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from:msnbc.comExcess sugar, fat and salt can trick us into overeating
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This article made me hungry.
Ditto.
Between the delectable stuff profiled and the self-loathing paranoid tone, I'm ravenous.
Wow, amazing, I had no idea that fast food could be fattening, I thought it was just as healthy as the fried chicken my mother made.
Those nasty capitalist, tricking me into eating fast food, the way they got into my car and held a gun to my head, made me hit the drive thru and order not 1 but 2 extra value meals, super sized at that, shame on them.
How can I be responsible for my own meal selections when Obama wont even let me provide for my own health insurance?
Gosh, those awful fast food restaurants should be ashamed, taking advantage of dumb asses like me. I had no way of knowing that fried foods and soda pop could be bad for me, just like I didn't know that smoking could lead to cancer or sex could lead to pregnancy.
I'm so glad that I'm no longer responsible for any of my bad habits. Oh, sure, the Surgeon General's warning about cigarettes had been on the package since 1963, but I was TRICKED!!!
And I'm not at fault for being a drunk. I mean, I saw the "this is your brain on drugs" ads but where were the ads showing my brain stewing in a vat of alcohol? Where, I ask? Not my fault.
And I'm no longer at fault for turning myself into a fat pig. That was McDonald's fault and Kellogg's fault and Hagen-Daz' fault. They tricked me into thinking that I could eat fatty foods and tons of sugar without any ill effect and now I'm overweight through no fault of my own.
And it's not my fault that I can't pay my mortgage or my car loan or my credit card balance. Everyone just kept offering me money. Nobody told me that it would all come due and I'd have to pony up. Not my fault!
And it's not my fault that I don't have a job. They should have told me that I needed an education and skills and (gulp) a work ethic. I didn't know. I was just a kid!!! It's all THEIR fault (fill in the blank for "Their").
Oh, and it's also not my fault that my multi-billion dollar financial services business went bust giving loans to folks whom I knew had no hope of repaying. I relied on the government to fix any messes I made, so don't ask me to return those multi-million dollar bonuses I collected for the last two decades...
Anybody see a pattern here?
Good lord. Some scuz lawyer will use this article to drum up a class action lawsuit against the food industry for causing everyone's fat. Next they'll sue the automakers for making the cars that drive us to the restaurants. Why not sue the utensil/flatware manufacturer for making knives, forks and spoons that deliver the food to our mouths and shoves it in. Aren't they just as much to blame?
Just eat until you feel comfortabily full. Not, "oh my god, I have a food baby, roll me out of here!!! I'm so full I may puke!!"
we eat cr*p, because the general public is brainwashed into believing that the cr*p we are fed is good for them. There is virtually no nutritional value.
One can be grossly overfed/overweight and still be malnurished.
It has nothing to do with weight persay, it has everything to do with content. If a person is eating a gigantic calorie rich meal that has little to no nutritional value, they have to eat more to feel full.
Plus, because everything is loaded with high fructose corn syrup, that only makes things worse. Fructose works against the bodies own best interests. I surpresses lipids in our system. Lipids tell us when we are full. The more HFCS you injest, the more your body believes it's still needs to be fed.
so at the end of the day it's not food branding, or that you eat too much (persay), it's what you eat.
rule of thumb: if it's packaged, don't eat it. If you can't trace where it came from, don't eat it. If you can pronounce most of the ingredients or even know what they are, don't eat it. If it contains, nitrates, HFCS or MSG, don't eat it. And most of all, two simple things that will make you lose weight almost over night: don't eat fast food of any kind, don't drink soda. Poof!!! you lose weight. both contain huge amounts of HFCS.
I know no one will pay attention to this post and others will flame it out of ignorance, but I said my piece and if you all wish to be willfully ignorant, die early and have horrible health, knock yourself out.
one last thing: if you can grow some of your food, do so, in a few years, you will be very thankful for it.
TJ, I think your rule of thumb is excellent advice. If someone can not memorize it, they should copy and print it, then read it everyday.
P.S. I believe you meant ("can not" pronounce) instead of "can"
Very good advice and rule of thumb! I take my grandkids through the store and show them the ingredant labels. They are amazed at how all packeged foods contain HFCS, Salt, Soy and MSG. I then show them the isle with the Karo syrup which is ALL HFCS. I tell them that they are there because of GREEDY people that think more of the profits than you health. MSG is a big NO NO! Soy is filler bad for you. If these people were horse wiped all this crap would disapear over night.
