This gallery explains why millions of Americans are obese…

red_road

Jestinia

There is way more to it than that. All you have to ask yourself is why Americans choose to eat larger portions. In many cases it is a matter of money.

Given a choice between $10 worth of healthy, filling food that only contains a portion of the calories you need to not starve to death versus $10 worth of unhealthy food with 3000 calories that you won't stop eating until it's gone, leaving you in a surplus, which will you choose?

If you're overweight and intent on losing weight despite the discomfort, you might choose to starve. Otherwise, you can't choose to starve so you will gain weight. The food won't be nutritious and may contain harmful ingredients that will shorten your life, but no one is going to choose to die in months due to starvation over maybe dying fat and sick some undetermined decade down the road.

WHAT???? My brain hurts just reading this...

Let me try another way. Do you think Americans decades ago maybe cooked more nutritious food at home and used little portions of unhealthy foods outside the home as treats?

Compared to now, when many people eat these foods as their main meals?

And which is cheaper? A homecooked meal of 1000 calories, or a giant soda?

so your saying people now a days substitute a big gulp for dinner?

Also, "home cooked" does not automatically default to "healthy" . If I take some lard and fry up some chicken and eat that every night, is it healthier because it is "home cooked"?

Yes, I know they do because I have done it. It's energy that keeps you going shortterm that makes you sick and fat longterm. And I am no fan of chicken (it doesn't agree with me) but I just fried up some beef in coconut oil and it was a damn sight healthier than Mac N Cheese and a coke. I lose weight on it, too. Because it fills me up, making me want less calories every day.

Just give up. You're not going to win this argument.

And by that statement you declare me the winner.

Ely82010

Luckily, not the things that eat much or at all. Except for my black coffee with Splenda. Carry on...

WendyTerry420

Let me try another way. Do you think Americans decades ago maybe cooked more nutritious food at home and used little portions of unhealthy foods outside the home as treats?

Compared to now, when many people eat these foods as their main meals?

And which is cheaper? A homecooked meal of 1000 calories, or a giant soda?

The Big Gulp is cheaper, but people aren't substituting a Big Gulp for dinner. People are drinking the Big Gulp with dinner or in the middle of the afternoon.

And, if you've ever looked at a cookbook from the 50s or 60s, you won't see any healthy recipes. They were crammed full of fat and calories. Perhaps people ate less, but the quality of the food was not any better.

Smart people who have time to cook and money to buy better food aren't. In my college days I substituted soda and maybe a candy bar for real food every day.

Edit: I eat food full of fat and calories every day now. But because I kicked carbs out of the equation, I don't eat 3000 calories a day of it. Unfortunately, it is far more expensive than processed crap from the grocery store.

Wut?

Short version: My theory, admittedly based largely on personal experience is this- it isn't the food we're being offered that is the problem. It is the change in income and lifestyle that makes us all run around like headless chickens hitting up the gas station and the drive through and making actual regular meals out of that crap instead of shopping the produce and meat aisle and cooking real food at home.

Still makes no sense. June Cleaver frying chicken in her heels and pearls was no more offering her family a healthy meal than the mom who swings through KFC on the way home from work.

I just had fried chicken for lunch: protein, fats, carbs. Good stuff, Maynard!

Bry_Fitness70

20 years ago McDonald's was making a KILLING selling Supersized french fries and sodas. I find it amazing that you are not aware of this. 20 years ago Dunkin Donuts was selling plenty of flavored coffees and iced coffees in various sizes (I bought them all the time when in high school.) Apparently you aren't aware of that either.
None of what you posted is relevant. These things really haven't changed like you think they have.

McDonalds didn’t add supersized food to its menu until 1994. Dunkin Donuts didn’t sell flavored coffee until 1995 http://www.fastcompany.com/75485/dunkin-donuts-reinventing-americas-cup-coffee.

So you are correct, I was not aware of these items 20 years ago, because they did not exist 20 years ago.

Lives2Travel

Let me try another way. Do you think Americans decades ago maybe cooked more nutritious food at home and used little portions of unhealthy foods outside the home as treats?

Compared to now, when many people eat these foods as their main meals?

And which is cheaper? A homecooked meal of 1000 calories, or a giant soda?

The Big Gulp is cheaper, but people aren't substituting a Big Gulp for dinner. People are drinking the Big Gulp with dinner or in the middle of the afternoon.

And, if you've ever looked at a cookbook from the 50s or 60s, you won't see any healthy recipes. They were crammed full of fat and calories. Perhaps people ate less, but the quality of the food was not any better.

