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X-Large (Obesity in America Discussion)

edited November 2011 in Flamewars
218 pound 3-grader placed into foster care after a year of county working with mother to reduce weight. This kid has sleep apnea and wears a machine to help and monitor his breathing during sleep.
Post edited by 2bfree on
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Comments

  • Some people aren't fit to be parents, although I do question the article's lack of study on the boy's actual health and lifestyle.
  • What bothers me the most about the obesity epidemic is the misconception that healthier food costs more or takes longer to prepare.
  • What bothers me the most about the obesity epidemic is the misconception that healthier food costs more or takes longer to prepare.
    I don't know, fruits and vegetables aren't that cheap, maybe it's different depending where you live.

    What bothers me more is that we subsidize foods based largely on politics instead of what's good for you.
  • What bothers me the most about the obesity epidemic is the misconception that healthier food costs more or takes longer to prepare.
    I don't know, fruits and vegetables aren't that cheap, maybe it's different depending where you live.
    Eating fruits & veg that are in season or buying canned or frozen can easily make those foods cheap. Yogurts, beans, meat (even fattier/cheaper cuts can be "leaned" by trimming fat or cooking off fat), less processed grains, etc. are all fairly cheap. Seriously, store brand stone-cut microwavable oatmeal + defrosted frozen berries or store brand yogurt + canned peaches are cheaper AND "healthier" than most boxed, sugary cereals per serving.
    My Mom and I were dirt poor when I was a kid. On top of that, it was often too hot (we lived in Tampa and didn't have AC) to do much cooking (and too expensive to use the stove/oven), but I ate healthier then than I did as a teenager when we had more money and purchased more "convenience" meals.

  • Fruits and vegetables can be just as inexpensive money-wise, but they are not nearly as inexpensive time-wise. You have to prepare vegetables to make a meal. At the very least you have to cut them up to make a salad, which is more effort than most people are going to put forth.
  • And given that over there you want to eat something that's ready in minutes and you don't have to cook it, fast food is rampant.

    I'd rather cook my own stuff.
  • Fruits and vegetables can be just as inexpensive money-wise, but they are not nearly as inexpensive time-wise. You have to prepare vegetables to make a meal. At the very least you have to cut them up to make a salad, which is more effort than most people are going to put forth.
    Also veggies and fruit if not frozen or canned tend to have a much shorter shelf life, if you are a working parent you may not have as much time to run to the store as often as you need to to keep fresh food in the house as well as having your food spoil on you.
  • edited November 2011
    Fruits and vegetables can be just as inexpensive money-wise, but they are not nearly as inexpensive time-wise. You have to prepare vegetables to make a meal. At the very least you have to cut them up to make a salad, which is more effort than most people are going to put forth.
    Also related is that most people only go to get groceries once a week. Depending on the fruits and vegetables they get, a lot of them can go bad by the time they get around to them. So, as far as they are concerned, it's a waste of money, since it's hard to eat things in a timely fashion. This goes especially for people who try to save money by buying them in bulk.

    Edit: Ninja'd.

    On this topic though, I've just started a new diet, so it'll be interesting to see how my costs for food change over the next month compared to previous ones.
    Post edited by theknoxinator on
  • Don't underestimate beans, rice, canned tomatoes and some random spices. It's a healthy meal and is easy to prepare, even though it might take a fair amount of time to make. Most of it is simmering.
  • You guys are over looking the obvious thing. Bad for you foods generally taste good. Fat + salt = delicious...and deadly.
    Don't underestimate beans, rice, canned tomatoes and some random spices. It's a healthy meal and is easy to prepare, even though it might take a fair amount of time to make. Most of it is simmering.
    You should elaborate on this in the cooking thread.
  • What bothers me the most about the obesity epidemic is the misconception that healthier food costs more or takes longer to prepare.
    Another annoying misconception is that you have to be perfect with your diet, or go to the gym all the time.

    I eat junk food all the time, the healthier food I eat is by no means salad and gruel(in fact, I rarely eat salad, not really my thing), drink sugary sodas, drink plenty of beer and spirits and so on. I never set foot inside of a gym to exercise and play a lot of video games. And yet, I'm rail-thin and moderately healthy, Because I still have a vaguely reasonable diet - getting enough of all the stuff one needs, and I stop eating when I'm not hungry - and I exercise a reasonable amount, walking and biking places(not much of a runner, not my thing), playing with the dog, and other such things.
  • What bothers me the most about the obesity epidemic is the misconception that healthier food costs more or takes longer to prepare.
    Another annoying misconception is that you have to be perfect with your diet, or go to the gym all the time.

