Whose fault is it anyway and what can we do about it?
carpetbagger12000
Posts: 41 Member
My fellow dieters:
About a year ago I was in the supermarket shopping for a few items that we needed—apples, bananas, végépâté, breakfast cereal, and some anti-soap scum product for the shower recommended by my cleaning lady—and the only check out counter open was the “8 items or less” aisle. Directly across from the cashier was a display of Halloween-format boxes of candy. It was mid-August, for Pete’s sake! Halloween wasn’t for another two and-a-half months. I’m the kind of person who usually shops for Halloween candy at the last minute because a) the holiday always seems to sneak up on me without warning, and b) if I have that kind of chazerai in the house, I will eat it and get fat.
And then the realization hit me like a ton of bricks that that is exactly why they start bombarding shoppers with these products so early. Yes, they want to make sure you have a good supply on hand of miniature Mars Bars for the witches and goblins and Power Rangers who will be coming to your door demanding candy, and they also want to make sure you buy it now so you eat it all and have to buy more before the event. In fact, if they advertise it early enough, you will buy it several times because you will have eaten it all up every single time.
Tell me, what does all that candy do to a person? It makes them feel rather ill, rots their teeth, and MAKES THEM FAT! Yes, folks, the candy/food industry is not stupid. We, the consumers, are. We know that overweight ushers in a whole host of health problems, ranging from heart disease to diabetes and even various cancers. We know this! But we are programmed genetically to eat food when it is available (and in our society it is always available) because our homo erectus ancestors did not know when they would be tracking down their next meal. Since we no longer have to run after our food, or spend hours of walking gathering it, and since the calories provided by the meals we eat far outbalance those expended in its preparation, we are doomed to become a nation of fatties. Seriously.
So, what’s to be done? I could lecture you all and say, “Forebear! Eat not of the forbidden fruit for thou art doomed!” But we all know that’s ridiculous. I, myself, more righteous-than-thou that I am, cannot sit in front of a bag of chips or pretzels or popcorn and not eat the whole thing. When my husband gets popcorn at the movies, I end up eating most of it. If he buys chips and eats them where I can see and smell them, I will eat them, too. I personally resent that there is candy in quantity, in bite-sized portions, at the checkout counter when I go to buy bananas and apples. It disturbs me that in recent years there are racks of candy bars stationed strategically throughout the store so that they tempt you when you are buying vegetables, cheese, vinegar and light bulbs. It was bad enough they were there just as you were paying for your purchases. Now they are everywhere!
I subscribe to the Centre for Science in the Public Interest and receive their NutritionAction health letter every month. It’s chock full of informative and interesting tidbits about nutrition and health with articles about commercial products ranging from food to supplements, the latest research regarding diseases and suggestions on how to prevent them. It reviews categories of food and suggests “best bites”. One thing the editor of this magazine is proud of is that lobbying has made it mandatory for producers of commercially prepared foods to label them with ingredients and a breakdown of nutritional content. On one hand, I think this is great; on the other, I see something terribly wrong with this picture.
As I mentioned above, we are products of our evolution. As hunter-gatherers running after food and/or walking for hours to collect it, we didn’t have access to the kinds of things that need nutritional labels. But because human beings are inherently lazy, i.e. we will work very hard in order to create a labour-saving device, we gladly embrace food that stands still so we don’t have to kill it. In the 50’s when the first convenience foods were on supermarket shelves, my parents’ generation went crazy. Nowadays we take it for granted that we can open a box or a bag or a tin and voilà! instant meal; or hand some money to a vendor and walk away with dinner in a bag, already made. All we care about is that it tastes good and fills us up, and we are happy. The food industry knows this and gets fat financially while we, the consumers, get fat physically.
This has got to stop! But I don’t know how to make it stop. I personally can stay away from those foods that provide me with little nutrition and lots of calories because I am determined to lose weight. But I am just one person. The food industry knows that we are weak creatures, that we will buy things because they are delicious, and they know how to make things ever more tasty to tempt us into the path of gluttony. Servings are larger, clothing is now “vanity” sized. It is all right to be overweight. Except it’s not, is it?
