Why are people so overweight, unhealthy and ill?

Because unhealthy foods are highly subsidized by the government. A family of four who is struggling gets far more calories from cheap processed foods from McDonalds or even the aisles of Walmart compared to the organic produce section of any food store for the same limited $ they have to spend weekly.

Uh, no. I bought a whole chicken and a bag of organic carrots for less than $6. That could feed a family of 4 for dinner, maybe some left overs, and then you can make soup with the rest. It's false to say eating junk is cheaper. That same $6 isn't even one meal at McD's. I really wish people would get off this band wagon that healthful food costs more. It's a myth. Learn to cook. It's cheap. It's like this dark secret that only a few people know about. Everyone else thinks food is expensive. A few of us stand around scratching our heads not understanding what you are talking about.

very true

Workhardeathealthybehappy, I suggest two things: writing lessons and tact. It was difficult reading that huge block of text. How did you ever graduate from high school?

Perhaps your intentions are good, but you are preaching to the choir. Your facts are not revelatory or earthshaking. Many of us know this, and much more. Frankly, your tone was condescending and judgmental. Instead of adopting that preachy tone, why don't you share what worked for you?

I gained most of my weight from being injured, depressed, menopausal, and bored. It wasn't just one injury; I've had mysterious aches, pains, and broken bones over a period of about 10-12 years. I found that most of my symptoms were caused by an overactive parathyroid gland, which is a gland in your body that controls serum calcium levels in the body. There are usually four of them. It is overactive because of a benign tumor that causes that one particular gland to put out hormones that call for more calcium in the bloodstream. I cannot possibly eat enough calcium to meet its demands, so it leeches it from my bones. Other symptoms are muscular and joint pain, heartburn and digestive upsets, kidney stones, brain fog, chronic fatigue, fractures, headaches, and many other vague symptoms that can be attributed to other causes. The diagnosis will ultimately be confirmed when lab tests show high levels of serum calcium, low Vitamin D, and high parathyroid hormone levels. I changed to a new endocrinologist recently, and I will be having the offending gland removed, and hopefully, that will fix a lot of my problems. I thank my lucky stars that the overall bone loss is not severe. Thank goodness for big bones!

Since my last injuries, and the subsequent physical therapy, I recovered enough from my injuries to start an exercise and nutrition program. I even got included in a study for fitness and nutritional counseling and have access to a nutritionist and an exercise physiologist. I count my blessings.

My primary exercise is walking, and I do lots of it. I hit the gym at least twice a week, doing cardio and weights, working all muscle groups. I eat primarily organic veggies, grains, fruits, and dairy. I limit my meats to organic meats. I can cook and push flavor using a minimum of extra fats and sodium. I indulge in chocolate if I have calories left over at the end of my day, and I can make some killer fruit desserts. I find that "diets" that eliminate entire food groups to be potential traps. Believe me, I've tried them all over the last several years.

There is a lot of toxic food out there. Most of it can be avoided by avoiding the middle aisle of the grocery store. Most of it can be avoided by seeking out organic or non-factory farmed options. Most of it can be avoided by learning how to cook. Cooking is not about knowing a lot of recipes. It is about learning basic techniques and combinations. it is worth knowing them. I can look in the pantry on any given day and prepare a meal with the ingredients available as long as I have my staples.

Workhardheathelathybehappy, I'm not exactly sure why you are here, but I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

Use of paragraphs would greatly improve readability of this post. People don't like to wade through solid blocks of text.

yea I lost interest after the first few sentences...

I think that the food industry has caused this problem (not maliciously, more innocently) where we want our food to sell better than the next guy's so all of this research goes into getting people addicted to bad food, as young as possible. It's fairly innocent, if I was the owner of "joe's crappy foods" I would do what I could to sell more than "franks fattening fare"

Now, we have these whole industries revolving around fixing the mess we have made ourselves.