Smart people who have time to cook and money to buy better food aren't. In my college days I substituted soda and maybe a candy bar for real food every day.

Edit: I eat food full of fat and calories every day now. But because I kicked carbs out of the equation, I don't eat 3000 calories a day of it. Unfortunately, it is far more expensive than processed crap from the grocery store.

Wut?

Short version: My theory, admittedly based largely on personal experience is this- it isn't the food we're being offered that is the problem. It is the change in income and lifestyle that makes us all run around like headless chickens hitting up the gas station and the drive through and making actual regular meals out of that crap instead of shopping the produce and meat aisle and cooking real food at home.

Still makes no sense. June Cleaver frying chicken in her heels and pearls was no more offering her family a healthy meal than the mom who swings through KFC on the way home from work.

Yes she was, because at home the kids weren't getting a KFC meal with processed biscuits and soda and maybe a side of their admittedly tasty fries.

AHA! Now I understand your agenda. Food can be unhealthy, fat laden and full of crap as long as it's "naturally" that way and not the fault of some large corporation. Got it.

Holly_Roman_Empire

There is way more to it than that. All you have to ask yourself is why Americans choose to eat larger portions. In many cases it is a matter of money.

Given a choice between $10 worth of healthy, filling food that only contains a portion of the calories you need to not starve to death versus $10 worth of unhealthy food with 3000 calories that you won't stop eating until it's gone, leaving you in a surplus, which will you choose?

If you're overweight and intent on losing weight despite the discomfort, you might choose to starve. Otherwise, you can't choose to starve so you will gain weight. The food won't be nutritious and may contain harmful ingredients that will shorten your life, but no one is going to choose to die in months due to starvation over maybe dying fat and sick some undetermined decade down the road.

WHAT???? My brain hurts just reading this...

Let me try another way. Do you think Americans decades ago maybe cooked more nutritious food at home and used little portions of unhealthy foods outside the home as treats?

Compared to now, when many people eat these foods as their main meals?

And which is cheaper? A homecooked meal of 1000 calories, or a giant soda?

so your saying people now a days substitute a big gulp for dinner?

Also, "home cooked" does not automatically default to "healthy" . If I take some lard and fry up some chicken and eat that every night, is it healthier because it is "home cooked"?

Yes, I know they do because I have done it. It's energy that keeps you going shortterm that makes you sick and fat longterm. And I am no fan of chicken (it doesn't agree with me) but I just fried up some beef in coconut oil and it was a damn sight healthier than Mac N Cheese and a coke. I lose weight on it, too. Because it fills me up, making me want less calories every day.

Just give up. You're not going to win this argument.

And by that statement you declare me the winner.

Jestinia

Let me try another way. Do you think Americans decades ago maybe cooked more nutritious food at home and used little portions of unhealthy foods outside the home as treats?

Compared to now, when many people eat these foods as their main meals?

And which is cheaper? A homecooked meal of 1000 calories, or a giant soda?

The Big Gulp is cheaper, but people aren't substituting a Big Gulp for dinner. People are drinking the Big Gulp with dinner or in the middle of the afternoon.

And, if you've ever looked at a cookbook from the 50s or 60s, you won't see any healthy recipes. They were crammed full of fat and calories. Perhaps people ate less, but the quality of the food was not any better.

Smart people who have time to cook and money to buy better food aren't. In my college days I substituted soda and maybe a candy bar for real food every day.

Edit: I eat food full of fat and calories every day now. But because I kicked carbs out of the equation, I don't eat 3000 calories a day of it. Unfortunately, it is far more expensive than processed crap from the grocery store.

Wut?

Short version: My theory, admittedly based largely on personal experience is this- it isn't the food we're being offered that is the problem. It is the change in income and lifestyle that makes us all run around like headless chickens hitting up the gas station and the drive through and making actual regular meals out of that crap instead of shopping the produce and meat aisle and cooking real food at home.

Still makes no sense. June Cleaver frying chicken in her heels and pearls was no more offering her family a healthy meal than the mom who swings through KFC on the way home from work.

Yes she was, because at home the kids weren't getting a KFC meal with processed biscuits and soda and maybe a side of their admittedly tasty fries.

AHA! Now I understand your agenda. Food can be unhealthy, fat laden and full of crap as long as it's "naturally" that way and not the fault of some large corporation. Got it.

Fried chicken (without a cheap breading of cornflakes or similar): Contains chicken. With a coating of whatever it was fried in, which is hopefully real butter, lard, or coconut oil and not some processed vegetable oil.