Soy products are actually very good for you. In addition to being one of the very few non-animal sources for complete protien, it is also high in various vitamins and minerals.
How about practicing a little self control.
A more realistic rule of thumb; anything in moderation is fine.
Salad is not food, salad is what food eats. Soy is for sauce on my moo shu.
At 6' 4" and 220 pounds I eat what I want, but I also swim 2 miles 3x/week and lift weights for an hour each time. My cholesterol is a steady 140, not bad for a 50 year old.
Your right Captain Marvelous it is about self control, but I have a question, why do you think all of those corporations spend millions of dollars on advertising? Because it doesn't work?
you might want to research soy a bit more. USDA in 1913 listed it as an industrial product. It contains goitrogens-substances the depress thyroid function. They are high in phytic acid, which can block the uptake of essential minerals.. soy protein isolate (filler) meat imitator, baby formula, silk... all can contain alumium from the factory process,, then msg and other flavors are added. And then there are the phytoestrogens.
this is for redphish
vanna4me said:
And so would the food in your cupboard.
Self control......hard one, since most of the people in the US are conditioned from birth to 'you have to clean your plate before you can leave this table', I believe this is where a good part of the problem lies. No one is ever taught to just eat til they're full. Parents need to drop that attitude and listen to there kids when they say that they don't want to eat anymore. They just need to make sure that a balanced meal is eaten so they're getting nutrition across the food groups. If they leave half a plate of food but have eaten alittle bit of meat, veggies, dairy and slice of toast....I say great! If they are hungry later, just give them an apple, or orange. Snacks aren't bad for you if they are nutritious.
But for the love of God, stop with the 'clean you plate' mentality. If you are trying to teach them to just take what they are going to eat........you're NOT. Period. They are just too young. They'll eventually learn on their own, don't worry about it.
I just cringe whenever I hear that from a parent and I know the child is at least 10-15% overweight as it is.
Mitchell
Not sure how you qualify as the last word on nutrition or by what authority you feel competant to pronounce the rest of us ignorant, but I do agree with some of your posits. The unfortunate fact of life is that organic products are expensive. I'd like to spend my dietary allowance at the whole earth foods, but reality keeps rearing it's ugly head. Taxes, mortgage, car payment, more taxes, gas, electric. Farm fresh organic produce is great, but if the choice is vegetables, fruits or no vegtables or fruits because organic costs are high, well, organic loses. Most of us do the best we can do with what we can afford.
It's hard for me to feel victimized or brain washed. Even when I was more than 30 pounds overweight, every french fry I shoved in my mouth was a concious decision. (Who really believes that potato skins are good for you?) Why should we feel sorry for the folks who eat three supersized meals at McDonald's every day and then sue the chain for making them fat?
Food chains make food that taste good and are accessible...they don't make us fat. We choose to make ourselves fat by eating their food.
Anywho...I'm on a soap box here. My basic point is that we choose the foods we eat, and how much of it we eat. I LOVE eating at McDonalds, even when I can't stand the foods I'm eating there. Rachel Ray might have an intriguing concept that a great, nutritious meal is only 30 minutes away...but Ronald McDonald is only 5 minutes away, and just as cheap. Some days, I just don't want to cook.
No, in fact you don't have a choice, Dad. Because ALL of the food here in the good 'ol USA is produced the same way. McDonald's or Ruth Chris, you are eating the very same oil-soaked, corn fed cattle. Unless you eat food from a local farm, you will eat TONS of corn, grown from oil giving you 0% nutrition and a whole lot of Diabetes and Cancer - not to mention keeping you over-fed, and under-nourished.
See my comments below...
Food Inc, the movie, is an excellent look at what goes on behind the scenes in the food industry, what they don't want you to know, and how the food options available to the average consumer are really quite limited. The movie just came out, and should be required viewing for everyone who eats. Non-nutritious foods are designed to be cheap, readily available, and appealing to the most basic, primitive instincts that have been hardwired into us over thousands of years, but which no longer serve us well in our sedentary society. Finding (and being able to afford) high quality nutritious food isn't as easy as it sounds (although staying away from processed foods, eating more fruit, vegetables, and whole grains as much as possible is a good place to start). And why don't fast food places and restaurants offer more healthy, nutritious choices? Why aren't consumers demanding this? Why does industry fight so hard to block more complete labeling information, or adding calorie value to menus?