When I was a teenager, the fat adolescent was a rarity. Her clothing was designed to obscure, not reveal, the extra weight. It is not so today. More and more young people are fat and dressing as though they were thin because there is a stigma, not to being fat as there once was, but to thinking that overweight is unattractive. When I was in high school, serving sizes were smaller, there was not the variety of junk food available as there is now, and kids had less money to spend on it. Everything has changed, but human metabolism has remained the same.
I hope that something can be done. I would love it if the food industry were regulated so that it stopped producing the kinds of foods that make people fat, that they would stop preying on the primitive part of our homo sapien brains that makes us eat even when we’re not hungry just for their own profit. I would like to see obesity classified as a medical condition and overweight as something that should be monitored and discouraged. Hell, we do it for other things. It has been shown repeatedly that most illnesses are greater in overweight and obese people.
We need to redefine “normal” so that people start becoming healthy again. This has to change! Now!
About a year ago I was in the supermarket shopping for a few items that we needed—apples, bananas, végépâté, breakfast cereal, and some anti-soap scum product for the shower recommended by my cleaning lady—and the only check out counter open was the “8 items or less” aisle. Directly across from the cashier was a display of Halloween-format boxes of candy. It was mid-August, for Pete’s sake! Halloween wasn’t for another two and-a-half months. I’m the kind of person who usually shops for Halloween candy at the last minute because a) the holiday always seems to sneak up on me without warning, and b) if I have that kind of chazerai in the house, I will eat it and get fat.
And then the realization hit me like a ton of bricks that that is exactly why they start bombarding shoppers with these products so early. Yes, they want to make sure you have a good supply on hand of miniature Mars Bars for the witches and goblins and Power Rangers who will be coming to your door demanding candy, and they also want to make sure you buy it now so you eat it all and have to buy more before the event. In fact, if they advertise it early enough, you will buy it several times because you will have eaten it all up every single time.
Tell me, what does all that candy do to a person? It makes them feel rather ill, rots their teeth, and MAKES THEM FAT! Yes, folks, the candy/food industry is not stupid. We, the consumers, are. We know that overweight ushers in a whole host of health problems, ranging from heart disease to diabetes and even various cancers. We know this! But we are programmed genetically to eat food when it is available (and in our society it is always available) because our homo erectus ancestors did not know when they would be tracking down their next meal. Since we no longer have to run after our food, or spend hours of walking gathering it, and since the calories provided by the meals we eat far outbalance those expended in its preparation, we are doomed to become a nation of fatties. Seriously.
So, what’s to be done? I could lecture you all and say, “Forebear! Eat not of the forbidden fruit for thou art doomed!” But we all know that’s ridiculous. I, myself, more righteous-than-thou that I am, cannot sit in front of a bag of chips or pretzels or popcorn and not eat the whole thing. When my husband gets popcorn at the movies, I end up eating most of it. If he buys chips and eats them where I can see and smell them, I will eat them, too. I personally resent that there is candy in quantity, in bite-sized portions, at the checkout counter when I go to buy bananas and apples. It disturbs me that in recent years there are racks of candy bars stationed strategically throughout the store so that they tempt you when you are buying vegetables, cheese, vinegar and light bulbs. It was bad enough they were there just as you were paying for your purchases. Now they are everywhere!
I subscribe to the Centre for Science in the Public Interest and receive their NutritionAction health letter every month. It’s chock full of informative and interesting tidbits about nutrition and health with articles about commercial products ranging from food to supplements, the latest research regarding diseases and suggestions on how to prevent them. It reviews categories of food and suggests “best bites”. One thing the editor of this magazine is proud of is that lobbying has made it mandatory for producers of commercially prepared foods to label them with ingredients and a breakdown of nutritional content. On one hand, I think this is great; on the other, I see something terribly wrong with this picture.
As I mentioned above, we are products of our evolution. As hunter-gatherers running after food and/or walking for hours to collect it, we didn’t have access to the kinds of things that need nutritional labels. But because human beings are inherently lazy, i.e. we will work very hard in order to create a labour-saving device, we gladly embrace food that stands still so we don’t have to kill it. In the 50’s when the first convenience foods were on supermarket shelves, my parents’ generation went crazy. Nowadays we take it for granted that we can open a box or a bag or a tin and voilà! instant meal; or hand some money to a vendor and walk away with dinner in a bag, already made. All we care about is that it tastes good and fills us up, and we are happy. The food industry knows this and gets fat financially while we, the consumers, get fat physically.