    I eat junk food all the time, the healthier food I eat is by no means salad and gruel(in fact, I rarely eat salad, not really my thing), drink sugary sodas, drink plenty of beer and spirits and so on. I never set foot inside of a gym to exercise and play a lot of video games. And yet, I'm rail-thin and moderately healthy, Because I still have a vaguely reasonable diet - getting enough of all the stuff one needs, and I stop eating when I'm not hungry - and I exercise a reasonable amount, walking and biking places(not much of a runner, not my thing), playing with the dog, and other such things.
    Being thin is pretty much no indication of your health.
  • What bothers me the most about the obesity epidemic is the misconception that healthier food costs more or takes longer to prepare.
    Another annoying misconception is that you have to be perfect with your diet, or go to the gym all the time.

    I eat junk food all the time, the healthier food I eat is by no means salad and gruel(in fact, I rarely eat salad, not really my thing), drink sugary sodas, drink plenty of beer and spirits and so on. I never set foot inside of a gym to exercise and play a lot of video games. And yet, I'm rail-thin and moderately healthy, Because I still have a vaguely reasonable diet - getting enough of all the stuff one needs, and I stop eating when I'm not hungry - and I exercise a reasonable amount, walking and biking places(not much of a runner, not my thing), playing with the dog, and other such things.
    Being thin is pretty much no indication of your health.
    The sad truth of my life. >_<
  • It's not the quality it's the quantity. Eating lots of good food will get you fat. Granted it takes less bad food to turn you into chub-zilla, but overeating is still overeating.
  • edited November 2011
    Being thin is pretty much no indication of your health.
    I'm extremely well aware, which is why I separated the two. It is, however, a goal behind diet and exercise for many people, thus why it was included.

    Post edited by Churba on
  • We nearly made Pizza (technically through Tomato Paste) a vegetable. We should be ashamed.
  • Pizza can be a very healthy thing depending on the toppings. But people just won't want to have veggies on it.
  • edited November 2011
    We nearly made Pizza (technically through Tomato Paste) a vegetable. We should be ashamed.
    No, No you didn't. You had a vote that decided how much tomato paste or puree counts for, on the scale of how many serves of vegetables measured in cups.

    In fact, what they wanted to change was that tomato paste and puree wouldn't be insanely over-counted anymore - as it stands, one eighth of a cup of Paste/puree counts as half a cup serving of vegetables - and it was voted down. Which isn't the most enormous bungle in the world, really.

    Basically, it was meant to stop Schools from crediting a volume of fruits or vegetables that is more than the actual serving size. What would it have done if it passed? Not a hell of a lot, changed a few school lunches, and made them a bit more expensive. What happens now that it doesn't pass? Literally nothing.

    So calm the fuck down, internet. Pizza is not and never was a vegetable, nor was anybody trying to make it one. Everybody is blowing the whole thing WAY out of proportion.

    What you should be bitching about is that it's measured in cups. A cup of, say, avocado is going to be wildly different(though probably somewhat more pleasant) than a cup of raw onions, but they both count for a cup of vegetable.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • So calm the fuck down, internet. Pizza is not and never was a vegetable, nor was anybody trying to make it one. Everybody is blowing the whole thing WAY out of proportion.
    Aw, but it's so much fun to not read what actually happened and then make a meme out of it.

  • Pizza can be a very healthy thing depending on the toppings. But people just won't want to have veggies on it.
    Cheese is like the worst thing for you. Pizza is just one of those things no one should ever eat.
  • I think they fact the issue came up, is pretty sketchy with how what qualifies as a fitting the "servings of _______", because it's an unhealthy shortcut. All vegetables have different levels of nutrients. Something like tomato paste is used primarily as small bit of flavor. It's like the same logic with assuming Ketchup isn't as bad for you, because it uses some level of vegetables.