Would you care for me to list the ingredients in a soda, a fast food biscuit, and some fast food fries? Not to mention whatever crap they put on the chicken before they fry it and the crap nasty oil it is fried in.

WendyTerry420

20 years ago McDonald's was making a KILLING selling Supersized french fries and sodas. I find it amazing that you are not aware of this. 20 years ago Dunkin Donuts was selling plenty of flavored coffees and iced coffees in various sizes (I bought them all the time when in high school.) Apparently you aren't aware of that either.
None of what you posted is relevant. These things really haven't changed like you think they have.

McDonalds didn’t add supersized food to its menu until 1994. Dunkin Donuts didn’t sell flavored coffee until 1995 http://www.fastcompany.com/75485/dunkin-donuts-reinventing-americas-cup-coffee.

So you are correct, I was not aware of these items 20 years ago, because they did not exist 20 years ago.

IDK about Dunkin Donuts, but there sure as hell was flavored coffee at CMSU in Warrensburg, MO, in 1992. Maybe the chains caught on later.

ETA: 1994 is "twenty years ago" for all practical purposes.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Didn't fancy coffee start with grunge in the early 90s in Seattle? It's all Nirvana's fault.

WendyTerry420

Didn't fancy coffee start with grunge in the early 90s in Seattle? It's all Nirvana's fault.

"Smells like Mocha" was on their first album, right? :laugh:

jonnythan

20 years ago McDonald's was making a KILLING selling Supersized french fries and sodas. I find it amazing that you are not aware of this. 20 years ago Dunkin Donuts was selling plenty of flavored coffees and iced coffees in various sizes (I bought them all the time when in high school.) Apparently you aren't aware of that either.
None of what you posted is relevant. These things really haven't changed like you think they have.

McDonalds didn’t add supersized food to its menu until 1994. Dunkin Donuts didn’t sell flavored coffee until 1995 http://www.fastcompany.com/75485/dunkin-donuts-reinventing-americas-cup-coffee.

So you are correct, I was not aware of these items 20 years ago, because they did not exist 20 years ago.

So the answer is "millions of Americans are obese because they choose to eat more."

It's not like McDonald's is making anyone choose a 900-calorie Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese over a 300-calorie hamburger. The person ordering makes that choice.

And you know why they choose to eat like that? Because it's so easy and cheap. 60 years ago, 8 ounces of beef cooked to order was kind of a lot of money to blow on lunch. Today it's cheap enough that the cost is basically insignificant.

When you can get an enormous and delicious meal handed to you in 30 seconds flat for an insignificant amount of money, people can and will do it.

So it's not that fast food and coffee shops are evil because they're shoving a million calories down our throats. It's that they manage to make it so cheap and convenient that it enables people to gorge themselves.

What's the answer? Dunno. The only thing that'll really have an effect, I think, is to make calories less convenient and/or more expensive. The convenience won't change - but it's entirely possible the nature of the economy will change in the long term to make it less economically feasible to eat that way.

jonnythan

Fried chicken (without a cheap breading of cornflakes or similar): Contains chicken. With a coating of whatever it was fried in, which is hopefully real butter, lard, or coconut oil and not some processed vegetable oil.

Would you care for me to list the ingredients in a soda, a fast food biscuit, and some fast food fries? Not to mention whatever crap they put on the chicken before they fry it and the crap nasty oil it is fried in.

List all the ingredients you want. Food doesn't become unhealthy, bad, or fattening because of a couple of preservatives or flavor enhancers.

Just because it has a scary-sounding name doesn't mean it's bad for you. Get past it.

Lives2Travel

Let me try another way. Do you think Americans decades ago maybe cooked more nutritious food at home and used little portions of unhealthy foods outside the home as treats?

Compared to now, when many people eat these foods as their main meals?

And which is cheaper? A homecooked meal of 1000 calories, or a giant soda?

The Big Gulp is cheaper, but people aren't substituting a Big Gulp for dinner. People are drinking the Big Gulp with dinner or in the middle of the afternoon.

And, if you've ever looked at a cookbook from the 50s or 60s, you won't see any healthy recipes. They were crammed full of fat and calories. Perhaps people ate less, but the quality of the food was not any better.

Smart people who have time to cook and money to buy better food aren't. In my college days I substituted soda and maybe a candy bar for real food every day.

Edit: I eat food full of fat and calories every day now. But because I kicked carbs out of the equation, I don't eat 3000 calories a day of it. Unfortunately, it is far more expensive than processed crap from the grocery store.