This has got to stop! But I don’t know how to make it stop. I personally can stay away from those foods that provide me with little nutrition and lots of calories because I am determined to lose weight. But I am just one person. The food industry knows that we are weak creatures, that we will buy things because they are delicious, and they know how to make things ever more tasty to tempt us into the path of gluttony. Servings are larger, clothing is now “vanity” sized. It is all right to be overweight. Except it’s not, is it?
When I was a teenager, the fat adolescent was a rarity. Her clothing was designed to obscure, not reveal, the extra weight. It is not so today. More and more young people are fat and dressing as though they were thin because there is a stigma, not to being fat as there once was, but to thinking that overweight is unattractive. When I was in high school, serving sizes were smaller, there was not the variety of junk food available as there is now, and kids had less money to spend on it. Everything has changed, but human metabolism has remained the same.
I hope that something can be done. I would love it if the food industry were regulated so that it stopped producing the kinds of foods that make people fat, that they would stop preying on the primitive part of our homo sapien brains that makes us eat even when we’re not hungry just for their own profit. I would like to see obesity classified as a medical condition and overweight as something that should be monitored and discouraged. Hell, we do it for other things. It has been shown repeatedly that most illnesses are greater in overweight and obese people.
We need to redefine “normal” so that people start becoming healthy again. This has to change! Now!
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Replies
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I most definitely agree with you and we do not hand out candy in Halloween, we give out crayons or pencils. it is ridiculous how they get these kids to eat all that crap!0
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I'll repost what I put on your blog:
I totally agree, and I don't know what to do about it either. It's totally wrong that the junk food industry preys on our basic need to eat sugary and fatty things, and as much as possible in case we don't have anything to eat later. I've been working on my self-restraint, and though I'm getting better at resisting the delicious fatty, salty and sweet treats that are put in front of me, it's still extremely difficult. They say that will power is a muscle, and the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets, so it should get easier to resist bad foods after a while. At the beginning, it's still really hard though, and people find it easier to give in to temptation than to do the right thing for their bodies. Kind of makes you wish we could just change human nature.0 -
By the way, here's an interesting article along the same lines: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/food-industry_b_1559920.html
I found it in this thread: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/659268-the-food-industry-and-obesity0 -
Across the street from my downtown Washington, DC office is a CVS Pharmacy. They have a refrigerator case loaded with sandwiches, salads and ready-to-heat entrees. This is a great resource for downtown office workers who need a quick and inexpensive lunch, as all of the items are priced under $5. HOWEVER...there are practically no items that make a good choice for diabetics. Even the salads are a poor choice, as there are no low fat, fat free or sugar-free choices. The salads are all either loaded with bacon or fried chicken, or have no protein at all. The entrees are all very high fat pasta items. The sandwiches are all on white bread. The only items they had that were diabetic friendly, boiled or pickled eggs and fresh soups, were quickly discontinued.
I stood there, woefully contemplating the choices one day, when the vendor was restocking. I asked about the eggs and soups, and complained about the lack of healthier choices. I got a shrug and a blank stair. Another shopper in the same boat chimed in with me.
In one block in our DC area we have an Au Bon Pain, Corner Bakery, Quiznos, Indian curry cafeteria-style restaurant, basement sit-down restaurant that does NOT have any suitable options, two high-priced haute cusine restaurants, Starbucks and a couple of Halal cat-on-a-stick joints. Besides those, the ONLY place where I can, wihout doubt, get a meal that is diabetic friendly and not sacrifice taste without getting sneak fat is the local pay-by-the-pound lunch bar. There, I can get kale salad and a bit of salmon teriyaki for about $8.
So, a commuting diabetic like me has to add time to the 12-hour day (gotta love DC traffic) to pack a lunch, or eat the same kale and salmon every day. Every other place in town simply doesn't get the notion of "healthy". They will serve what the customers buy. High fat. High carbohydrate. High fructose corn syrup. High sodium. It's what everybody craves. 1200 calorie meals fly off the shelves.0 -
Without sounding like a conspiracy theorist I want to add that large corporations benefit from us being unhealthy. That is why they push sugary addictive snacks, drinks, and over processed foods. That is why a candy bar is cheaper than a handful of almonds. That is why a gallon of Sunny D or Hi C or any other fake juice product is cheaper than a bottle of water. We get sick, we get fat and what do we do? Buy more food, buy medication to treat illnesses that cause the food, buy weight-loss products etc... all to the benefit of the people making us sick in the first place.
