Extreme obesity and paper plates. Question for people in the USA

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  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    Fatgonegirl wrote: »
    There are some extremely interesting posts on the thread.

    I don't know if I dare say - Another surprise watching My 600lb life is that judging from the nature and condition of their homes, many of the participants live in poverty. I suppose this is because they can not work due to their size and are in receipt of benefits. Nevertheless, they often (although not always) own very nice cars.

    I will say I have noticed that. And I've often wondered if (and I think that there IS, although someone may know for sure, or can look it up and correct me) there is a correlation between poverty/income level and obesity rates/overall health. Which would make sense, as when you make more money, you have access to better/more frequent healthcare (here in the States, where unless you are low income you have to pay for your healthcare) as well shopping habits are quite different, often (trying not to make generalizations, because I've been a single parent making $10 an hour and didnt buy crap food, so it can be done, but I dont know that it is the NORM)

    I cant say Ive ever noticed their vehicles ... other than the fact they have to ... lay in them.

  • sarah7591
    sarah7591 Posts: 415 Member
    edited September 2021
    Interesting thread indeed. Perhaps it is a rental car they are using (show provides). I would bet on that. Eating healthy is expensive. It's sad but so true. There are food deserts in the poorer areas of the city(no major grocery store in the inner city). Every notice that? At my age I can afford to eat healthy but when I was raising three kids I have to admit I bought way more processed foods than I should have to save money.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    Fatgonegirl wrote: »
    There are some extremely interesting posts on the thread.

    I asked the question because I was genuinely interested to know the prevalence of disposable crockery and cutlery. From this unscientific, unrepresentative and not statistically significant snapshot, it does seem that the use of paper plates is more common in the USA than in the UK. Coming from a very damp small island, it did not occur to me that obtaining water for washing up could be a problem. So I have learnt something.

    Full disclosure, I have some paper plates in my kitchen cupboard leftover from the BBQ season. They are likely to site there until next summer.

    I don't know if I dare say - Another surprise watching My 600lb life is that judging from the nature and condition of their homes, many of the participants live in poverty. I suppose this is because they can not work due to their size and are in receipt of benefits. Nevertheless, they often (although not always) own very nice cars.

    I'm guessing a car is provided by the show if there is no suitable vehicle owned.
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,393 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Fatgonegirl wrote: »
    There are some extremely interesting posts on the thread.

    I asked the question because I was genuinely interested to know the prevalence of disposable crockery and cutlery. From this unscientific, unrepresentative and not statistically significant snapshot, it does seem that the use of paper plates is more common in the USA than in the UK. Coming from a very damp small island, it did not occur to me that obtaining water for washing up could be a problem. So I have learnt something.

    Full disclosure, I have some paper plates in my kitchen cupboard leftover from the BBQ season. They are likely to site there until next summer.

    I don't know if I dare say - Another surprise watching My 600lb life is that judging from the nature and condition of their homes, many of the participants live in poverty. I suppose this is because they can not work due to their size and are in receipt of benefits. Nevertheless, they often (although not always) own very nice cars.

    I'm guessing a car is provided by the show if there is no suitable vehicle owned.

    I'd make the same guess, particularly since I've noticed a different car in some of the later segments, when they didn't really look like people who had the means to buy a new vehicle.

    Several have made reference to living on some sort of disability benefit though.
  • BecomingMoreAwesome
    BecomingMoreAwesome Posts: 153 Member
    paperpudding wrote: »
    I hadn't thought about it, but I can certainly see the argument for disposable plates and utensils if you have mobility, stability, gripping strength, or other issues that make breakable dishes and loading and unloading a dishwasher (or washing by hand) problematic. I have some inexpensive plastic plates I bought for serving heavier or damp/greasy things like burgers at cookouts so I didn't have to worry about paper plates collapsing, but that would only help with the breakage issue.


    I get the logic in not using breakable plates if you might drop and break them - but my solution in that situation ( and with young children) would be to use melamine plates.

    although admittedly you still have to wash them after wards.

    This, or Corelle, which also runs the gamut from inexpensive and available at the hardware store to fancy and available at nicer department stores. I intensely dislike seeing my sink full of dirty dishes, so we have a load-as-you-go system here. We run the dishwasher every night right after dinner, and each person is responsible for loading their own dishes throughout the day.

    During the shutdown while all 4 of us were home all day, we typically needed to run the dishwasher one extra time every 2 or 3 days.

  • Redordeadhead
    Redordeadhead Posts: 1,187 Member
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    Fatgonegirl wrote: »
    There are some extremely interesting posts on the thread.

