://www.outshinesnacks.com/en/products/frozen-...bars/no-sugar-added-strawberry

Third ingredient? Sorbitol. Which is another word for sugar. Not that they intend to confuse people, of course.

I'm all for people making their own food choices, but in order to do that, we need to have legit information. And we don't.

Sorbitol is a sugar alcohol, which is a separate thing and likely can't legally be listed as "sugar" on an ingredient list. Should the label include a detailed explanation of the difference between sugar and sugar alcohols? Maybe. But I don't think we are going to get dire warnings about every type of sweetener on food packaging, esp. on a snack with just a few grams of carbs.

Anyway, I don't think anyone is having serious weight and overall health issues caused by buying Outshine bars.

Our current food system allows manufacturers to sell things as healthy, aka sugar free, because they use sorbitol or aspartame or hfcs instead. It’s fraudulent.

They listed it on the box as what it is: sugar free. I don’t find anything to be misleading and they aren’t calling it heathy. An Outshine bar is a treat and meant to be a dessert. Something sweet when you want something sweet. At 90 calories and 4 grams of sugar, no one is getting over weight from too many outshine bars after dinner.

+1
They’d get diarrhea before they had any blood sugar issues.

Guys. Everyone knows that “sugar free” on a clearly sweet thing - popsicles, juice, yogurt, etc - means “fake sugar.” That’s what it means in this country. The phrase you’ll find to indicate that no sweetener has been added is “no sugar added.” This isn’t difficult.

[Anonymous]

I'm European and eat chocolate or ice cream every day. So does my very skinny kid. My toddler doesn't eat any desserts but I'm not freaking out over a few grams of sugar in a hot dog bun.

You think the French with their butter and smoking are making better choices? Or the Germans with their processed sausages and copious amounts of beer? Or the Brits (I'm not even going there as far as alcoholism goes).

Over to Asia, white rice is metabolized basically the same way as sugar, and while I know many an auntie who swears by the health properties of ghee, I hate to burst their bubble...

Americans are fat because they don't move. It's not because their food is that much worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm European and eat chocolate or ice cream every day. So does my very skinny kid. My toddler doesn't eat any desserts but I'm not freaking out over a few grams of sugar in a hot dog bun.

You think the French with their butter and smoking are making better choices? Or the Germans with their processed sausages and copious amounts of beer? Or the Brits (I'm not even going there as far as alcoholism goes).

Over to Asia, white rice is metabolized basically the same way as sugar, and while I know many an auntie who swears by the health properties of ghee, I hate to burst their bubble...

Americans are fat because they don't move. It's not because their food is that much worse.

You are oversimplifying it, but it is not at all that simple. When you eat chocolate you know there is sugar in it, so you don't eat a kilo at one sitting. You also did not grow up with food commercials left and right for decades. I am from former Yugoslavia and the amount of sugar in our processed foods is well, is not even close to here. Teriyaki sauce? Sugar. BBQ sauce? Sugar. Ketchup? Sugar. Salad dressing? Sugar. Plus there is a lot of history there about how the government subsidized big Agra and paid small farmers to stop producing as much healthier produce and meat and dairy. Watch for yourself, it is too long for me to write about history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm European and eat chocolate or ice cream every day. So does my very skinny kid. My toddler doesn't eat any desserts but I'm not freaking out over a few grams of sugar in a hot dog bun.

You think the French with their butter and smoking are making better choices? Or the Germans with their processed sausages and copious amounts of beer? Or the Brits (I'm not even going there as far as alcoholism goes).

Over to Asia, white rice is metabolized basically the same way as sugar, and while I know many an auntie who swears by the health properties of ghee, I hate to burst their bubble...

Americans are fat because they don't move. It's not because their food is that much worse.

You are oversimplifying it, but it is not at all that simple. When you eat chocolate you know there is sugar in it, so you don't eat a kilo at one sitting. You also did not grow up with food commercials left and right for decades. I am from former Yugoslavia and the amount of sugar in our processed foods is well, is not even close to here. Teriyaki sauce? Sugar. BBQ sauce? Sugar. Ketchup? Sugar. Salad dressing? Sugar. Plus there is a lot of history there about how the government subsidized big Agra and paid small farmers to stop producing as much healthier produce and meat and dairy. Watch for yourself, it is too long for me to write about history.