Whose fault is it? Ours. We let them pull the wool over our eyes. We created demand for these products that harm us. We didn't fight for legislation to protect our rights as consumers early enough. We weren't properly educated about health. The burden of responsibility lies with the individual.
The only way to combat this is to wake up, educate yourself, make the right choices and stop buying into this destructive system just because its easy, or familiar or the culture. Change starts with you.0 -
Without sounding like a conspiracy theorist I want to add that large corporations benefit from us being unhealthy. That is why they push sugary addictive snacks, drinks, and over processed foods. That is why a candy bar is cheaper than a handful of almonds. That is why a gallon of Sunny D or Hi C or any other fake juice product is cheaper than a bottle of water. We get sick, we get fat and what do we do? Buy more food, buy medication to treat illnesses that cause the food, buy weight-loss products etc... all to the benefit of the people making us sick in the first place.
Whose fault is it? Ours. We let them pull the wool over our eyes. We created demand for these products that harm us. We didn't fight for legislation to protect our rights as consumers early enough. We weren't properly educated about health. The burden of responsibility lies with the individual.
The only way to combat this is to wake up, educate yourself, make the right choices and stop buying into this destructive system just because its easy, or familiar or the culture. Change starts with you.
I agree. It's our fault we're fat. Why do they keep making all of these sugary snacks? Because we keep buying them. That's how capitalism works. If we stop buying bad food, they'll have to stop selling bad food. They can't make a profit if they don't have customers.0 -
Without sounding like a conspiracy theorist I want to add that large corporations benefit from us being unhealthy. That is why they push sugary addictive snacks, drinks, and over processed foods. That is why a candy bar is cheaper than a handful of almonds. That is why a gallon of Sunny D or Hi C or any other fake juice product is cheaper than a bottle of water. We get sick, we get fat and what do we do? Buy more food, buy medication to treat illnesses that cause the food, buy weight-loss products etc... all to the benefit of the people making us sick in the first place.
Whose fault is it? Ours. We let them pull the wool over our eyes. We created demand for these products that harm us. We didn't fight for legislation to protect our rights as consumers early enough. We weren't properly educated about health. The burden of responsibility lies with the individual.
The only way to combat this is to wake up, educate yourself, make the right choices and stop buying into this destructive system just because its easy, or familiar or the culture. Change starts with you.
This. Self control is hard I understand. There are plenty of times I would love to just devor an entire pizza but I use my willpower and control myself. If enough people were to do this would thefood industry change? Of course. Will that happen? Probably not0 -
This. Self control is hard I understand. There are plenty of times I would love to just devor an entire pizza but I use my willpower and control myself. If enough people were to do this would thefood industry change? Of course. Will that happen? Probably not
Changes happened within the food industry all the time that responded to outcry and demands. Even McDonald has a so called "Healthy" Menu because of it. But, the truth is there are still a lot of people that buys crap, then, get fat, and then blame everyone but themselves for being fat.
And you know what? They're still fat. They will always be fat until they realized that it's their own fault and starts changing.0 -
I agree with you! I just got an email from Torrid which is a plus size store. They were emailing me to tell me not to forget to use my coupon between today and a few days from now and they also mentioned that during this time they would have free donuts....Of course they want us to eat donuts...that is job security for them so we will still be needing to purchase their clothes! It gave me a chuckle...but it is kinda sad.
Edit to say: But yes...it is all about choice and moderation and the choice is ours.0 -
You may all be interested in the blog of Bruce Bradley, he talks about this stuff a LOT and is really informative. I subscribe to his posts and often pass them on. He used to be the CEO or something like that of one of the Big Box companies but is now a whole foods advocate.
http://www.brucebradley.com/0 -
I most definitely agree with you and we do not hand out candy in Halloween, we give out crayons or pencils.
This is a really good idea! I would have loved to get crayons when trick-or-treating.0 -
Even McDonald has a so called "Healthy" Menu because of it. But, the truth is there are still a lot of people that buys crap, then, get fat, and then blame everyone but themselves for being fat.
And you know what? They're still fat. They will always be fat until they realized that it's their own fault and starts changing.