    I asked the question because I was genuinely interested to know the prevalence of disposable crockery and cutlery. From this unscientific, unrepresentative and not statistically significant snapshot, it does seem that the use of paper plates is more common in the USA than in the UK. Coming from a very damp small island, it did not occur to me that obtaining water for washing up could be a problem. So I have learnt something.

    Full disclosure, I have some paper plates in my kitchen cupboard leftover from the BBQ season. They are likely to site there until next summer.

    I don't know if I dare say - Another surprise watching My 600lb life is that judging from the nature and condition of their homes, many of the participants live in poverty. I suppose this is because they can not work due to their size and are in receipt of benefits. Nevertheless, they often (although not always) own very nice cars.

    I'm guessing due to lack of a paper industry and the cost of importing paper products would make paper plates unpopular in the UK just due to the cost.

    Actually they're cheap and quite easy to find, in most supermarkets for example.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,195 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Fatgonegirl wrote: »
    There are some extremely interesting posts on the thread.

    I asked the question because I was genuinely interested to know the prevalence of disposable crockery and cutlery. From this unscientific, unrepresentative and not statistically significant snapshot, it does seem that the use of paper plates is more common in the USA than in the UK. Coming from a very damp small island, it did not occur to me that obtaining water for washing up could be a problem. So I have learnt something.

    Full disclosure, I have some paper plates in my kitchen cupboard leftover from the BBQ season. They are likely to site there until next summer.

    I don't know if I dare say - Another surprise watching My 600lb life is that judging from the nature and condition of their homes, many of the participants live in poverty. I suppose this is because they can not work due to their size and are in receipt of benefits. Nevertheless, they often (although not always) own very nice cars.

    I'm guessing a car is provided by the show if there is no suitable vehicle owned.

    I have never watched this show, but I am having a hard time imagining someone who weighs 600 lbs fitting inside a car, much less behind the wheel and able to drive it. Or is 600 lb life not meant literally? Are there a lot of contestants* below 400 lbs (which is about the point where my imagination can't picture someone being able to drive).

    *Again, I haven't seen the show, so apologies if the participants aren't actually contesting for anything. Is it more like that nanny show whose exact title I can't remember, or Queer Eye, or those home makeover shows, where people are just swooping in to try fix some aspect of someone's life, in this case their weight, rather than people competing to see how much weight they can lose?
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,195 Member
    Redordeadhead wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    Fatgonegirl wrote: »
    There are some extremely interesting posts on the thread.

    I asked the question because I was genuinely interested to know the prevalence of disposable crockery and cutlery. From this unscientific, unrepresentative and not statistically significant snapshot, it does seem that the use of paper plates is more common in the USA than in the UK. Coming from a very damp small island, it did not occur to me that obtaining water for washing up could be a problem. So I have learnt something.

    Full disclosure, I have some paper plates in my kitchen cupboard leftover from the BBQ season. They are likely to site there until next summer.

    I don't know if I dare say - Another surprise watching My 600lb life is that judging from the nature and condition of their homes, many of the participants live in poverty. I suppose this is because they can not work due to their size and are in receipt of benefits. Nevertheless, they often (although not always) own very nice cars.

    I'm guessing due to lack of a paper industry and the cost of importing paper products would make paper plates unpopular in the UK just due to the cost.

    Actually they're cheap and quite easy to find, in most supermarkets for example.

    Yeah, I bet you have paper books and magazines and newspapers and all sorts, as well (young 'uns: everybody used to read things printed on paper !! and some old folks still do now and then. I know it sounds hard to believe, but you can look it up). :smile:
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,195 Member
    paperpudding wrote: »
    COGypsy wrote: »
    SuzySunshine99 wrote: »
    COGypsy wrote: »
    My thought is that the paper plates are already made. I can't unmake them and put the trees and water and whatever else back into nature, so why not use what's already there? I didn't know though that you can't recycle things that touch food, which basically makes my recycling bin obsolete. And in the greater scheme of things, since pretty much all food comes in a plastic tray or a plastic bag anyway, what does a paper plate matter on top of that?

    But…if people used less, then they would make less, no?

    I suppose I'm just unconvinced that the impact of 2-3 paper plates a week is going to upend the disposable food service product industry.

    I could see making a difference with plastics--I honestly can't think of more than a handful of foods that don't come in plastic in some way, shape, or form. But at my level of consumption, I just don't see paper products as the ecological hill to die on.


    well, nobody's individual consumption is going to make a difference on world level - that could be said about plastic bags, straws, water bottles etc - other things that people have cut down on their usage of (sometimes voluntarily, sometimes mandated)

    But the cumulative effect adds up - and we can all only do our own bit.

    and of course if people buy less of these things, less get produced after that.