Wut?

Short version: My theory, admittedly based largely on personal experience is this- it isn't the food we're being offered that is the problem. It is the change in income and lifestyle that makes us all run around like headless chickens hitting up the gas station and the drive through and making actual regular meals out of that crap instead of shopping the produce and meat aisle and cooking real food at home.

Still makes no sense. June Cleaver frying chicken in her heels and pearls was no more offering her family a healthy meal than the mom who swings through KFC on the way home from work.

Yes she was, because at home the kids weren't getting a KFC meal with processed biscuits and soda and maybe a side of their admittedly tasty fries.

AHA! Now I understand your agenda. Food can be unhealthy, fat laden and full of crap as long as it's "naturally" that way and not the fault of some large corporation. Got it.

Fried chicken (without a cheap breading of cornflakes or similar): Contains chicken. With a coating of whatever it was fried in, which is hopefully real butter, lard, or coconut oil and not some processed vegetable oil.

Would you care for me to list the ingredients in a soda, a fast food biscuit, and some fast food fries? Not to mention whatever crap they put on the chicken before they fry it and the crap nasty oil it is fried in.

No, I don't care to list you the ingredients because, well, I don't care. People are FAT because they consume too many calories. And IMO, the blame lies solely with them.

You can whine all you want about the quality of the food and the (gasp) processing, but the bottom line is you can get fat eating too much homemade Fried Chicken just like you can if you frequent KFC. Same result whether your food is "clean" or "processed".

jwdieter

Over 20 years ago, I ate finely-tuned meals such as 10 x cheeseburgers (49c!) or 2 x large pizzas (pizza! pizza!) for lunch. But I was exceptionally fit. Probably because calories were smaller in the 1990s.

BrainyBurro

Let me try another way. Do you think Americans decades ago maybe cooked more nutritious food at home and used little portions of unhealthy foods outside the home as treats?

Compared to now, when many people eat these foods as their main meals?

And which is cheaper? A homecooked meal of 1000 calories, or a giant soda?

The Big Gulp is cheaper, but people aren't substituting a Big Gulp for dinner. People are drinking the Big Gulp with dinner or in the middle of the afternoon.

And, if you've ever looked at a cookbook from the 50s or 60s, you won't see any healthy recipes. They were crammed full of fat and calories. Perhaps people ate less, but the quality of the food was not any better.

Smart people who have time to cook and money to buy better food aren't. In my college days I substituted soda and maybe a candy bar for real food every day.

Edit: I eat food full of fat and calories every day now. But because I kicked carbs out of the equation, I don't eat 3000 calories a day of it. Unfortunately, it is far more expensive than processed crap from the grocery store.

Wut?

Short version: My theory, admittedly based largely on personal experience is this- it isn't the food we're being offered that is the problem. It is the change in income and lifestyle that makes us all run around like headless chickens hitting up the gas station and the drive through and making actual regular meals out of that crap instead of shopping the produce and meat aisle and cooking real food at home.

Still makes no sense. June Cleaver frying chicken in her heels and pearls was no more offering her family a healthy meal than the mom who swings through KFC on the way home from work.

Yes she was, because at home the kids weren't getting a KFC meal with processed biscuits and soda and maybe a side of their admittedly tasty fries.

AHA! Now I understand your agenda. Food can be unhealthy, fat laden and full of crap as long as it's "naturally" that way and not the fault of some large corporation. Got it.

Fried chicken (without a cheap breading of cornflakes or similar): Contains chicken. With a coating of whatever it was fried in, which is hopefully real butter, lard, or coconut oil and not some processed vegetable oil.

Would you care for me to list the ingredients in a soda, a fast food biscuit, and some fast food fries? Not to mention whatever crap they put on the chicken before they fry it and the crap nasty oil it is fried in.

and now the clean eating talking points and food shaming begins...

stealthq

Let me try another way. Do you think Americans decades ago maybe cooked more nutritious food at home and used little portions of unhealthy foods outside the home as treats?

Compared to now, when many people eat these foods as their main meals?

And which is cheaper? A homecooked meal of 1000 calories, or a giant soda?

The Big Gulp is cheaper, but people aren't substituting a Big Gulp for dinner. People are drinking the Big Gulp with dinner or in the middle of the afternoon.

And, if you've ever looked at a cookbook from the 50s or 60s, you won't see any healthy recipes. They were crammed full of fat and calories. Perhaps people ate less, but the quality of the food was not any better.