Ugh Don't even get me started on McDonalds. Even when I was a frequent fast food eater I hated them. I doubt anything in their menu is even remotely healthy. I am happy to say I've been fast food free for over a year! Trust me that is hard in NYC. It was more of a moral decision than a health one but two birds one stone.
Self control is hard. Making the right decisions is harder. I fail myself all the time, I go against what I know I should be doing all the time but when I fail myself I am honest about it and accept responsibility for the choice I made. I think another huge factor is accepting personal responsibility and not making excuses when you don't do the right thing. Sure there are extenuating circumstances but most of the time people have a choice in what they eat, if not everything they do. Instead of saying "oh I know McD is terrible and I shouldn't take my kids there but they were hungry and I was tired and they were begging for it and we were right there, and I wouldn't have had enough time to cook at home, and it was affordable so I just did it" people should say "I know McD was is bad for my children and myself but at the moment I valued convenience over health so I just did it" Lets be honest with ourselves. It's harsh but it's reality. Sugarcoat it with excuses but at the end that was the decision being made and facing that reality would go a long way.0 -
This. Self control is hard I understand. There are plenty of times I would love to just devor an entire pizza but I use my willpower and control myself. If enough people were to do this would thefood industry change? Of course. Will that happen? Probably not
Changes happened within the food industry all the time that responded to outcry and demands. Even McDonald has a so called "Healthy" Menu because of it. But, the truth is there are still a lot of people that buys crap, then, get fat, and then blame everyone but themselves for being fat.
And you know what? They're still fat. They will always be fat until they realized that it's their own fault and starts changing.
Exactly what Im saying :happy:0 -
I also don't get why people act as if cooking is some huge all consuming undertaking that can't be done. There are tv shows, books and all kind of resources dedicated to quick, easy, healthy, inexpensive meals. We need to get back in the kitchen.0
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I also don't get why people act as if cooking is some huge all consuming undertaking that can't be done. There are tv shows, books and all kind of resources dedicated to quick, easy, healthy, inexpensive meals. We need to get back in the kitchen.
It's not so much that they think it's a huge time consuming task. It's more of the stigma that is placed upon women in the kitchen. It's the cliche image of a worthless housewife cooking and taking care of kids. Time consumption is a just an excuse. I used to be against being that housewife in the kitchen thing. I soon learned that cooking for myself is a benefit. I cook when I want and what I want. That is a joy.0 -
You know what is a pet peeve of mine.. Eating out!
You go to a restaurant for a family meal and because most places are so expensive to eat out at nowadays they feel they have to make up for it by giving you large portion sizes.
For example:
I ate out last night for my cousins 21st birthday. Nice restaurant, (little posh compared to what I'm used to eating at) but I think the cheapest thing on the menu was the salad that was £9.. Thinking that it would be the healthiest option I ordered it.. Little did I know that it was going to be SMOTHERED from top to bottom in all sorts of dressings and sauces. Not only that, the plate was 10x the size of my head. If they had of allowed me I would have chosen something of the starter menu and ate that as my main.
No wonder the world is an obese place when you go to places like Mc Donalds and the burgers are 99p and a salad is £2+ ..
/rant over0 -
You know what is a pet peeve of mine.. Eating out!
You go to a restaurant for a family meal and because most places are so expensive to eat out at nowadays they feel they have to make up for it by giving you large portion sizes.
Places don't have to be expensive or even posh to fill up your plate with more than food you possibly need for one meal. Most family restaurants in my area put enough calories on my plate for me to feed my whole family. The trick is to assess your plate, decide realistically how much you are going to eat, and separate that from the rest, then ask the waiter to bag the remainder when you're done. Logical, yes. Easy? No. All that food is just sitting there begging to be eaten. If it were all baby greens with a light vinaigrette, it wouldn't be so bad, but usually it's mounds of white rice, french fries, breading on fish that's been deep fried, and Caesar's salad smothered in a calorie-dense dressing. Ordering from the appetizer menu is not a bad idea.0 -
I also don't get why people act as if cooking is some huge all consuming undertaking that can't be done. There are tv shows, books and all kind of resources dedicated to quick, easy, healthy, inexpensive meals. We need to get back in the kitchen.
Its really not that hard. I have my supper in the oven right now. Im watching TV and on here....not so bad.0
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