    I'm not suggesting anyone die on the hill of paper plates (tad melodramatic?) - but that we all consider our ecological foot print and try to cut down on unneccesary disposable product usage.

    There will be times when we accept making a poorer ecological choice and there can be good reasons for that ( I don't go to a BBQ in a park and take my own washable plates to take home and wash afterwards, I use paper plates and then bin them there ) but do the best we can and make reasonable choices whenever practical and possible.

    I'm not understanding this comment that you cannot recycle things that have touched food??? - we do that all the time here and our council pamphlets encourage such - put food tins, pizza boxes, plastic fruit punnets etc etc into your recycling bin (basic rinse/scrape off excess food first, that's all)

    I realise different places have different levels of recycling - but never heard of not being able to recycle things that have touched food before :*





    Yeah. We're not supposed to put anything in the recycling that still has food on it, but there's no restriction on things that have ever touched food.

    Although I learned after I started composting that in our jurisdiction we're not supposed to compost "anything that has been inside" (i.e., no wilted greens or trimmed veggie ends, etc.) -- just lawn clippings.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Fatgonegirl wrote: »
    There are some extremely interesting posts on the thread.

    I asked the question because I was genuinely interested to know the prevalence of disposable crockery and cutlery. From this unscientific, unrepresentative and not statistically significant snapshot, it does seem that the use of paper plates is more common in the USA than in the UK. Coming from a very damp small island, it did not occur to me that obtaining water for washing up could be a problem. So I have learnt something.

    Full disclosure, I have some paper plates in my kitchen cupboard leftover from the BBQ season. They are likely to site there until next summer.

    I don't know if I dare say - Another surprise watching My 600lb life is that judging from the nature and condition of their homes, many of the participants live in poverty. I suppose this is because they can not work due to their size and are in receipt of benefits. Nevertheless, they often (although not always) own very nice cars.

    I'm guessing a car is provided by the show if there is no suitable vehicle owned.

    I have never watched this show, but I am having a hard time imagining someone who weighs 600 lbs fitting inside a car, much less behind the wheel and able to drive it. Or is 600 lb life not meant literally? Are there a lot of contestants* below 400 lbs (which is about the point where my imagination can't picture someone being able to drive).

    *Again, I haven't seen the show, so apologies if the participants aren't actually contesting for anything. Is it more like that nanny show whose exact title I can't remember, or Queer Eye, or those home makeover shows, where people are just swooping in to try fix some aspect of someone's life, in this case their weight, rather than people competing to see how much weight they can lose?

    At my heaviest I was 387, and was still fully mobile and self sufficient and cared for my ex and grandparents and drove ;) good thing, no one else could lol

    its not a competition of any kind- not like biggest loser. more like their personal story. how they gained the weight, then their surgery, the post surgery and how they do after. I haven't seen a lot of episodes, mostly earlier ones. the people range in weight from probably 500ish to 700ish? Many of them, particularly the larger ones, do not fit in the seats of the cars (or minivans)- they lay in the back of the vans, which is quite sad, and something I had never even considered before watching the show.
  • JBanx256
    JBanx256 Posts: 1,479 Member
    I buy plastic spoons for my kid to take to school in their lunch for yogurt, only because I am none too keen on my actual silverware being lost or accidentally thrown in the bin! Paper plates/bowls/etc are good for bigger gatherings or cookouts/BBQ's but I literally can't remember the last time I bought any.

    random on dishwashing - the previous owners of our house were this super sweet little old couple who had lived there ~50 years. They never had a dishwasher and did all their dishes by hand. The kitchen countertops were formica (I am sure I'm spelling that wrong?) and there was a place on the counter beside the sink below the cupboard where they put plates that was actually worn down from where they would stack the plates and bowls in between washing and drying after every meal.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,195 Member
    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Fatgonegirl wrote: »
    There are some extremely interesting posts on the thread.

    I asked the question because I was genuinely interested to know the prevalence of disposable crockery and cutlery. From this unscientific, unrepresentative and not statistically significant snapshot, it does seem that the use of paper plates is more common in the USA than in the UK. Coming from a very damp small island, it did not occur to me that obtaining water for washing up could be a problem. So I have learnt something.

    Full disclosure, I have some paper plates in my kitchen cupboard leftover from the BBQ season. They are likely to site there until next summer.

    I don't know if I dare say - Another surprise watching My 600lb life is that judging from the nature and condition of their homes, many of the participants live in poverty. I suppose this is because they can not work due to their size and are in receipt of benefits. Nevertheless, they often (although not always) own very nice cars.

    I'm guessing a car is provided by the show if there is no suitable vehicle owned.