And those condiments are all American things that only Americans buy and eat. You know how many bottles of salad dressing, BBQ sauce, ketsup etc. my Middle Eastern MIL has in her frig? Zero. Salad dressing is lemon, garlic, olive oil, salt. Marinade for meat is similar plus some spices. They don’t use ketsup on anything. I’m guessing anyone who is making authentic Asian food isn’t used jarred teriyaki sauce. BBQ sauce is meant to be sweet- no one is shocked it has sugar in it. But besides that, only Americans eat it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm European and eat chocolate or ice cream every day. So does my very skinny kid. My toddler doesn't eat any desserts but I'm not freaking out over a few grams of sugar in a hot dog bun.

You think the French with their butter and smoking are making better choices? Or the Germans with their processed sausages and copious amounts of beer? Or the Brits (I'm not even going there as far as alcoholism goes).

Over to Asia, white rice is metabolized basically the same way as sugar, and while I know many an auntie who swears by the health properties of ghee, I hate to burst their bubble...

Americans are fat because they don't move. It's not because their food is that much worse.

You are oversimplifying it, but it is not at all that simple. When you eat chocolate you know there is sugar in it, so you don't eat a kilo at one sitting. You also did not grow up with food commercials left and right for decades. I am from former Yugoslavia and the amount of sugar in our processed foods is well, is not even close to here. Teriyaki sauce? Sugar. BBQ sauce? Sugar. Ketchup? Sugar. Salad dressing? Sugar. Plus there is a lot of history there about how the government subsidized big Agra and paid small farmers to stop producing as much healthier produce and meat and dairy. Watch for yourself, it is too long for me to write about history.

And those condiments are all American things that only Americans buy and eat. You know how many bottles of salad dressing, BBQ sauce, ketsup etc. my Middle Eastern MIL has in her frig? Zero. Salad dressing is lemon, garlic, olive oil, salt. Marinade for meat is similar plus some spices. They don’t use ketsup on anything. I’m guessing anyone who is making authentic Asian food isn’t used jarred teriyaki sauce. BBQ sauce is meant to be sweet- no one is shocked it has sugar in it. But besides that, only Americans eat it

Congratulations on discovering the fact that there are different food traditions around the world?

And what a sad, small world to have to exist without blue cheese dressing. Maybe it would pass your snobby muster - sour cream, blue cheese and salt if needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of that…she’s doing yoga. That is a healthy activity. But all you can see is an opportunity to shame.

Throwing out some picture of a person posing in yoga position for a photo doesn’t mean healthy.

A drugged out hippie could be posing in a yoga move and you would think, hey a least it’s healthy? Really? They could even say they are a yoga teacher focusing on the drugged out experience, but hey it must be healthy right?

But here you are, certain that she can’t be fat. Because you know. Based solely on her appearance, you know she’s unhealthy. You’re the one with the inside track and everyone else is fooling themselves.

Why the splitting of hairs? Being FAT is UNHEALTHY.

Check out the CDC website and the information it has regarding Covid and being fat.

It’s not splitting hairs. Being fat does not inherently mean that someone is unhealthy. I know it would be convenient for fat shamers to think so, but it’s just not true. Are some fat people unhealthy? Yes. Are some scrawny people unhealthy? Resoundingly so!

Excuses. Excuses. Show me the data on Covid and “scrawny people”. Or provide evidence that being fat is HEALTHY! No shaming - this is a reality check. Model as many fat people as you would like to sell a product - it does not change the fact that it is unhealthy to look like that model. The only really the advertising has changed to highlight fat people is to sell product. L

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm European and eat chocolate or ice cream every day. So does my very skinny kid. My toddler doesn't eat any desserts but I'm not freaking out over a few grams of sugar in a hot dog bun.

You think the French with their butter and smoking are making better choices? Or the Germans with their processed sausages and copious amounts of beer? Or the Brits (I'm not even going there as far as alcoholism goes).

Over to Asia, white rice is metabolized basically the same way as sugar, and while I know many an auntie who swears by the health properties of ghee, I hate to burst their bubble...

Americans are fat because they don't move. It's not because their food is that much worse.

You are oversimplifying it, but it is not at all that simple. When you eat chocolate you know there is sugar in it, so you don't eat a kilo at one sitting. You also did not grow up with food commercials left and right for decades. I am from former Yugoslavia and the amount of sugar in our processed foods is well, is not even close to here. Teriyaki sauce? Sugar. BBQ sauce? Sugar. Ketchup? Sugar. Salad dressing? Sugar. Plus there is a lot of history there about how the government subsidized big Agra and paid small farmers to stop producing as much healthier produce and meat and dairy. Watch for yourself, it is too long for me to write about history.

