Worst Foods in America

she_elf

I just found this article. Horrifying, but good information for eating out.

http://www.menshealth.com/20worst/worstkids.html

I know this is the worst of the worst, but the fact that these even exist is pretty much a testament to America's ever-unhealthy relationship with food. I think the worst part is that people eat these things (and more) without even realizing what they're putting into their bodies.

And that kid's meal??? at 1200 cals? That's over half of MY caloric intake for the day, let alone a CHILD!

I'm utterly horrified that any society would allow this to occur. And not just at one or two restaurants, but everywhere! I mean, honestly, when you go out to a restaurant, you might have 5 healthy choices (if you're lucky) out of probably about 20 or 30 entrees. That's ridiculous.

I think society needs to wake up in a BIG WAY. I'm rooting for caloric postings right in menus, on menu boards in fast food restaurants. That would at least be a start. Make the calories just as big as the price. It's time we stopped letting people ignore it and delude themselves. It needs to be shoved right into all of our faces so we can face the facts of what we are doing to our bodies.

JatieKo621

Agreed.

How many people would choose a 3,000+ calorie dish with over 50grams of fat when it is posted right in front of you??? I know I wouldn't!! Especially if you could see a 400 calories dish that looked just as tasty.

Things like Outback's bloomin onion definitely isn't on my list of foods to eat when I know that it has THAT much fat/sodium/calories. I wouldn't ever consider it "healthy" by any means but when you read the actual numbers it is just shocking and definitely makes me pick other options.

brndygrl98

Wow! I knew some of those were bad and there are a lot of things I wouldn't even eat...but WOW!

Titanosaurus

Thank you for sharing that! This is the kind of thing I need to see when I feel I might be inclined to
screw up and eat something I shouldn't. The last time I messed up was the worst: I was at Costco
and got a baked chicken/bacon roll. I sat in the car and ate it like a squirrel...in shame. I drove right to
the gym and got on the elliptical to burn it off.

Ree_Chatelain

Some of that stuff didn't look good without checking the calories. lol

NoAdditives

The thing is, people DON'T know what's in their food. That's why they keep eating it.

new_me_9_67

WOW!
Thanks for sharing this. an eye opener for sure

Shawnalee0703

EW!!! Thanks! hahaha Glad I don't eat those things!

crysmiss86

wow. that's insane.

bonjour24

OMG! but the thing is, it's really hard to know what you're eating when you're out. and if i go out and think 'sod it, i'll have a blow out', i may have those things (although i'm in new zealand so they're not available here). but if the calorie value was clearly available i would definately look and definately go for a lower cal option.

but WOW! how terrible are these things for you?

Crystal817

I think society needs to wake up in a BIG WAY. I'm rooting for caloric postings right in menus, on menu boards in fast food restaurants. That would at least be a start. Make the calories just as big as the price. It's time we stopped letting people ignore it and delude themselves. It needs to be shoved right into all of our faces so we can face the facts of what we are doing to our bodies.

A lot of places have already done this. There will always be the people who don't care and eat it anyways!

TheGoktor

As I understand it (and I could be completely wrong here, so please feel free to correct me), the US government makes it easier for low-income people to have 'bad' foods than healthy ones. I recently watched a BBC programme (Big Meets Bigger) which sent obese UK teens to different parts of the world to stay with other obese people s a kind of wake up call, I suppose.

One of the places they visited was a low-income area of Argentina (in the programme they called it a slum but that seems to be massively insulting to the residents there) where, it was claimed, the US government subsidises factory farming and cheap, unhealthy food. Apparently there is no agriculture there, only meat farming, so fresh fruit and veg have to be imported, making them prohibitively expensive for most people in this particular area (although the fact that fresh food *was* on sale might be seen as a contradiction to this statement!). I realise the government cannot be solely blamed for people's weight problems (especially when the host family was frying pasta instead of boiling it - eek!), but it does seem rather bonkers that an affluent nation which allegedly has such health issues, has a government which adds to the problem instead of trying to rectify it.

Since I don't live in the US, all I 'know' is what I am told my by US friends, and what the media here in the UK tells me... and I'm guessing it's not always accurate (there is a lot of sensationalism here!). As a side note, when I was in LA a few years ago, I was shocked by the amount of obesity I saw there - I expected LA to be full of slender, fit people! LOL!

Anyway, what *is* the situation over there? Does your government really not do much to help overweight low-income people? Does it really encourage obesity by making unhealthy foods the only ones that people can afford? And what about medical care? I don't really know how your system works but to an outsider, it seems that only people who can afford medical insurance have access to care. What happens to all those who can't afford the insurance? Does anyone help them at all, or are they a 'forgotten population'?

