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Fast food and obesity
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »The "chemical research" has already been done. Aspartame (the most common of the artificial sweetners used in sodas) is safe. Taste is not an indicator of health I am sorry. I don't like the taste of brussel sprouts, that doesn't make them deadly. If no one like the taste of diet coke then it wouldn't be a successful product. Your belief otherwise doesn't affect reality. Feel free to not drink diet coke if you don't like the taste, but don't make public claims that it is unsafe based soley on the fact that you don't like its taste...that is rather absurd.
Well, taste is not totally unrelated to health. The natural aversion to bitter tastes does seem to be an evolutionary adaptation to avoiding toxic plant alkaloids. Both sensitivity and specificity are pretty poor, however - many toxic substances are not bitter and many bitter substances are not toxic. However, if the primary source of environmental toxins were plant alkaloids, as was likely for our ancestors, an aversion to bitter taste makes sense, as almost all alkaloids have a bitter flavor, and avoiding bitter plants overall would be a good strategy.
On the other hand, with synthetic compounds, we certainly haven't had enough exposure and selective pressure to evolve a taste preference or aversion, so whether a manufactured compound tastes good or bad provides no information.0 -
Carlos_421 wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »The series Superfat to Superskinny was one. At least I think thats what it was called.
They took obese UK people over to the US and had them see Americans homhad been obese for years, were undergoing surgery and all the problems like, wheelchairs, special medical teams and beds for the obese etc.
It did seem to help th UK people get the motivation to lose weight before it got any worse.
The UK doesn't have any morbidly obese people of their own they could've used?
not to the extreme levels of what you have.
However we have an "Obesity crisis" (still incomparable to you) and the country is trying to do something about it which is commendable.
Over the last 10 years, the country started with tackling schools to ensure nutritious meals are provided to children and Jamie Oliver is to salute for this. He started the trend.
Just today it was announced on the radio that all of the food retail businesses have a responsibility to reduce salt/sugar by 20% over the next 5 years. Good or bad, I don't know but it's an attempt to move forward.
..and there might be more but I am not versed on everything.
Also, we DONT use Americans as an example to motivate ourselves. We do have a growing concern here and there are several programs on TV that bring awareness to that using brits as an example.
However big and successful documentaries from the states do get aired here for educational/awareness.
There's certain things where the UK cannot compare itself to America and I will not deny it!
The ignorance and offensiveness of the bolded is just astounding.
Yes, our numbers are worse but they are in no way incomparable. America has an obesity problem just like most of the industrialized world but we're not a population made up exclusively of obese slobs like you continue to insinuate.
ETA: maybe you forgot this graphic from earlier in the thread
Just to break that down for you, overweight/obesity rates in the US vs UK are:
Men - 70.9% to 66.6%
Women - 61.9% to 57.2%
That's close enough that you'd not notice any difference between the two populations by living among them. You basically have to do a census in order to pick up on that small of a difference.
The most alarming thing about that chart is that only two countries strikingly stand out from the rest and it's the ones at the bottom, not at the top.
Having lived there for a time, appetite suppression via nicotine comes to mind...
Is interesting that we don't see much regression analysis of BMI and tobacco use.
Hmm...BMI and caffeine happy cities like Seattle?1 -
stevencloser wrote: »Carlos_421 wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »The series Superfat to Superskinny was one. At least I think thats what it was called.
They took obese UK people over to the US and had them see Americans homhad been obese for years, were undergoing surgery and all the problems like, wheelchairs, special medical teams and beds for the obese etc.
It did seem to help th UK people get the motivation to lose weight before it got any worse.
The UK doesn't have any morbidly obese people of their own they could've used?
not to the extreme levels of what you have.
However we have an "Obesity crisis" (still incomparable to you) and the country is trying to do something about it which is commendable.
Over the last 10 years, the country started with tackling schools to ensure nutritious meals are provided to children and Jamie Oliver is to salute for this. He started the trend.
Just today it was announced on the radio that all of the food retail businesses have a responsibility to reduce salt/sugar by 20% over the next 5 years. Good or bad, I don't know but it's an attempt to move forward.
..and there might be more but I am not versed on everything.
Also, we DONT use Americans as an example to motivate ourselves. We do have a growing concern here and there are several programs on TV that bring awareness to that using brits as an example.
However big and successful documentaries from the states do get aired here for educational/awareness.
There's certain things where the UK cannot compare itself to America and I will not deny it!
The ignorance and offensiveness of the bolded is just astounding.