    And Pizza, is pretty unhealthy as a whole when you look at the calories per serving and cafeterias ALWAYS have it.
    What bothers me more is that we subsidize foods based largely on politics instead of what's good for you.
    It's more of this concern than anything that fueled the interest with Pizza topic about Obesity in America.
  • Pizza can be a very healthy thing depending on the toppings. But people just won't want to have veggies on it.
    Cheese is like the worst thing for you. Pizza is just one of those things no one should ever eat.
    I'm amused that George just made the guns are evil argument with cheese. Cheese has plenty of good things about it, it's the way we eat cheese in the US that is bad. Cheese is just a tool, it can be used for good and tasty.

  • Pizza can be a very healthy thing depending on the toppings. But people just won't want to have veggies on it.
    Cheese is like the worst thing for you. Pizza is just one of those things no one should ever eat.
    I'm amused that George just made the guns are evil argument with cheese. Cheese has plenty of good things about it, it's the way we eat cheese in the US that is bad. Cheese is just a tool, it can be used for good and tasty.
    I love cheese. Cheese is fantastic when used responsibly! But pizza is like a fully automatic machine gun, even I won't defeat them. But damn if pizza isn't fucking awesome, like playing with a fully automatic gun at the range.
  • edited November 2011
    I think they fact the issue came up, is pretty sketchy with how what qualifies as a fitting the "servings of _______", because it's an unhealthy shortcut.
    The issue came up because they were trying to fix a perceived problem there, with some things counting for more than they are by serving size, which isn't sketchy in the slightest. And even at it's worst, this is an INCREDIBLY minor issue, despite the enormous hype thanks to the "Oh, pizza is a vegetable now!" soundbyte.

    Basically, it's another case of the internet basically being Fox News, but without the agenda, because you'd have trouble getting the internet to express a coherent unified thought, let alone a coherent agenda.

    Aside from that, it's a perfectly acceptable way to put it - yes, it's a shortcut, but it's not like we're all nutritionists, or even that clued in about food and diet. Try explaining a perfectly accurate version of one's daily requirements, and people will not give a single fuck. Making it simple as is done with the "servings" version makes it much more likely that people will actually remember it, and at least take it under advisement.

    TL:DR - Of course it's a shortcut, people are stupid and lazy. If it wasn't a shortcut, you'd probably all be even fatter.
    And Pizza, is pretty unhealthy as a whole when you look at the calories per serving and cafeterias ALWAYS have it.
    Yeah, because it's cheap and extremely easily fits the requirements without a problem - Each serving must be less than a third of the daily calorie requirement, less than 30 percent of the serving is fat.

    As for the Sauce being just for a little bit of flavor argument, surprisingly, not so much. It actually comes out pretty well - An eighth of a cup of tomato sauce is not that far off nutritionally from, say, a half-cup of apples. Naturally, it blows it out of the water in terms of sodium and potassium, but otherwise, quite similar.

    There is plenty more to rage about before you get anywhere close to talking about pizza sauce - like how only about 20% of american schools give even a single fuck about the government guidelines for fat content.
    I love cheese. Cheese is fantastic when used responsibly! But pizza is like a fully automatic machine gun, even I won't defeat them. But damn if pizza isn't fucking awesome, like playing with a fully automatic gun at the range.
    Clearly, the only solution is to rig up a Ma Deuce so that it fires babybelles.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • Now I'm hungry for pizza. Or a mushroom and arugala flatbread.
  • Wow, just because the forum resizes the images, it doesn't make them magically download more quickly over satellite internet.
  • Strange, I assumed like most places on the Internet, people would have focused on the big, scary government taking the kid into protective custody, even if only temporarily.

    To be honest, I am surprised the tea party types and such don't seem to be screaming about this.
  • It used to surprise me when i would tell people I was vegan and they would ask what I eat as if there were not many other foods I could eat other than meat.
  • Well, I've had pizza in the States, and no offense, but it's really nasty.

    Cheese can work well as a protein source, but I'll always try and get a veggie pizza for myself. Especially when I can buy a single slice for lunch/dinner. I also know how to make personal pizzas with pita bread, so all in all, it's a matter of adapting stuff.

    More often than not healthy food isn't better-tasting than the unhealthy one, but there are ways to make it taste great, and it's something I've had to live with since I can't digest fats well (I had my gallbladder removed). It's just that, as I mentioned before, people don't like to spend a lot of time cooking and prefer to have quicker but considerably less convenient food. Which then accounts for unhealthy lifestyles and weight.

    While I could be a really good vegetarian (cheese and mushrooms fan), I know the key is eating a little bit of everything in a balanced way. excess in anything can make you sick (physically and mentally).
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