Overweight America: Will we ever get it together?

[Shinoashi]

I was up late last night watching Black Dynamite, and a commercial aired about the newest fat filled burger from CJ's. This made me wonder, with all these new fatty fast foods showing up, will we, as Americans, ever get our shit together? Or are we destined, at this point, to continue to be the fattest nation in the world?

What do you think would be a start on getting our nations act together on this unhealthy eatery lifestyle? I personally think we need to start putting higher taxing on fast food, to deter people from wanting to eat there. Kind of shady (I guess?), but we need to do something.

Nutrition info on this newest fat burger.... Memphis BBQ Burger

Calories - 1030 (from Fat - 500)
Fat - 55g (Saturated Fat - 23g)
Sodium - 2340mg (you have got to be kidding me?!)
Carbs - 81g (Sugar - 30g)
Protein - 52g

[Deleted]

the corporations are destroying everything for the sake of profit,your health included, the reason you have such eating habbits is overexposure to commercials,you're neither more gluttonous nor less athletic than anyone else.

[crunk]

a lot of sodium doesnt mean jack shit unless you already have a pre existing condition. you should be way more concerned about half the burger's calories coming from fat

[Deleted]

After watching man versus food and seeing how people glorify such giant portions, I doubt this problem will be resolved soon. Sadly this problem is no longer confined to the US.

[Yosef1015]

I dont see any problem with fast food places, dont like them? dont eat at them. And dont worry about other people, just worry about yourself

[Fuzzzie]

The issue isn't the food itself. The issue is impulse control on the part of the people consuming the food. It's fairly common knowledge that fast food isn't the healthiest option. It's up to the consumer to make their own choice. Enforcing choice is way too left wing for me. It's up to people to make their own decisions, good or bad.

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

The "western world" is obsessed with "cheap" food, in order to get cheap food they have to produce it out of cheap things like fat, salt, flour, eggs and other things that aren't meat/fish/other clean meat. (veggies if you're that kind'a person)

As long as people "have to" or want to buy cheap food they'll eat cheap food which makes the corporations that make the shit keep making it for money.

The ONLY way for the "western" world to change (not just america) is to stop buying cheap food that is loaded with things that are bad for you.

I'll be the first one to say that vegetarian diets (of any sort) isn't neccesary, but because vegetarians choose to constantly live on a diet they watch what they're eating much more than others do. It's been proven in many tests that if meat eaters actually took care of their food intake the same way vegetarians do there's no differance between the health gains/losses to the different diets, most studies actually noted that it was much easier for the subjects to live and look after their food intake with meat as opposed to without meat.


Another thing to consider (this also comes in when you monitor your food intake) is the ammount of food we consume, calories (however misused the term) is something that we SHOULD watch. The average office worker or stay at home needs from 2000-2500 calories per day to not gain/lose weight and still function 100%.

Just looking at a 50g portion pack Snickers that contains 252 calories, now imagine living off 500g of food for a day? In culinary school we learned that a full dinner with or without dessert should range anywhere from 700g - 1000g. Then consider breakfast, lunch, a predinner snack (apple or fruit) and then supper, all that should fit into a 2500 calories intake per day if you work in an office and don't exercise at all. How many breaks that? how many knows? how many knows about the numbers?



Stop eating too much.
Stop eating prosessed shit filled with fat, salt and other "fillers".
Stop eating candy, seriously...!
Start watching what we're eating, monitor it!

and remember, if you got a physical job (like a miner) you can and SHOULD eat more. Same goes if you're working out or running alot, the body doesn't get stronger if you don't eat enough... it starts working on own reserves of energy in both good and bad ways.


Oh and a great tip when you're looking at package information is to look for percentages of salt, fat etc. You might have a 2l bottle of coke that contains 600kg of sugar (joking) but look at the portion sizes, the companies "know" that their shit is bad for you in exsessive ammounts. Next time you look at a bag of potato chips look for serving size or something along those lines. Most will say 30-60g of chips, the bag is what? 200g? 400g?

[Deleted]

The issue isn't the food itself. The issue is impulse control on the part of the people consuming the food. It's fairly common knowledge that fast food isn't the healthiest option. It's up to the consumer to make their own choice. Enforcing choice is way too left wing for me. It's up to people to make their own decisions, good or bad.

Isn't enforcing choice an oxymoron?

[jimlow]

I don't know about the rest of America but my weight is within my power to control. I just know that I won't let myself fall into that fat American stereotype.

[Zelk]

If it makes you feel better, a lot of Europe is in the same boat when it comes to obesity.

Let's all be obese together, \o/

[Shinoashi]

i would be concerned with the sodium, since high intake, without exercise (which is what most of america is not doing), causes detrimental health problems, ie diabetes and heart conditions.

i am concerned with the burger as a whole, yes, but that sodium is just ridiculous.

thankfully i eat healthy and cant stomach fast food. the smell the taste and everything about fast food just makes me sick.

[Deleted]

I dont see any problem with fast food places, dont like them? dont eat at them. And dont worry about other people, just worry about yourself

Would you get rid of the government and miltary aswell then?

Also 2 grams of salt is nothing, unless you eat that burger every day.

[Shinoashi]

I dont see any problem with fast food places, dont like them? dont eat at them. And dont worry about other people, just worry about yourself

way to contribute.

so sorry that my love for my fellow americans causes me to think about things like this sometimes.

[kittysox]

Giant portions and a disgusting love of sugar is really taking it's toll, especially on young children.

[superstarz]

australia's weight problem is just as bad as america's.

the reason people eat cheap take away and processed frozen food is because its cheap.
have you seen the price of healthy food? e.g veggies?
you can get a meal at mcdonalds for the same price you get some lettuce and tomatoes.
and the government wonders why people eat junk?

[Verain]

Your technical solutions are:

1)- A medicine that changes the emotions received from food, modifying appetite and/or preferred foods.
2)- A medicine that changes the metabolism.

(1) is out of reach. (2) may be impossible to do safely.

But those are the only solutions.

[TekGoNos]

a lot of sodium doesnt mean jack shit unless you already have a pre existing condition.

Well, according to the Canadian Government:

People aged 14 and over should eat no more than 2300 mg of sodium each day. This is known as the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL). A sodium intake above 2300 mg a day is likely to present a health risk.

Source: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv...sodium-eng.php

So, yes, the OP is right, this burger contains a dangerous amount of sodium, if you'd eat one every day.

[Shinoashi]

as i said, i know its shady, but a high tax on the cheap foods (cough fastfood cough) may deter people to pick up some healthier food from the local supermarket. hell, food from the supermarket isnt exactly expensive. i am starting to think it lies in just how lazy we're getting as a society.

i'm sorry to hear that euro's are falling into our boat. i always thought of you guys as a much healthier society (well in comparison to us).

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

have you seen the price of healthy food? e.g veggies?
you can get a meal at mcdonalds for the same price you get some lettuce and tomatoes.
and the government wonders why people eat junk?

This might get me killed but big companies like coke, McDonalds, pepsi and many others activly work against making sugar and other ingredients more expensive AND work to make theese "healthy" products more expensive.

Greed basicly.

[jimlow]

way to contribute.

so sorry that my love for my fellow americans causes me to think about things like this sometimes.

Stop taking what he said out of context. You can love your fellow American as much as you want but that's not going to make heart disease be any less of a problem.