Yes, our numbers are worse but they are in no way incomparable. America has an obesity problem just like most of the industrialized world but we're not a population made up exclusively of obese slobs like you continue to insinuate.
ETA: maybe you forgot this graphic from earlier in the thread
Just to break that down for you, overweight/obesity rates in the US vs UK are:
Men - 70.9% to 66.6%
Women - 61.9% to 57.2%
That's close enough that you'd not notice any difference between the two populations by living among them. You basically have to do a census in order to pick up on that small of a difference.
The most alarming thing about that chart is that only two countries strikingly stand out from the rest and it's the ones at the bottom, not at the top.
Having lived there for a time, appetite suppression via nicotine comes to mind...
Do they smoke a lot in Japan and Korea?
Oh yes!0 -
healthy491 wrote: »Fast food franchises like McDonalds etc sometimes get blamed for obesity ( especially in certain countries) . Is it really fair to blame them tho? I mean if its about CI<CO then you could eat a homemade salad which may contain more calories than a McChicken. Opinions?
McDonald's have a menu so where you eat high carb/low carb high calorie/low calorie is left up to the person placing the order then eating it. I just came from there and had a 1040 calorie 4 grams carb meal of two round eggs, two patties of sausages and three cups of coffee per MFP database.1 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »healthy491 wrote: »Fast food franchises like McDonalds etc sometimes get blamed for obesity ( especially in certain countries) . Is it really fair to blame them tho? I mean if its about CI<CO then you could eat a homemade salad which may contain more calories than a McChicken. Opinions?
McDonald's have a menu so where you eat high carb/low carb high calorie/low calorie is left up to the person placing the order then eating it. I just came from there and had a 1040 calorie 4 grams carb meal of two round eggs, two patties of sausages and three cups of coffee per MFP database.
I think you doubled the calories unless you had some flavored coffee
but the carbs are about right. Not a bad breakfast in my mind. 2 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »healthy491 wrote: »Fast food franchises like McDonalds etc sometimes get blamed for obesity ( especially in certain countries) . Is it really fair to blame them tho? I mean if its about CI<CO then you could eat a homemade salad which may contain more calories than a McChicken. Opinions?
McDonald's have a menu so where you eat high carb/low carb high calorie/low calorie is left up to the person placing the order then eating it. I just came from there and had a 1040 calorie 4 grams carb meal of two round eggs, two patties of sausages and three cups of coffee per MFP database.
And some trans fat to boot. Good on you.2 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »healthy491 wrote: »Fast food franchises like McDonalds etc sometimes get blamed for obesity ( especially in certain countries) . Is it really fair to blame them tho? I mean if its about CI<CO then you could eat a homemade salad which may contain more calories than a McChicken. Opinions?
McDonald's have a menu so where you eat high carb/low carb high calorie/low calorie is left up to the person placing the order then eating it. I just came from there and had a 1040 calorie 4 grams carb meal of two round eggs, two patties of sausages and three cups of coffee per MFP database.
I think you doubled the calories unless you had some flavored coffee but the carbs are about right. Not a bad breakfast in my mind.
The count was from MFP. I have them to add 9 creams to each cup.0 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »healthy491 wrote: »Fast food franchises like McDonalds etc sometimes get blamed for obesity ( especially in certain countries) . Is it really fair to blame them tho? I mean if its about CI<CO then you could eat a homemade salad which may contain more calories than a McChicken. Opinions?
McDonald's have a menu so where you eat high carb/low carb high calorie/low calorie is left up to the person placing the order then eating it. I just came from there and had a 1040 calorie 4 grams carb meal of two round eggs, two patties of sausages and three cups of coffee per MFP database.
I think you doubled the calories unless you had some flavored coffee but the carbs are about right. Not a bad breakfast in my mind.
The count was from MFP. I have them to add 9 creams to each cup.
Like a little coffee in that cream?2 -
Food companies do everything they can to get people to eat their food...and I don't doubt that some of it is unethical...however, it all comes down to personal choice. No one held a gun to your head and made you eat 3 Big Macs and 2 orders of fries. Unless they did. Then you can legitimately blame someone else. Otherwise, we're all personally responsible for what we put into our bodies.5
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Carlos_421 wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »healthy491 wrote: »Fast food franchises like McDonalds etc sometimes get blamed for obesity ( especially in certain countries) . Is it really fair to blame them tho? I mean if its about CI<CO then you could eat a homemade salad which may contain more calories than a McChicken. Opinions?
