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Extreme obesity and paper plates. Question for people in the USA
Replies
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kshama2001 wrote: »
No idea why you brought up "impress" then...
When we get subs, my partner uses the wrapping as a plate. I use a plate plate. If not for weighing, I'd use the wrapper as well. When we get pizza, I again use a plate plate - this time because I am also eating it with a big salad. He uses the pizza box. (He also has a salad, and uses a salad bowl for that. I like mine on the same plate.) It literally takes under a minute to wash, dry, and put away a plate.
I brought up impress because that's just the way I talk about myself. Which is why I specifically said that about everyone else.
LOL I don't even put the three bowls I use away because I just need to use them again the next night. I wash them and stick them on the dish drainer thingy.
It's good to live alone. ☺
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For those who have one to use (I don't - but it would maybe conserve water if I did, depending on load size).
That said, having the time and able-bodied-ness, I figure dishwashing is another 6 or 12 calories burned via daily activity, so why not?
I do have a dish drainer always on the counter by the sink - the horrors, from an anti-clutter standpoint! 😆 - in fact, I store daily-use dish/utensil items right in it, in effect. Air dry is reportedly cleaner than towel dry - gotta "eat clean", y'know? 😆🤣
Good point about the calories!1 -
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One has nothing to do with the other, we use regular dishes daily. But any party picnic birthday, holiday etc the disposable dishes, plates, spoons, forks and knives are used for convenience and ease of cleaning up afterwards and specifically with little children not to break real plates and also depending on how many guess I may not have enough dishes for them nor do I want to. My granny and mom did things this way and it's just what we do, nothing to do with lazy or obesity just a time saver. 🍽🍴🥄🔪🎂7
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Well, people have strong opinions about environmental issues, which is how I see this.
If you chucked a bag of garbage out your car window, you might get some strong reactions, even if that's how you choose to dispose of your trash.
I don't have a zero carbon footprint, so I'm not trying to be "holier than thou"...but I think reducing waste by using reusable dishes and flatware is relatively easy to do for the able-bodied.[/quote]
This! We do to not have an infinite amount of resources on our planet! Any little thing you do is a plus in my opinion.
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From an environmental standpoint, it depends very much on what the plates are made out of, what the garbage collection/composting system is like, if the climate has an abundance of water or not and how the water is managed. We have to make sure we're comparing apples to apples. I say this as a person who prefers reusable when possible and reasonable. I also live in an area with abundant water and I have efficient appliances, and most of the time I am very able-bodied as are several other members of my household.
I would hope that social pressure to be environmentally conscious wouldn't go so far as to prevent people from being hospitable to others, which is also a very important good.9 -
SuzySunshine99 wrote: »
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.5 -
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.5 -
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.
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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.2
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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.1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »
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.1 -
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.1 -
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
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paperpudding wrote: »
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.
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »
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.2 -
kshama2001 wrote: »
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?0 -
Redordeadhead wrote: »
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).
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paperpudding wrote: »
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.0 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »
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.
Check your facts before pontificating on a subject you know nothing about!
“The United Kingdom has a long history in the paper industry, with the world's first mechanical paper machine installed at the Frogmore Paper Mill in 1803. While today the UK is not one of the world's largest paper-producing countries, the industry still plays an important role in the economy. Tens of thousands of people across the country are employed in the manufacturing of paper and paper products, with UK paper manufacturing bringing in 3.4 billion British pounds of gross value added. ”
https://www.statista.com/topics/6371/paper-industry-uk/#topicHeader__wrapper10 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »
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.4 -
We use paper plates and bowls occasionally.
Our kitchen sink had a nasty habit of clogging if you looked at it sideways. And it sometimes took a couple days to clear.
Add that to my disability, my husband’s disability, and my partner’s lack of “spoons” (metaphor for lack of mental energy when things have piled on too much) and paper plates are a Godsend.
So glad to have seen so many other commenters mention disability and other circumstances as valid reasons to use paper plates.9 -
yweight2020 wrote: »specifically with little children not to break real plates
My mother purchased unbreakable plates when my siblings, and I were very young. A couple of my sisters weren’t even born yet.
Unbreakable every day plates have been around a very long time. I’ll be 70 in 2 weeks. When I was about 5 or 6, I remember the salesman, who came to our house selling melmac dishes to my mother. The salesman stood on the serving platter to show how sturdy the dishes were. She had those plates until they downsized their home in the mid 70’s and bought Corel dishes. Corel can break, but I’ve only broken one so far, and there’s been lot of dropped dishes.
I’ve had Corel dishes ever since we got married, almost 46 years ago. My first set, I gave to my daughter when she moved out after college. I purchased a new set. I also have a full set of Lenox Christmas themed China, that gets used once a year on Christmas Day.
I do use paper plates for big gatherings, but that’s about it.
I have bad knees, and standing for long times is painful. When we remodeled the kitchen, I opted for more cupboard space, and we eliminated the dishwasher. I manage cooking from scratch and dish washing, but it’s mostly the two of us, so it’s usually only 10 minutes to clean up time.5 -
MargaretYakoda wrote: »We use paper plates and bowls occasionally.
So glad to have seen so many other commenters mention disability and other circumstances as valid reasons to use paper plates.
I suppose it is not necessary to have "valid reasons". If you have considered the options and the impact of your choices that's sufficient.5 -
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.0 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
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.0 -
This is such an awesome thread.
It's a fairly benign and unimportant question in the whole scheme of things that has now morphed into Moral High Ground and has gone on for five pages so far.
Don't ever change, MFP.22 -
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?3 -
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:
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=18 -
I live in the center of the USA and honestly know so many people who use paper plates EVERY DAY. Most of them do use metal flatware though. I truly don't get it. Especially when they post photos of "fancy" meals they made - then served on a dang paper plate. It's a personal pet peeve, to be honest, even though I know it's really none of my concern.
We use proper plates and cloth napkins though, always. I buy paper plates maybe one time per year for a casual birthday dinner and it's just to put the cake on...usually small colorful ones. And that's only if we're going to be outdoors or at someone else's home and I don't want to put the extra work on them of washing small plates.
I don't really see a connection to obesity, just laziness and lack of concern for resources/wastefulness.13
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