What health risk was I subjected to when Obama forced a larded up, Pork laden stimulous bill down my throat? Or maybe it was just a $hit sandwich I was forced to take a bite of?
Actually you DO have a choice. I choose meat and others choose vegetables. I choose to eat in moderation and others choose to be pigs (because it is there). Who ever said you have to eat everything you're served (besides your and my mother)???? If you purchase a meal and they bring you more than you can comfortably eat.....don't eat it. How hard is that? I also choose not to eat cake, cookies, candy, ice cream and most pastry while others choose to drool all over themselves and then eat this stuff until they are sick.
Self-control. If you don't have it, you deserve what you make of yourself. Don't blame it on chemicals or psychology.
So the government is going to force us to pay for bad decisions, or tell us what we can or cannot eat. If we want to die young and have a good time doing it, that should be our decision! --(joking)
captain, what about the big stimulus check that bush wrote last fall? did ya choke on that too?
Why don't they mention the fact that ALL of this corn is grown using petroleum in the from of synthesized nitrogen and pesticides? That, leading to the fact that the nitrogen produced from this petroleum, stays in the food chain from seed to dinner plate. It matters not that the corn has been wet-milled or eaten by rumen animals (HUGE mistake), the carbon signature of the oil and corn remain intact and become a part of us all. You are what you eat. No, you are what you eat, eats too.
And don't forget that once the oil runs out, or the military claims the last of the world's reserves for itself, mayhem will ensue. 1/5 of our oil supply is used to produce food in this country. That, in itself, is frightening beyond belief. Our military was sent to the Middle East to secure the oil so we can continue to feed our overweight, malnourished population keeping us all chronically ill as to keep the pharmaceutical companies afloat.
The French Paradox: How can a people who eat such demonsteruosly fattning food, be so healthy and thin?
The American Paradox: How can a people so unhealthy be so concerned about eating healthy?
Since when do we need nutritionists, science and a food pyramid to tell us how to eat?
Do the Italians hav a food pyramid? No. They have a food culture that has lasted thousands of years that has kept them healthy. They have no diet books or fads that we have here yet they remain healthy.
Read the Omnivore's Dilemma or go and see Food Inc. Grow a garden. Buy some chickens. Join a CSA.
You make lots of good points. Petroleum products abound. Do I remember this right - waste by-products from corn ethanol production is added to dog food? Thought I read that somewhere. When you talk about how corn is grown with petroleum in the form of syn. nitrogen and pesticides, don't forget to mention how much of it is GMO.
Pharmaceutical pills also have petroleum products in them? Paradox.
I know what you mean on the French and Italians. I'm not sure that they have cornered the market on health or that their wine is the answer either. Rather, a combination of genetics, diet, environment and culture seem to make more sense to me as major contributing factors. Haven't read the Omnivore's Dilemna. Thanks for the suggestion.
Lets not forget all of the FD&C food colorings, and artificial vanilla flavoring. All are made from petrolium...
Nitrogen is not produced from petroleum. The most common commercial method is to liquify air and then distill to nitrogen from the rest of the components.
You are a nut case. Why don't you learn a little about fertilizers before you spout off. Most nitrogen fertilizers are made from ammonia. Natural gas is generally used in the process and you will find zero petroleum or by products of natural gas in the fertilizer. Potassium and other minerals necessary for plant life occur in soil and chemical plants extract these mineral using natural gas, which is not a part of the chemical process. There is ZERO scientific evidence that a plant can tell the difference between organic and inorganic fertilizers, but people like you think that the organic vegetables are somehow different that inorganic vegetables which is a lot of BS. A whole industry has been created out of ignorance in Horticulture. Quit ranting about something you obviously know nothing about and do a little studying on the subject. Incidentally, range chickens are fed the same corn and other grains as the other chickens except they also eat worms, bugs, excretions of all kinds,etc. And range fed is better for you???? You are operating in a scientific vacuum, man.
wjdsr - actually, the benefit of free-range chickens is because they can move around normally and are not forced to live in inhumane, unsanitary conditons - squished together, standing in their own excrement, often with rotting birds that have dropped dead from the heat or conditions. The major chicken producers (Tyson, etc...) won't allow the insides of the chicken coops of their contracted farmers to be photographed - to allow a camera in means automatic severance of their contracts (and their income). They don't want the average consumer to know what's going on.