McDonald's have a menu so where you eat high carb/low carb high calorie/low calorie is left up to the person placing the order then eating it. I just came from there and had a 1040 calorie 4 grams carb meal of two round eggs, two patties of sausages and three cups of coffee per MFP database.
I think you doubled the calories unless you had some flavored coffee but the carbs are about right. Not a bad breakfast in my mind.
The count was from MFP. I have them to add 9 creams to each cup.
Like a little coffee in that cream?
I love coffee flavored cream. Besides where can you get 540 calories of LCHF for $0.59?
Never drank much coffee but when I was in boot camp in the Navy in Orlando I got a bad cold. When I had mess hall duty I had to be there very early so I drank coffee for the kick but had to greatly cut it with whole milk to get it down.
Before MFP I knew really nothing about how many carbs were in the different foods. McDonald's locally has the best and most consistent quality of coffee of any place I have eaten in town plus there are a lot of older guys that know a lot to talk with if you get there at 7 AM.2 -
I did a little reading on why Iceland is in the top tier. Apparently the Icelandic diet is very calorie dense due to their high consumption of fatty meat. Not that this in itself promotes obesity. But fresh fruits and vegetables are very expensive there. 78% of Iceland is agriculturally unproductive, and only about 1% of the land area is actually used for cultivation.
Good to know! and fat is calorie dense.
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Suddenly I'm interested! If it's gonna be *that* tasty, I might make the indulgence and use your salad recipe on an intense gym day. So a certain amount of bacon, some kind of cheese, and... ? *gets out note pad*
A typical salad for me:
a couple cups of green leaf lettuce, some grape tomatoes and cucumber as the base
some leftover steak, chicken, or pork chop (4-6 oz or so; I'm not a measurer/weigher)
a nice handful of shredded cheddar (perhaps a quarter cup?)
a hard boiled egg or half an avocado
a sprinkling of sunflower kernels (2-3 tbsp?)
a rasher or two of bacon, if I have some on hand
a nice drizzling of olive oil and a splash of vinegar or some Italian dressing made with olive oil (who knows? 3-4 tbsp? maybe more?)
It's a meal, not a side dish... But yeah, I'd say it's pretty close to a Big Mac. Just tastier.0 -
Fast food isn't the problem. EATING fast food is the problem.3
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Chef_Barbell wrote: »Don't make this about America please because obesity is a worldwide problem.
Just thought I'd go and do a little fact-checking on this, and stumbled across the attached from the UK Government. Honestly, I'm pretty staggered by what I'm seeing:
Why am I NOT surprised that Japan is the least obese? Oh, yea, because they have a healthy diet of fish, rice, and vegetables, mostly. There's a reason why the good ol' saying is, "You are what you eat."1 -
Why am I NOT surprised that Japan is the least obese? Oh, yea, because they have a healthy diet of fish, rice, and vegetables, mostly. There's a reason why the good ol' saying is, "You are what you eat."
There's also the massive social stigma in Japan with being overweight / obese along with generally homogeneous culture.
Fat shaming seems to work there to help keep waistlines in check.
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Why am I NOT surprised that Japan is the least obese? Oh, yea, because they have a healthy diet of fish, rice, and vegetables, mostly. There's a reason why the good ol' saying is, "You are what you eat."
It almost seems like it has something to do with the total amount of calories they eat...
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Chef_Barbell wrote: »Don't make this about America please because obesity is a worldwide problem.
Just thought I'd go and do a little fact-checking on this, and stumbled across the attached from the UK Government. Honestly, I'm pretty staggered by what I'm seeing:
Why am I NOT surprised that Japan is the least obese? Oh, yea, because they have a healthy diet of fish, rice, and vegetables, mostly. There's a reason why the good ol' saying is, "You are what you eat."
And I'm sure the fact they are an island nation where food is expensive because they don't have enough resources to feed the population without imports contributes to type and quantity of food consumed.1 -
Why am I NOT surprised that Japan is the least obese? Oh, yea, because they have a healthy diet of fish, rice, and vegetables, mostly. There's a reason why the good ol' saying is, "You are what you eat."
There's also the massive social stigma in Japan with being overweight / obese along with generally homogeneous culture.
Fat shaming seems to work there to help keep waistlines in check.
Fat shaming is so acceptable in Japan that a BMI in the upper 20's could get your belly poked and jokes made about you. In fact, it's government mandated that citizens over 40 get their waists measured every year and if they go over the limit (33.5 inches for men, 35.4 for women) they'll be given "dietary guidance" and if that doesn't work after six months, they may be given "further re-education."
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2009/11/how-japan-defines-fat/29830/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html?_r=08
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