I'm not trying to cause any offence, by the way, I am genuinely interested to know what it's like over there, and whether what we are told here is in any way accurate. Over here there is most definitely a link between obesity, low income and low education, but if the media were to be believed, *only* people who fall into these categories have weight problems....which just isn't true! Hence my interest in how it is across the pond.

TheGoktor

I think society needs to wake up in a BIG WAY. I'm rooting for caloric postings right in menus, on menu boards in fast food restaurants. That would at least be a start. Make the calories just as big as the price. It's time we stopped letting people ignore it and delude themselves. It needs to be shoved right into all of our faces so we can face the facts of what we are doing to our bodies.

A lot of places have already done this. There will always be the people who don't care and eat it anyways!

I agree - how many people do we come across who know that something is 'bad' for them but they still do/eat/smoke/drink it? I am far from brainless (although you'd never know it sometimes!), and I know that eating a takeaway is going to go straight to my hips (at the very least), but did it stop me? Of course not!

Dietary information on the Indian menu may have made me think twice, but if I was hormonal, it probably wouldn't have stopped me. The thing which stops me now is not the knowledge that these things are high in calories, fat, etc., it's my change in attitude. Perhaps having clearly visible dietary information *would* actually bring about attitude change in people, perhaps it would lead to fast food places having healthier options... or perhaps people would just carry on as normal; after all, as a species, we do seem to have a gene for self-destruction! And for most people, it's easier to stick with what you know than make a change.

wonnder1

I don't know if it's a change in my thinking, but none of those foods even mildly appealed to me. It's all brown! Okay, maybe it's golden, but not in a good look at my pretty jewelry kind of way.


The link to obesity and wealth is a factor but not the only factor. People are led to believe that fresh food is expensive, and if you're only eating organic I guess that's true. BUT, a box of KD is just as expensive as a bag of frozen vegetables. I know I believed I couldn't do it when I first started, but I haven't noticed a huge difference. As long as I stick to what's in season and don't go buying a mango in December, my grocery bills are actually cheaper. I'm also a big fan of frozen veg and fruit.

Bjornulf

OK. It's cheaper to prepare your own anyway. So is this a mark FOR the economic 'crisis' here in the US?

Also to TheGoktor, Argentina is NOT in the US and is not controlled by US Government. I'm all for laying the blame on elected officials but let's at least get the geography right. Very few soil types would grow no fruits or vegetables. And if there was NO vegetation what do the animals eat?
Your from the UK you say? I'm glad to see that the US media is not the only world media outlet that is out and out lying to it's populace.

TheGoktor

OK. It's cheaper to prepare your own anyway. So is this a mark FOR the economic 'crisis' here in the US?

Also to TheGoktor, Argentina is NOT in the US and is not controlled by US Government. I'm all for laying the blame on elected officials but let's at least get the geography right. Very few soil types would grow no fruits or vegetables. And if there was NO vegetation what do the animals eat?
Your from the UK you say? I'm glad to see that the US media is not the only world media outlet that is out and out lying to it's populace.

I agree with you about preparing your own; it's something I've always done, and I think it's much nicer than shop-bought stuff. I suspect that a lot of the trouble is that either people often don't know how to prepare food from scratch, or they are very time-poor. My personal view is that if you truly want decent food, you'll learn to cook and you'll make time for it, but not everyone thinks like that!

I'm sorry if I have offended you with what I said about the US government (or maybe I haven't, but just read your response wrongly!) but the programme also featured somewhere in Mississippi, which I believe *is* controlled by the US government! (They also went to Greece and Kuwait, which also isn't!) I apologise for not making that clear. However, I wasn't accusing the US government of bad management, or deliberately sabotaging people's health - I was repeating what I had been watching on the programme I mentioned, plus what I have seen in the UK media, and was asking whether it was true. I fully accept that the UK media lies to its client base, I've never said otherwise, and in point of fact, I actually intimated this when I said;

"and what the media here in the UK tells me... and I'm guessing it's not always accurate "

I'd be surprised if there was any media in the world, which didn't lie! :laugh:

I didn't say there was no vegetation in Argentina!

I said that according to the programme I watched, there was no *agriculture* - (from what I recall of a dim and distant memory, there are cereal crops grown, and legumes which are used as animal fodder. I would imagine that other foods are grown too, though.). As I said before, I wondered whether this is an accurate portrayal, or mere sensationalism: I find it odd that *if* the majority of fresh fruit and vegetables have to be imported, and that very few people in this particular area could afford them, why then they seemed to be in abundance in the stores which were shown? Surely no shopkeeper is going to stock lots of expensive perishable food which hardly anyone is going to buy! It seemed contradictory to me.