Gadfly -- Don't you wonder how large of a roam space they get on average? I thought I saw and article pointing out that it was minimal - just enough to fall within required definition. They may still be in some of their own or others excrement. We can't trust any industry that has a number one goal of profit - all of them.
wjdsr,
Thank you for the lesson in fertilizer production and your ignorance of the big picture.
It is in fact the scientific evidence that I am worried about. Have you witnessed how science has failed us over and over again while taking a major toll on the natural world? Science, in all of its infinite wisdom, has produced many accomplishments worthy of great esteem and horrifying outcomes. Science will never fully understand the natural world nor the amazing relationships we and every organism share. And Science will always forge ahead seeking new technologies for our industrial diet. Science will always ask 'how do we do this' and seldom ask 'should we do this' all in the name of capitalism. Note: I am a Republican
I never intended to school anyone on the production of fertilizer. Make no mistake however, all fossil fuels were NEVER meant to resurface from the depths of the earth to be re-introduced into the atmosphere much less into our food chain. Yes, FOOD CHAIN. It is what it sounds like - a never ending link of energy and matter originating from the sun that sustains all life on earth. Now, we have broken that chain for we have eliminated the sun. Instead, we rely on fossilized solar energy in the forms of coal, oil, natural gas and a myriad of others to grow our food and livestock and power us all the way to the nearest fast food chain..
Drill baby, drill! You prick.
WJDSR...while it's great you know so much about fertilizer, you are missing the point. The point is people don't want unnatural fertilizers in their bodies. And a free range chicken is far better than the caged mutants that tyson puts out. You have a warped view of reality.
CL1 - you may be right, and actually I avoid chicken, pork and beef as much as possible, but was just trying to point out the free-range rationale, which is at least marginally better than the standard factory farm.
Eliminated the sun? That's the first time I've heard that. About the only things petroleum is involved in food production is running farm machinery and transporting food to market. Yes, science has caused problems but the consequence of not using modern farming methods is for the starvation deaths of millions of people. Are you going to be the first to step forward and volunteer to stop eating?
the french use something americans avoid...... portion control
Gadfly ---I agree, better than the other. Too bad it's in the fish, too. Hard to know how much better wild-caught really is - pollutants.
If we didn't like it we wouldn't eat it. People need to exercise self control and stop blaming their weaknesses on someone else.
Oh Kelly, you just don't get it! Big Food is out of control! Just like Big oil, big tobacco, big pharma, big auto, big lint brush producer! The time has come to reign in this capitalist satan! We'll regulate them and tax them out of business! We must protect the American sheeple from themselves! They are too stupid to resist marketing campaigns and thus are forced, FORCED I tell you, to eat 24/7! Big food will rue the day they ever tried to feed America!
What was I thinking???? I knew it was the capitalist satans. I forgot to mention that. They twist your arms and stick a tube down your throat to force fedd you. Now I remember. Must have blocked that out.
Our bodies are not desighned for the consumption of fat or meat at all'
befor the great flood of Noah people did not eat it.
you can decide for yourself
how can I do that.
The biblical record of life on earth before the flood, from Adam to Noah, is only briefly sketched in Genesis Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7. The years before the Flood and the flood itself occupy Chapters 8 and 9, and Chapters 10 and 11 ("The Table of Nations") show the early repopulating of the earth by the three sons of Noah and their descendants from the Fertile Crescent area to the four corners of the earth.
Adam and Eve left the garden before bearing children. Their third son, Seth, was born when Adam was 130 years old (5:3). The available evidence suggests that Adam and Eve were not in the garden long before the fall occurred, perhaps it was only months or a few years, but possibly could have been as long as a hundred years. It is interesting that after the fall quite a few of the Antediluvians bore their first children around the age of 100 according to the Genesis record. The bearing of children would have been a normal part of Adam and Eve's relationship before the fall since they were commanded to be fruitful and to multiply, -n- subdue the earth with witch has almost been fulfilled. However the fact is they had no children before the fall while they were still in the Garden located "to the East, in Eden." The fall of man and its consequences occupy the pivotal and packed Third Chapter of Genesis and these matters are discussed in separate articles.
How does anything you wrote support your assertion that people are not designed to eat meat? Were that true, our digestive systems would not be able to process it.
Im with redphish. If we are going to use the Bible as a reference, why would God tell people which meats they could and could not eat if were were never designed to eat it at all? And nothing you wrote had anything to do with meat, animals, or digestion.
LOL, I didn't even make that connection.
Richard sievert
So you're saying that god wanted Adam to eat Eve?