Smart people who have time to cook and money to buy better food aren't. In my college days I substituted soda and maybe a candy bar for real food every day.

Edit: I eat food full of fat and calories every day now. But because I kicked carbs out of the equation, I don't eat 3000 calories a day of it. Unfortunately, it is far more expensive than processed crap from the grocery store.

Wut?

Short version: My theory, admittedly based largely on personal experience is this- it isn't the food we're being offered that is the problem. It is the change in income and lifestyle that makes us all run around like headless chickens hitting up the gas station and the drive through and making actual regular meals out of that crap instead of shopping the produce and meat aisle and cooking real food at home.

Still makes no sense. June Cleaver frying chicken in her heels and pearls was no more offering her family a healthy meal than the mom who swings through KFC on the way home from work.

Yes she was, because at home the kids weren't getting a KFC meal with processed biscuits and soda and maybe a side of their admittedly tasty fries.

They weren't? Because mom would not have dared serve us a meal of fried chicken without mashed potatoes and biscuits. I mean, it just wasn't done. We did not have fries with that, however. Fries came with burgers. Not chicken.

Oh, and are you quite sure you understand the meaning of the word processed? 'Cause there isn't anything on that menu whether home cooked or offered at a fast food joint that isn't processed.

ETA: Ah, yes, I see you don't. Newsflash. Butter is processed. Lard is processed. All oils unless they're collected naturally dripping out of the seed or whatever are processed ...

Jestinia

No, I don't care to list you the ingredients because, well, I don't care. People are FAT because they consume too many calories. And IMO, the blame lies solely with them.

You can whine all you want about the quality of the food and the (gasp) processing, but the bottom line is you can get fat eating too much homemade Fried Chicken just like you can if you frequent KFC. Same result whether your food is "clean" or "processed".

Why do people consume too many calories?

Yes, but we overeat because the processed crap food we eat screws up our body chemistry and our brain no longer has the ability to tell us we're full before we've gone over the amount of calories we need every day.

Now that isn't true of everyone. Some people manage to adapt much better to a crap diet. Then there are the rest of us.

Sabine_Stroehm

I think the OP is trying to point out that portion sizes for food has increased over the years. Meaning more calories consumed. Nothing about clean eating, or not eating those things.

^THIS^

ndj1979

Let me try another way. Do you think Americans decades ago maybe cooked more nutritious food at home and used little portions of unhealthy foods outside the home as treats?

Compared to now, when many people eat these foods as their main meals?

And which is cheaper? A homecooked meal of 1000 calories, or a giant soda?

The Big Gulp is cheaper, but people aren't substituting a Big Gulp for dinner. People are drinking the Big Gulp with dinner or in the middle of the afternoon.

And, if you've ever looked at a cookbook from the 50s or 60s, you won't see any healthy recipes. They were crammed full of fat and calories. Perhaps people ate less, but the quality of the food was not any better.

Smart people who have time to cook and money to buy better food aren't. In my college days I substituted soda and maybe a candy bar for real food every day.

Edit: I eat food full of fat and calories every day now. But because I kicked carbs out of the equation, I don't eat 3000 calories a day of it. Unfortunately, it is far more expensive than processed crap from the grocery store.

Wut?

Short version: My theory, admittedly based largely on personal experience is this- it isn't the food we're being offered that is the problem. It is the change in income and lifestyle that makes us all run around like headless chickens hitting up the gas station and the drive through and making actual regular meals out of that crap instead of shopping the produce and meat aisle and cooking real food at home.

Still makes no sense. June Cleaver frying chicken in her heels and pearls was no more offering her family a healthy meal than the mom who swings through KFC on the way home from work.

Yes she was, because at home the kids weren't getting a KFC meal with processed biscuits and soda and maybe a side of their admittedly tasty fries.

AHA! Now I understand your agenda. Food can be unhealthy, fat laden and full of crap as long as it's "naturally" that way and not the fault of some large corporation. Got it.

Fried chicken (without a cheap breading of cornflakes or similar): Contains chicken. With a coating of whatever it was fried in, which is hopefully real butter, lard, or coconut oil and not some processed vegetable oil.

Would you care for me to list the ingredients in a soda, a fast food biscuit, and some fast food fries? Not to mention whatever crap they put on the chicken before they fry it and the crap nasty oil it is fried in.

the idiocy of your posts makes my brain hurt....

Fried chicken from KFF grease, or fried chicken from Grandma's grease is going to have the same impact on your overall health ..doesn't matter if some pimply 16 year old kid is deep frying it, or an 80 year old grandmother...