The Men who Made Us Fat

cargilb

I think all of you people that are saying you made yourself fat are missing the point. this is not about shirking personal responsibility. This is about explaining why the default food choices, the cheaper food choices, and the most pervasive food choices, are all very fattening and bad for your health. This is good information to have. I can't tell you how many people I have been telling this stuff to for several years and they look at me like I am some strange alien because they don't have a clue as to why they are not able to stay slim despite eating very little food. They don't realize the effects of the default food choices.

wouldn't it be nice to be able to get better choices at the same price as you can get a value meal? or a 99 cent hamburger? on almost every corner.

I have to hunt to find a nice salad place every day and i end up paying at least 9 dollars every day for lunch alone. And its grilled chicken everywhere. If you want a nice salmon salad its 18 dollars in NYC. If i want some crap like pizza its a 1.50 for all that processed flour, cheese and tomatoes.

It is cheaper to eat lean protein and vegetables than it is to buy the processed or prepared pap. Cheaper again if you buy frozen vegetables, and they have the added benefit of being more nutritious than fresh.

You choose to not prepare your food at home and select the salad items you want to eat and carry with you for lunch.

That is your choice, that is absolutely fine, but don't then say theres a lot of other food to choose too so it's their fault.

again, you are missing the point. but its ok. that is to be expected from some people. this is not about packing your food or not packing it. People have different lifestyles and not everyone can pack a nice lunch every day. there is more than one way to live your life. Everyone doesn't have to do it your way. That being said, the question still remains as to the default choices of food being very bad for you. You can live in a bubble if you want and ignore it, but some people choose to acknowleddge that it is there and make an informed choice, be it sopepend more money for lunch or bag it.

jenilla1

I've never actually been overweight, just kinda out of shape. So who gets credit for that? I want all the credit and I'll take any blame, too, because it means I have control of my own destiny. It's a great feeling. I wish everyone luck in finding their own sense of control. :flowerforyou:

TyFit08

Well most women want to be wined and dined, but there is a consequence to that. When my husband and I started dating he took me to fabulous restaurants where ate wonderful meals followed by wine on a regular basis. I wasn't in the habit of eating out prior to this and it is safe to say my waistline started to grow. We are married now and he knows he doesn't need to take me out to eat to treat me, buying a basket for my bike, waking up early to cheer me on at a 5K or going to the gym together is equally thoughtful and sweet. So far that has worked, down 20lbs, 20 more to go.

cargilb

Some of the replies, geez! Next time you wish to talk about a UK topic, you might be better off posting it in Team UK ;-)

There's a thread there already about the "spin off show", the men who made us thin.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1068631-the-men-who-made-us-thin-starts-bbc2-8-august

I was wondering if this strange, reflex, 'I made me fat!' reaction was an American phenomenon. I posted something I thought was equally innocuous quite recently and had people on mfp I normally totally respect pull it to pieces because I hinted that there might be external factors that affect our choices.

I watched the programmes, and I would like to point out the following:

1) It's looking at men who made potentially historically important decisions when it comes to how food is sold to us, thus the title. In the same way a general might make a decision in battle that changes the outcome of the war, in any aspect of life there may be these turning points.to me, these are fascinating.

2) Despite the first person plural title THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU. It is about the population as a whole and what they can be persuaded to buy into. My parents both believed the whole 'low fat' thing, so I grew up on margarine, skimmed milk, etc, while the research against sugar hit them far less. Neither of my parents, in their whole lives, have been anything more than slightly overweight, and they have always rectified that intelligently, but that doesn't mean they were immune to public health campaigns etc.

3) You can believe in personal choice and free will and still acknowledge that we live in an enviroronment that encourages obesity. It is the ease of availability of high calorie density food options, a shift in our perception of portion size and other man made factors that created such an environment. It is why, I often argue, calorie counting stands a better chance of success than intuitive eating in the vast majority of cases. The loaded gun analogy definitely fits for me here.

Glad to see this thread wasn't completely killed before I woke up :laugh:

yep,. I agree. its about being informed not blame. Once you are informed you can make better choices. My parent bought into the low fat thing too, as did millions of Americans. I t is good to be uniformed and not wish one thing and then come to find that your uninformed choices (uninformed to to a plethora of misinformation) are working against you.

I had to slowly learn about this stuff and slowly decipher the through the maze of misinformation out there to achieve my goal. It was not easy. I see many people struggling the same way and giving up because they try and try and can't lose weight because they are misinformed.