Richard, the first sentence made sense. Then what happened, did you smoke a fat one?
It's the evil Freemasons.
Not being a Creationist, I believe that, if a monkey can eat it, so can I...
Then again, monkeys do eat some surprisingly nasty things.
Umm...yes we were designed to eat meat. How do you explain the need for vitamin B12? Or maybe explain why isolated tribes throughout the world naturally hunt for survival. We were designed as HUNTERS and gatherers. Stop with the crazy bible talk...
Of course people should exhibit self control in what they eat. I know, because I don't, lol, and am about 10 lbs overweight. My husband and I like to cook and eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies, so we don't eat much fast food or processed food, but are not good at portion control. And I accept that's something I need to resolve myself. However, since the obesity rates in most states are approaching or surpassing 30% (jeez!), which is a huge rise from the 1990's (over 10% I think the article on MSNBC said), then we have a system wide problem here.
A spike like this isn't just about lazy, stupid greasy people too weak to refuse a buffalo wing. Of course food manufacturers want people to consume more. That's how they increase sales, therefore profits. Why is anybody arguing that? I'm in sales, and every year we try to sell more. That's how it works. I notice very often that people seem to adopt a blame the victim mentality. "You deserve what happened to you because you were foolish/weak/bad. That would never happen to me because I am wise/strong/virtuous." A very childish and simplistic explanation.
Having said that, the rates of obesity and our food culture are enormously problematic on multiple levels, all of which are important, and individual habit-changing is certainly one of the tools in the kit. More and more it is coming to light how damaging the industrialization of food is to our individual health for a myriad of reasons (fat and salt content, ubiquitious presence of corn syrup, excessive portions, unhealthy preservative and flavor enhancors, lack of safety control). It also contributes enormously to environmental woes through use of pesticides and concentration of animal waste (can you believe cow flop is a pollutant?), unnecessary and truly horrific cruelty to our meat animals throughout the entirety of their lives, reliance on cheap, illeagal and heavily exploited foreign labor, scary business practices driving out individual farmers (Monsanto, anybody?)...The list goes on and on and on.
Bright side? My impression is that most of these issues are becoming widely known and accepted by the public, for the most part, and we are starting to demand change. The entire food industry from the planting of seeds and raising of animals to our plates needs a overhaul. And it will result in us being trimmer and healthier.
Sure I believe the food industry does everything they can to get us to eat more thus they sell more. But so do car manufacturers and appliance manufacturers and anyone selling anything. So why don't I have 5 washing machines and 10 cars? Because I have some self control. It is all in the temptation and the ability to resist it.
I love fast food and eat it at least 4 or 5 times a week. I am 5'7" weight 145 lbs.
I'm happy to hear that you are nice and trim, and I don't think it's my job to tell people what to eat. However, that wasn't really my point. My point was that the rates of obesity have skyrocketed, so a sudden collapse in the nation's willpower doesn't really explain the phenomenon. In addition, as I pointed out, the weight issue isn't the only issue plaguing our modern food industry.
Also, it could certainly be argued that eating fast food 5 times per wk does not exhibit self control.
e-310299 - Explain this please. I don't get it and you didn't expound on it.
""You deserve what happened to you because you were foolish/weak/bad. That would never happen to me because I am wise/strong/virtuous." A very childish and simplistic explanation."
There are no victims here.
I can see someone trying to sue the food industry because they are overweight. The sad thing is there is a lawyer just waiting for someone to call.
Someone has already tried.
See the film "Food,Inc.".It covers most of the above posts and quite a bit more.For instance,did you know that the USDA and FDA are,at their top levels,staffed by people from Tyson,Perdue,Smithfield and the other major meat producers?Any surprise the gov't can't close processing plants putting out E-coli infected meat?
In my 29 years of carnivorism, I've never once been sickened from "e-coli infected meat".
Many people have.
Then they should eat meat that has not been ground into little bits (like ground beef/turkey or chicken) - or they should invest in a meat grinder and grind it themselves. E-coli is found on the outside of meat - so eating a steak or whole piece of chicken which has been thoroughly cooked on the outisde (and inside if poultry) is perfectly safe.
I understand the argument that is being made, but I have a fundamental issue with putting the blame squarely on the producers of this type of food. For every type of cheeseburger sold in the US today, there is also an equal number of outlets for nutritional guidance (nutritionists, books, websites, etc.) to which people can turn to learn more about what is good for us and in what portions. We all have choices every day about what we eat.