And those condiments are all American things that only Americans buy and eat. You know how many bottles of salad dressing, BBQ sauce, ketsup etc. my Middle Eastern MIL has in her frig? Zero. Salad dressing is lemon, garlic, olive oil, salt. Marinade for meat is similar plus some spices. They don’t use ketsup on anything. I’m guessing anyone who is making authentic Asian food isn’t used jarred teriyaki sauce. BBQ sauce is meant to be sweet- no one is shocked it has sugar in it. But besides that, only Americans eat it

Congratulations on discovering the fact that there are different food traditions around the world?

And what a sad, small world to have to exist without blue cheese dressing. Maybe it would pass your snobby muster - sour cream, blue cheese and salt if needed.

Oh!! Revelation! Condiments make Americans fat! Wow. Just wow. What else can we use to excuse our willingness to accept obesity as the norm?

[Anonymous]

I think consumers need to be more discerning about what they buy and more educated as to what is healthy and what is not. Manufacturers are already required to put all the information you need to know to form your own opinions as to whether it’s something you want to buy. You can see if the item has HFCS, too much added sugar, fake sugar, whatever else. I know from experience that most condiments, dressings, canned, processed, frozen foods are going to be full of things I don’t want. Mostly, I buy fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, eggs, dairy and I make my own dressings and condiments. If I buy ice cream, I buy the ones with fewer ingredients. I buy nuts and cheese and fruits for snacks. Learn how to read labels, learn how to cook, learn what is good nutrition. Doesn’t require a lot of money or time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm European and eat chocolate or ice cream every day. So does my very skinny kid. My toddler doesn't eat any desserts but I'm not freaking out over a few grams of sugar in a hot dog bun.

You think the French with their butter and smoking are making better choices? Or the Germans with their processed sausages and copious amounts of beer? Or the Brits (I'm not even going there as far as alcoholism goes).

Over to Asia, white rice is metabolized basically the same way as sugar, and while I know many an auntie who swears by the health properties of ghee, I hate to burst their bubble...

Americans are fat because they don't move. It's not because their food is that much worse.

You are oversimplifying it, but it is not at all that simple. When you eat chocolate you know there is sugar in it, so you don't eat a kilo at one sitting. You also did not grow up with food commercials left and right for decades. I am from former Yugoslavia and the amount of sugar in our processed foods is well, is not even close to here. Teriyaki sauce? Sugar. BBQ sauce? Sugar. Ketchup? Sugar. Salad dressing? Sugar. Plus there is a lot of history there about how the government subsidized big Agra and paid small farmers to stop producing as much healthier produce and meat and dairy. Watch for yourself, it is too long for me to write about history.

And those condiments are all American things that only Americans buy and eat. You know how many bottles of salad dressing, BBQ sauce, ketsup etc. my Middle Eastern MIL has in her frig? Zero. Salad dressing is lemon, garlic, olive oil, salt. Marinade for meat is similar plus some spices. They don’t use ketsup on anything. I’m guessing anyone who is making authentic Asian food isn’t used jarred teriyaki sauce. BBQ sauce is meant to be sweet- no one is shocked it has sugar in it. But besides that, only Americans eat it

Home made food for one thing, restaurant food is another. I live in Thailand. There is so much sugar in food it’s a bit ridiculous. Diabetes is a problem here as well.

[Anonymous]

I watched a pbs documentary about Sicilian beach culture. They were all in bikinis and I can assure you they were not skinny.
It’s true most Americans could care more about their diet and we don’t eat enough. But I feel like a lot of this is just that we have been richer than most of the world for many decades and so we’re able to have more cars, bigger houses in non walkable communities, more packaged food, more restaurant food….. but the rest of the world is catching up!