When people homesteaded, they had a limited amount of resources... only so much farm land; do I grow food, or raise meat... I have extra meat, you have extra lettuce, lets trade! Now we are consuming what would be a pilgrim family's weeks worth of cream (that they would have to divvy between baking, churning for butter etc) in one sugar laden Frappuccino that we don't even step out of our gas guzzling SUV to purchase

We just aren't reasonable anymore.

Because unhealthy foods are highly subsidized by the government. A family of four who is struggling gets far more calories from cheap processed foods from McDonalds or even the aisles of Walmart compared to the organic produce section of any food store for the same limited $ they have to spend weekly. Want more information about the answer to your question? Watch "Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America's Greatest Threat". It's available instantly on Netflix if you've got it.

And because unfortunately unhealthy foods have the benefit of that magic fat/sugar/salt combination that whole or limited processed foods don't. Billions of dollars go into researching those combinations. If you're interested in that, read "The End of Overeating" by former FDA Commissioner David Kessler. Even places that are more "sit down" rather than fast food like Applebee's and TGI Fridays don't necessarily look at their food in the same perspective as you do if you cook at home. They look at their foods in terms of fat/sugar and salt and how they can get you to eat and drink more of it by manipulating those ratios.

I learned this to my chagrin the other day when I went out to lunch with friends to East Side Mario's and ordered the scallop/shrimp salad, thinking it would be the save choice. Would you believe that it had 13 grams of sugar (when it should have had none) and 1,800 mg. of sodium---almost a whole day's supply!

OMGEEZ...I would have walked out or thrown the dish at the waiter.

I knew that it was pretty salty but I didn't know HOW salty till I got home and looked up the nutritional content of their meals on their website. The pasta dishes have even MORE sodium, if you can believe it!

:laugh:

People do not get fat because they are poor. That's the worst excuse in the book, and its a huge insult to every penniless fit student and every person who's kept off the pounds while on a tight budget. When I was growing up we couldn't even afford McDonalds.

Learn to cook. It's cheap.

Yep.

A bit judgemental dont you think.

In what regard would this post be the least bit judgemental?

Because unhealthy foods are highly subsidized by the government. A family of four who is struggling gets far more calories from cheap processed foods from McDonalds or even the aisles of Walmart compared to the organic produce section of any food store for the same limited $ they have to spend weekly.

Uh, no. I bought a whole chicken and a bag of organic carrots for less than $6. That could feed a family of 4 for dinner, maybe some left overs, and then you can make soup with the rest. It's false to say eating junk is cheaper. That same $6 isn't even one meal at McD's. I really wish people would get off this band wagon that healthful food costs more. It's a myth. Learn to cook. It's cheap. It's like this dark secret that only a few people know about. Everyone else thinks food is expensive. A few of us stand around scratching our heads not understanding what you are talking about.

the poster you quoted is correct in that government subsidies make unhealthy foods cheaper and that fast food has more bang for your buck calorically speaking. Split that chicken and carrots up among 4 people, and it's probably 300 calories or less per person. for a buck at McD's you can get more than 300 calories.

I agree that eating well is not as expensive as people think, but in calories per dollar, fast food has the higher ratio.

I do agree that calorie for calorie fast food can be cheaper. However if it came down to calories over actual nutrition, I would prefer less calories for better vitamins, minerals and nutrition.

However, adding in a cheap bag of rice from the dollarstore for that meal mentioned above would bring the calorie counts up for only $1.

Uh, no. I bought a whole chicken and a bag of organic carrots for less than $6. That could feed a family of 4 for dinner, maybe some left overs, and then you can make soup with the rest. It's false to say eating junk is cheaper. That same $6 isn't even one meal at McD's. I really wish people would get off this band wagon that healthful food costs more. It's a myth. Learn to cook. It's cheap. It's like this dark secret that only a few people know about. Everyone else thinks food is expensive. A few of us stand around scratching our heads not understanding what you are talking about.

THIS!