Is it more challenging and require more discipline to eat well in a fast paced society? Sure it does. However, it's that very discipline at issue here, not the type of food being manufactured by companies who are incentivized to grow their profits by the laws of capitalism (which I happen to agree with). It is no different than cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, or other vices we choose to consume (or not) every day. We owe it to ourselves to be educated about what is good for us and vote for what we want with our dollars every day. If people quit buying food that is bad for them, fast food restaurants have no choice to produce food that they will buy.
As a society, we cannot be gluttonous and then blame others for our gluttony. Eat right and exercise, it's that simple. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that if our pants are too tight, we have to make changes or accept that we are going to be fat and suffer the consequences. If you don’t believe that, then it seems that you are assuming we are incapable of making good choices for ourselves and that’s completely different issue regarding our basic level of education and general ability to reason. I believe we are (for the most part) all perfectly functioning human beings who can think logically about cause and effect and we bear the responsibility for our decisions to put whatever we do in our bodies. Let’s take more responsibility for our own actions and not blame anyone else.
Very well said. The lack of willpower problem has been around forever, that's why we don't live in the Garden of Eden.
There we go, blame the food industries now for our country getting fat. When in doubt and caught in the corner, point the finger at someone else. Ridiculous, come on now. Might as well sue McDonalds for making you fat...making you eat all those cheeseburgers and not exercise. Slap yourselves
OMG!!! I'm surrounded by culinary hijackers and brainwashers! The food industry has a secret agenda! Someone has to do something!!! Why isn't the government regulating this abuse??? Won't someone please think of the children!?!?!?
Actually, on the subject of nutrition, Jonathan Swift (author, among others, of "Gulliver's Travels") did "think of the children" over 300 years ago in a little book called "A Modest Proposal". I say that book's time has come, for it offers a ready, healthy, and additive free way to eat which would work particularly well in the 3rd world.
(BTW, loved the post).
lol. Sounds like our nutrition problems have been solved!
Another issue about food consumption is that often times healthy foods are not available in poorer areas. I know in Chicago there has been a real problem with residents of poorer neighborhoods having no access to fresh produce. Also, many people who are poorer make unhealthy food decisions because it is much cheaper to buy something that is high calorie and processed versus something that is more expensive and fewer calories. You'll get many more calories out of a 99 cent hamburger from a fast food restaurant than you will a mango.
I my own experience I grew up poor and we rarely ate fresh vegetables and everything was cooked in butter and heavy on the salt. I've learned how to eat healthy and while it took me awhile to banish cravings for things like french fries and sweets, knowing how bad they are for my health and the unpleasant ingredients contained in them, I now don't eat those things because it grosses me out.
what a twisted wordsmith. wow. you would think the food industry, yes other people just like us, our friends and neighbors were out to kill us all off for the sake of a few profit margin points.
personally, i like the gristle removed before i eat it and do it at home when i cook. same goes for the bone. "removing it reduces chewing"? duh! unless i want to get to the marrow (which many people enjoy) i personally do not want to chew on a bone and would prefer it boneless.
do we need less sugar and salt? yes! but just be careful/aware in what you eat, eat fresh as often as possible and on occasion enjoy that bacon cheeseburger and LIVE life.
myself, if i am eating out, i can assume it is going to be fattier, saltier, etc... than what iwould prepare at home, but then again, i can afford to eat out that much.
The next time I go out to eat, I will raise Hell if the food is too tasty!!!
in reading this article, one would have to assume that the french, (the guardians of good taste and flavor) never use butter, salt or sugar!
The difference is that they eat fresh foods, not processed junk like we do here in the US. Plus, they walk everywhere and eat slowly instead of scarfing down a value meal at 60 miles an hour. In turn, they eat way less than Americans do and as such their obesity rates are much lower than ours.
Ken,
No, they do, but they are not obsessed with it! Also they don't have the corporate Mafia pushing addictive things on unsuspecting population!