Wonnder1 - that's a very good point about frozen vegetables. Certainly here in the UK they are quite cheap too (although we have a market five minutes' walk from my house, so I don't really need to buy frozen other than sweetcorn, broad beans and edamame beans.). We don't eat meat - although occasionally we do eat shellfish - so we probably spend around $40 a week on fruit and veg, which I think is a reasonable amount. I'm sure I'd spend far more on takeaways and junk food if they were my thing!

Pandorian

Just to tie it together government policy doesn't always make sense. Like here in Canada we used to have peaches and the like grown and canned pretty well right where they're canned. Now that they're canned in China or wherever else it is, for the farmer to qualify for the economic help after the plant being permitted to close they had to uproot their orchards, rather than just making the fruit available locally. Now how F-d up is that?
Just have time for a quick search but here's the link related to it that I could find with a quick search as I'm about to hit the road to work on this holiday morning.
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=17864

TheGoktor

Just to tie it together government policy doesn't always make sense. Like here in Canada we used to have peaches and the like grown and canned pretty well right where they're canned. Now that they're canned in China or wherever else it is, for the farmer to qualify for the economic help after the plant being permitted to close they had to uproot their orchards, rather than just making the fruit available locally. Now how F-d up is that?
Just have time for a quick search but here's the link related to it that I could find with a quick search as I'm about to hit the road to work on this holiday morning.
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=17864

Just as mad as in the UK where they export their lamb and then import it from New Zealand for the British market because allegedly it makes more economic sense to do so. Food miles, anyone?

brndygrl98

It is cheaper to eat unhealthy here in the US. "Diet" and healthier foods cost a LOT more than a cheeseburger at McDonald's.

mariahruby

i can't believe sometimes that one meal could be so much. it's crazy. luckily.. nothing on that list appeals to me

abeautifulvoice

Crazy! Thanks for sharing.

skinnyhopes

I just read this, and all I have to say is WOW.

freerange

Well, here in the US of A we are still a mostly free country, and that means people are free to stuff their face with whatever they want, and people are free to sell them what makes them happy. Putting the calories on food labels does not work, if you think people don’t already know a big mac is not a healthy choice, you’re kidding yourself.

she_elf

Well, here in the US of A we are still a mostly free country, and that means people are free to stuff their face with whatever they want, and people are free to sell them what makes them happy. Putting the calories on food labels does not work, if you think people don’t already know a big mac is not a healthy choice, you’re kidding yourself.

I think you're right to a certain degree. There are some people who know that what they're eating is unhealthy, and just don't care. My dad is that way--I'll look at what he's eating and be like, "You know that there's easily like 2000-3000 calories on your plate, right?" and he just shrugs and eats it all.

So certainly, if calorie counts were put on menus, there would be people who would be like, "Oh, 700 calories?? I don't care, bring it on!"

But I think there are a lot of people who are like, "sure, McDonald's isn't really GOOD for you, but it can't really be THAT bad." I know lots of college kids who think like that. And also, I think calorie counts would probably be more helpful for things that are marketed as "healthy" options. McDonald's oatmeal anyone?? It's marketed as this really great, healthy choice, but in reality just.... isn't. Most people are tricked by unhealthy things that are marketed as healthy.

Would every American start making all the right choices if the calories were shoved right in their face? No. Anyone who thinks that is probably delusional. It would be nice, but is so unrealistic. But would it help those people who are maybe simply unaware of HOW unhealthy that Big Mac is?? Yes. Absolutely yes.

Also, to whoever pointed out that restaurants are already putting calorie counts right on the menu--where are you?? Seriously. Here in metro-Detroit, that is nowhere to be seen. McDonald's has nutrition info on their wrappers, and some restaurants will put an asterisk next to their "healthy" meal options. That's all we've got here. I have a friend in NYC who mentioned that restaurants were starting to do it in the city (it helped her kick her frappuccino addiction REAL quick).

Finally, thanks to everyone for your feedback. I knew that this was one of the only places that I knew of where people could actually appreciate this article. You guys are all awesome!

Pandorian

Naw, people will continue to eat poorly, my immediate family is a good example. In order to cook a pound of bacon they have to pour a whole bunch of oil in the pan before the bacon goes in to make sure it doesn't stick... (cast iron pan that I know is seasoned right so won't stick as I did it myself and use the thing almost daily) or even for ground beef, they're "amazed" when I put the frozen pound of ground beef in the pan and use the cast iron pan to cook it and thaw it all at once without any sticking problems to be seen. Sickens me thinking of all the meals I've had that they prepared starting with those couple items. Also a "SErving' of a pie depends on how many people are there, instead of a reasonable 1/8 slice of whatever you quite often get 1/4 to 1/2 the pie on your plate plus a couple heaping scoops of ice-cream.

All the while they tell me that I should watch my weight, passing me the just baked pillsbury pastries..

Blah.

And you know what? None of that stuff even raises an ounce of wanting it as I write about it, guess my tastes really are changing