[Anonymous]

The rest of the world is not so much catching up with the American food culture, as it is "invaded" with the fast-food culture. Often willingly, as a sign of prosperity. Some Middle Eastern countries now have an obesity epidemic too. I recall when McDonalds showed up in my country, former Yugoslavia, lines were out of the door for it.
And then KFC and Pizza Hut, for a few months, it was all the rage. People did not like the food, however, apart from the ice cream from Mc. After that, however, it made out own fast-food versions explode even more. Pljeskavica and cevapi huts started appearing on every single corner. Now more condiments were offered, more mayo and ketchup in many meals. Potions in regular restaurants started to resemble American portions.
And meat, so much meat. People think that meat was always the staple of Balkan dishes. Yes, meat is popular, but when I was growing up, my diet was plant-based predominantly, veggies all the time with a bit of meat to flavor it—Bean soup with a few smoked ribs. You would be lucky if you got a piece. Pizza, the way we like it, not American pizza, is on every other corner now. Roasted chicken and grilled meat for taking out all over the place now.
This is much more of a global problem than people want to perceive. My super skinny sister is now getting pretty heavy, and she was so skinny you would think it was genetic. I watched the doc about Okinawa's and teens said, they like hamburgers from the Amerian village more than traditional food. Of course, they do, fat and sugar are tastier than seaweed.
So one pp is right. The U.S. is just ahead of the curve here. My sisters' MIL and FIL are obese. They can't figure out why they eat so much fruit! But, yes, now they can afford two kilos of grapes per day and eat them in a day!
Anyway, sorry about the long post, it is a global issue, and soon even villages in Africa will be affected.

[Anonymous]

Guys, guys, the reason over 70% of Americans are overweight or obese is very, very simple. They eat too much. All the splitting hairs over which types of food are worse than others is insane. Most people eat too much. Period. Restaurant portions are gigantic, we are surrounded by food at every corner, every event, every single day. You have to fight daily to say no, to NOT overeat, to get activity.

It’s not that they don’t care, but it is very hard work to keep fighting. Our brains want to overeat. We are programmed to overeat. To stay healthy, we have to fight our biology multiple times a day. There are no easy answers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guys, guys, the reason over 70% of Americans are overweight or obese is very, very simple. They eat too much. All the splitting hairs over which types of food are worse than others is insane. Most people eat too much. Period. Restaurant portions are gigantic, we are surrounded by food at every corner, every event, every single day. You have to fight daily to say no, to NOT overeat, to get activity.

It’s not that they don’t care, but it is very hard work to keep fighting. Our brains want to overeat. We are programmed to overeat. To stay healthy, we have to fight our biology multiple times a day. There are no easy answers.

Huh. Not really. It’s not a “very, very simple” reason. There really are foods that are horrific for people, some more so than others. I know it really bothers people to acknowledge this, but different bodies have different metabolisms, different biomes, different levels of insulin sensitivity. There is no “very, very simple” answer to it, and it’s not even overeating. In fact, if you read “Why We Get Fat” it’s not really the overeating, it’s one ingredient that makes trouble all over the body, wrecking all sorts of homeostatic systems: sugar. Sugar and simple carbohydrates that break down into sugar in your blood stream (and for very unlucky people even some more complex carbohydrates that are healthy for most bodies like beans, sweet potatoes, farro, triticale, quinoa, etc. ).

I know, I know. You want to just blame fat people for shoving food into their fat maws, but…. It’s not that simple. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys, guys, the reason over 70% of Americans are overweight or obese is very, very simple. They eat too much. All the splitting hairs over which types of food are worse than others is insane. Most people eat too much. Period. Restaurant portions are gigantic, we are surrounded by food at every corner, every event, every single day. You have to fight daily to say no, to NOT overeat, to get activity.

It’s not that they don’t care, but it is very hard work to keep fighting. Our brains want to overeat. We are programmed to overeat. To stay healthy, we have to fight our biology multiple times a day. There are no easy answers.

Huh. Not really. It’s not a “very, very simple” reason. There really are foods that are horrific for people, some more so than others. I know it really bothers people to acknowledge this, but different bodies have different metabolisms, different biomes, different levels of insulin sensitivity. There is no “very, very simple” answer to it, and it’s not even overeating. In fact, if you read “Why We Get Fat” it’s not really the overeating, it’s one ingredient that makes trouble all over the body, wrecking all sorts of homeostatic systems: sugar. Sugar and simple carbohydrates that break down into sugar in your blood stream (and for very unlucky people even some more complex carbohydrates that are healthy for most bodies like beans, sweet potatoes, farro, triticale, quinoa, etc. ).

I know, I know. You want to just blame fat people for shoving food into their fat maws, but…. It’s not that simple. Sorry.

Oh, great--then please point me to a study showing a controlled limited intake of calories below the calculated caloric need that results in gaining weight. I'll even accept a non-human study. I'll wait...

[Anonymous]

It is not simple at all. If it was that simple we would not have an obesity pandemic.