The other day I was at the grocery store, and I have noticed that only white bread was on sale... And people were buying it. The whole wheat bread that was shelved next to it was NOT on sale. My point here, is that food industry is gearing people to make wrong choices. Another thing, I have known ever since I came to this country from Europe few decades ago, that sugar is an addiction in this country, and just as drug companies have become the drug pushers here, so it s the food industry pushing the sugar addiction on the people of this country... I can not eat store bought or even deli made products. I love sweets, but the amount of sugar they put in their products is obscene! In my home -made deserts I use 1/2 of sugar they put in theirs, and they are still sweet enough. Is this another attempt to make more profits for the corporate moguls, and the Med/pharma industry??? After all if everybody would eat healthy, would they not have lack of business? This may be another way by the ultra-capitalist system to create revenues for the fat cats, and keep the thing going! I know that people have choices, but lots of them blindly trust, considering that if it is on the shelves in the groc. store, it must be O.K. to consume. But even if some would try to eat healthy, unless you have plenty of money to splurge on healthy items, you just about have to get what's within your range of spending. It is just heartbreaking...... I watch people in grocery stores, and see them struggling. Has anyone else noticed and watched them?... But you'll see, they will fight tooth and nail to preserve their deceitful practices. They have found out that food is like a drug, put in it what will hook the people, and you'll get much of business, not only for yourselves, but create never ending supply of customers to Medical Industry's mafia! It's sickening! I detest this corrupt system!
I think the point the author of the article and the author of the book are making is that food scientists are looking for ways to get people to consume more of their products. Why would this surprise anyone? Of course they are. They want to sell more products! They fill chicken nuggets with 25% water so they can sell the same number of chicken nuggets with less actual chicken and less protein in them for the same amount of money. It increases their profit margin. Do you think that Kraft or Dole or any of the companies went into business for altruistic reasons? I'm not saying they are bad or are trying to "kill us" as a previous poster said, but at the end of the day they are trying to make a profit.
I also don't understand how many posters have intepreted the article to blame restaurants and food manufacturers for the obesity problem in the United States. No where does it say anything about that. It's just an article to inform people of what is in their food. If you didn't want to know, why did you read the article?
Please leave Dole out of your comment. It is a VERY nutrition conscious company - (if you care to examine it closely). The owner of the Company is very outspoken on the nutrition issue and gives employees lots of lectures about the need to avoid meats (except fish), salt, sugar, white stuff - in fact he is a very trim 85 year old man with the energy of four people combined.
No offense meant to Dole, but my point remains, food companies produce products to sell at a profit. They didn't get into business to only provide nutritious food to people. It's a business.
Ashley, maybe they are not trying to "kill" people, but what makes you think that if the corporate mafia don't mind to rob people and leach them of their livelihood through obscene charges for med/pharma services, that they would care about their well being? Do you know the facts about the Mono sodium glutamate, and even worse , about aspartame? Or is this a secret only known to the whistle blowers and those who take heed what they say. What went on before aspartame was put on the market as safe substance? This is not hear-say, there are some sobering facts, taht expose utter corruption of our FDA, and corporate entities in this country. The fact is, they only sees $$$$$ and takes advantage of anyone they can leach out for profit! And that 's the truth. The food industry is getting "money wise", they know they can get by with it, so they do. Very few hold to any ethic values!
Actually Dole is in there with Monsanto...so you know what path they are about to travel.
A Dog turd mixed with the correct amout of Salt, Fat, Soy, HFCS and MSG
would be a show stopper in the fast food lovers isle. Of course you have to exercise self control and only eat one.
The difference between French and us - they don't eat processed foods! They consume butter, salt and sugar in proportions that do not harm them because they use it moderation - also they don't fry anything (except potatoes). Meals take three hours to eat (not 15 minutes) and they eat a variety of foods in courses during the meal (all four food groups). Food is purchased and cooked the same day - so it is fresh. They also walk everywhere. The bottom line is this...learn to cook America! Make your own bread, dessert, breakfast lunch & dinner so YOU can have control over the ingredients that are going into your diet. Believe me - you will use MUCH less bad stuff than processed food and your food will taste better (not to mention saving lots of money). I can feed four adults on $75 week without any processed food - including eating meat (poultry, beef, fish) every day - I live in a major US city - do not have a garden - but I can still do this. Just be creative and learn to like left-overs.
Most of you bring up good points but how about this one. The FDA is suppose to be looking out for us, LOL. They say they want us to eat healthy but the food people have them in their pockets the same way the pharmaceutical companies do. Most people can not afford to eat fresh and they have to rely on the lies placed on packaging. Oh maybe lies is the wrong word, rather pig Latin would be a better phrase to use. You know that tobacco is additive but now we are learning that the additives they are putting in food is additive as well. So why are they allowed by law to do so, pay offs if why. We ate as much as a child as we do now but we moved, we played. My parents never once said "go out and exercise", it was go out and play. We got more exercise than any kid today and it was not push ups or deep knee bends.
es-512811 Please e-mail me as I would love to know how you feed four on 75 dollars a week.