    I have never watched this show, but I am having a hard time imagining someone who weighs 600 lbs fitting inside a car, much less behind the wheel and able to drive it. Or is 600 lb life not meant literally? Are there a lot of contestants* below 400 lbs (which is about the point where my imagination can't picture someone being able to drive).

    *Again, I haven't seen the show, so apologies if the participants aren't actually contesting for anything. Is it more like that nanny show whose exact title I can't remember, or Queer Eye, or those home makeover shows, where people are just swooping in to try fix some aspect of someone's life, in this case their weight, rather than people competing to see how much weight they can lose?

    At my heaviest I was 387, and was still fully mobile and self sufficient and cared for my ex and grandparents and drove ;) good thing, no one else could lol

    its not a competition of any kind- not like biggest loser. more like their personal story. how they gained the weight, then their surgery, the post surgery and how they do after. I haven't seen a lot of episodes, mostly earlier ones. the people range in weight from probably 500ish to 700ish? Many of them, particularly the larger ones, do not fit in the seats of the cars (or minivans)- they lay in the back of the vans, which is quite sad, and something I had never even considered before watching the show.

    Thanks.
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,865 Member
    I’m not going to chime in on the environmental side or the moral high ground side (great reading though!), but the cost thing is interesting. In the UK water meters are fairly new (as in, last 10-20 yrs in most places) so we used to pay a flat rate for our water. As a kid we would never have had paper or plastic plates or utensils as that would have been expensive - parents would have baulked at paying for stuff like that when we had perfectly good plates at home.

    So as someone who has very very rarely used paper plates - don’t they get soggy / struggle to hold a volume of food?? Can they cope with baked beans or a decent sized jacket spud for instance?
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,393 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Fatgonegirl wrote: »
    There are some extremely interesting posts on the thread.

    I asked the question because I was genuinely interested to know the prevalence of disposable crockery and cutlery. From this unscientific, unrepresentative and not statistically significant snapshot, it does seem that the use of paper plates is more common in the USA than in the UK. Coming from a very damp small island, it did not occur to me that obtaining water for washing up could be a problem. So I have learnt something.

    Full disclosure, I have some paper plates in my kitchen cupboard leftover from the BBQ season. They are likely to site there until next summer.

    I don't know if I dare say - Another surprise watching My 600lb life is that judging from the nature and condition of their homes, many of the participants live in poverty. I suppose this is because they can not work due to their size and are in receipt of benefits. Nevertheless, they often (although not always) own very nice cars.

    I'm guessing a car is provided by the show if there is no suitable vehicle owned.

    I have never watched this show, but I am having a hard time imagining someone who weighs 600 lbs fitting inside a car, much less behind the wheel and able to drive it. Or is 600 lb life not meant literally? Are there a lot of contestants* below 400 lbs (which is about the point where my imagination can't picture someone being able to drive).

    600 lbs is indeed literal, some have been heavier. I don't think any participants have started the show below 500 lbs.

    Not all can drive but many do fit into vehicles, usually minivans or pickups, but I've seen a few sedans too. Depends a lot on the distribution of the excess weight.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,891 Member
    claireychn074 wrote: »
    I’m not going to chime in on the environmental side or the moral high ground side (great reading though!), but the cost thing is interesting. In the UK water meters are fairly new (as in, last 10-20 yrs in most places) so we used to pay a flat rate for our water. As a kid we would never have had paper or plastic plates or utensils as that would have been expensive - parents would have baulked at paying for stuff like that when we had perfectly good plates at home.

    So as someone who has very very rarely used paper plates - don’t they get soggy / struggle to hold a volume of food?? Can they cope with baked beans or a decent sized jacket spud for instance?

    There are degrees of thickness so, yeah, some can hold heavier items and not have food p,opping onto the ground or something. A commercial comes to mind, I think it was for Hefty, that shows just that.

    And since this is also a hill I'm apparently willing to die on, whoever asked if that was being a bit dramatic, it's not to be taken literally. Just something the young'uns say now to say it's a cause they'll fight for.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    So as someone who has very very rarely used paper plates - don’t they get soggy / struggle to hold a volume of food?? Can they cope with baked beans or a decent sized jacket spud for instance?

    I grew up in boats and outdoors so we used disposable stuff a lot when I was young. These help:

    914TohNxUeL._AC_UL116_SR116,116_.jpg

    https://www.amazon.com/Fox-Run-5493-Bamboo-Holders/dp/B001AT3KPW/ref=asc_df_B001AT3KPW/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198090964233&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12487617596011253973&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033270&hvtargid=pla-318953024809&psc=1

    i remember those!

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