So, you are waiting for the government (FDA) to save you by regulating how much and what each of us can eat???? Good luck with that. It will happen, but you won't like your rations.
4 people on $75 per week = smaller portions (which equates to reasonable amounts). Just because a plate is 12" wide it doesn't mean you have to fill it until the edges disappear.
You read but do not comprehend what you read. I do not approve of anything the FDA has done. They were set up to do good things but quickly became bought and paid for. I think people like you are still treating the side effects and not the cause. We no longer move, we no longer play. We have become a bunch of people that have isolated ourselves from life. We live in fear and pass that fear onto our children. Where are the children playing, laughing and having fun? Where are the sounds of laughter? Isolation and depression has taken over and we suffer for that. We ate large portions growing up, we needed them because we actually moved more than we sat down. We worked shorter hours and lived life, something so many are not doing today. By the way most do not make much more than we did then but the there is a rise in heart attacks, cancer and depression not to mention suicide.
Wait long enough and we will see, under the guise of consumer protection and the need to get health care costs under control, excise taxes on Big Macs and chimichangas. It works with tobacco; why not with sweet, salty, fatty eats? More big government looking out for us. Really, we know what we are eating. I would rather have the fries than more government regulations.
I must have missed the part in the article where the nasty food industry people forced you to come into the restaurant or the grocery store and forced you to buy the most fattening stuff on the menu or in the aisles. At least they're not as evil as the mortgage industry that forced all those people to buy houses they couldn't afford.
You are missing the point. People are forced to eat the crappy food because healthy food is unattainable unless you are making a decent living. People know that mcdonalds is bad for them, but when they can feed a family of 4 on 8 dollars for a meal, why spend twice as much for vegetables, fruits, and meat?
I so agree with you 'Yeah'. It seems everyone misses the point on this thread. The corporations which hypnotize you with advertising are also selling food that is artifically jacked up to make you eat more. It is not about being a big macho man and making a decision not to eat too much and excercizing self control. (Yeah, like I know one dude that does that...:) ) What about the kids who are raised on this crap that the Agri-Biz Cartel fill the shelfs with? If they could get away with selling us saw dust in our food they would do it. The Corporations in America know no shame. That's why they refer to us as 'Consumers'.
THE CORPORATIONS IN AMERICA KNOW NO SHAME
These are the words that should be put on the billboards all over America, beside every major highway.
If there is a conscientious wealthy person somewhere out there, please , do so, because the one thing they don't want, is bad name and bad publicity!
How dare the food industry make food taste good and make us want to eat it!! Have they no shame!! Yes food makes people happy but come on, we have pills for that.
Well, personally I have found a few of the oriental fast foods to be disgusting. Good thing there is always a McD's close by to get some real food! (joking)
You mean if I stuff my face with food, I'll over eat?
A very good article and things we have been hearing about for the past 5 years. Still not too many people listen or read and understand how the food industry works. I've been told by my Doctor to keep away from can meats and quick fix meals due to the amount of salt and sodium in them. It's hard to do when your at work and rushing, even if you take an hour for lunch. Now that I'm unempolyed, I've notice that my weight has gone down due to cooking more at home and not getting it out of a can or fast food. So this does make a lot of sense. One more item, I would like to see an article on the rip off of customers by the food industry. More to the point of shorting the contents. For example, I bought a can of green bean from a well known company. When I got home to fix Thanksgiving dinner, the can of beans I open contained more water than bean, there were maybe about a 1/4 cup of bean in all that water. I was shocked and then mad. Where were their quality control here. I wrote a letter and gave the batch numbers of the can. I got a reply and coupons for a few free cans. But if out of all those cans; I was the only one to complaint how many more customer ended up getting short change? The same happen on a bag of potato stick, open the bag and it had just a few in it and mostly air. The next bag had twice and many and looked to be normal. I've purchase a lot these in vending machine. So again I wrote and gave a batch number. These are just a few cases over the year and most of the time I don't bother complaining or contacting the company who shorted the contents. While most go by a weight system, they still pull tricks to keep certain contents to the lowest possible point to save money. I'm sure in the case of the beans, the water most likely cost more than the beans did. If you actually take a very good set of triple beam with gram weights you would be surprise at how short the contents come up to listed amount on container. This not new and has been going on for years.