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Old 02-01-2013, 03:26 PM
 
3,588 posts, read 5,716,877 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TracySam View Post
I just watched a very interesting episode of Our America with Lisa Ling last night, and the topic was obese kids.

I got a little ticked off at the one point when the mother of a 300lb 12-year-old girl was talking about all the extremely fattening greasy stuff she cooks, because that's how her own mother taught her. She was deep-frying everything, and her idea of "fruit" was canned fruit in heavy syrup. Lisa asked her if she could cook anything healthful and the lady said something like "No, someone has to teach me. I never learned."

Someone has to TEACH YOU? Really?

I honestly think that in this day & age, everyone in our country...everyone in the civilized world, knows what foods are fattening and which are not, knows which are healthy, and has at least a ballpark idea of healthy portion sizes.

This woman may have learned from her mother to cook fattening food, but she never watched any TV show that talked about healthful fooods? She never saw a healthy cookbook? She had a big huge TV, so I'm sure at some point, some small bit of nutrition knowledge would have trickled in. I see messages about healthy foods every single day in the short time I have my TV on. Even if she couldn't afford cook books (the show profiled poorer families) there are libraries, used books, and TONS of free resources. I can't even imagine the immense number of free government-created resources on nutrition that we've all paid for and are still paying for.

This lady is cooking and eating in an unhealthful way BY CHOICE, not due to any lack of knowledge.
I don't eat the most healthy diet all the time, but I certainly know what is and isn't fattening, and what is and isn't healthy. When I eat fattening stuff, it's by choice. An informed choice. I can't blame it on ignorance.

It just really annoyed me when this woman abdicated all responsibility and said SOMEONE ELSE must teach her. Even the 12 year old girl was trying to tell her mom how canned fruit doesn't really count as fresh fruit.

To me, it's like smoking. This isn't 1955...by now everyone knows that smoking causes lung disease. People have the freedom to choose to smoke, but it's a choice, an informed choice. Lots of people eat really unhealthful, fattening foods, but it's always by choice if the person is an adult with at least an 80 IQ.

I just wish that all of us, those who eat 100% perfectly healthy diets, those in the middle like me, and those who eat crappy diets, could all just agree that what we buy and eat is our conscious choice and not claim ignorance. How much more "education" can we pay for? Mrs. Obama, Dr. Oz, and Richard Simmons could have all gone in-person to this woman's house and spent a full week teaching her about food, and she STILL would choose crappy food.

I just ticks me off when I hear people say "oh the poor just need more education about food" or "it's the person's culture...they don't know any better." It's insulting.
I would have respected the Mom more if she had just told Lisa in the interview:

You want to know the real reason I never learned to cook and serve healthy food? I love grease. and the only thing I love better than grease is laying in front of a big screen tv watching all my favorite shows and ingesting as much grease as possible as I do so. This is family entertainment & recreation for us. Up to now, I had no problem with the kind of role model I was being for having the big screen tv, and laying around watching it, instead of putting on my sneakers and taking a walk in the morning and evening at the very least. Why I didn't even need to spend money to set a good example for my poor child, but even then I still couldn't be bothered to do it.

THAT would have been the TRUTH!
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Old 02-01-2013, 03:29 PM
 
Location: Round Rock, Texas
13,441 posts, read 15,411,159 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TracySam View Post
But the woman on the show wanted a person to teach her personally! Sure, people "need education" but she had numerous chances to get that education for free. I'm sure you read about these things and didn't need a professional to take you by the hand and teach you. then once you learned, you could no longer claim ignorance; you used the knowledge.
I can read right on the pasta box or bag of rice how much a serving size is. Schools and government brochures all teach how big a serving of protein should be (the size of your hand, without the fingers, or a pack of playing cards). Those damned brochures are everywhere; I could trip over them! We all paid for them, so it's a shame people don't read them! I know our goverment would never squander our tax money on useless educational materials that no one would use!
Those labels have been around for ages yet I ignored them, like many Americans do regardless of income level. My family was middle classed. This isn't defending/excusing/whatever this woman's behaviour. When I found my weight increasing, a light turned on and told me something needed to change. However, I do agree that once I did become educated about portion sizes and healthy eating, I really could never go back to my oblivious days. Everything I put into my mouth is a conscious choice and I take full responsibility for it.

Obesity is a malady that afflicts Americans across the divide. Food is just a veneer for underlying issues and yes, that might require professional help.
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Old 02-01-2013, 03:35 PM
 
Location: Canada
7,263 posts, read 9,268,126 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nmnita View Post
Though I basically agree with you about our diets being our own choice, I also realize and we all have to understand: 1-not everybody even has the intellegence to think about the connection between diet and heatlh: 2-their enviornment growing up exposed them to unhealthy choices and 3-it is no different today than in years past. Some have always eaten a healthy diet, some middle of the road and a certainl element of our society have lived on junk food. Even when it comes to illnesses like diabetes, the difference today as compared to 30 or 50 years ago: we didn't used to even get checked for it and a huge part of soiciety never heard of welmess check ups. one more thing, the availbility of fast food hasn't helped.
I agree with this. I think the key word in the OP's post is "conscious" choice. A lot of people are just not that conscious. If you grow up in a certain way, having been taught in a certain way, a lot of ideas, and behaviours are not given any thought at all. I'm not sure I'd chalk it up to a lack of intelligence.

And if you come from an over weight family, or are surrounded by overweight friends/neighbours/society, then it becomes even less obvious to people that they are out of shape.

They may hear on the one hand, in health class or on television about what is healthy and what is not but they aren't hearing it consciously - it's just white noise.

When I was growing up we certainly didn't think about eating healthy or staying active. Of course we stayed active. We lived on a farm. We grew our own food because store-bought food was a treat. Restaurants were a treat. It wasn't an every day thing, an every week thing or even an every month thing. A lot of things we ate may well have been healthy but we didn't make a decision. It wasn't conscious.

Anyway, I still live on a farm, I still work my tail off, and I eat what I want. Consciously now, though, in the sense that I'm aware of healthy and unhealthy choices. But I never pay attention to food fads.
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Old 02-01-2013, 03:42 PM
 
Location: Southwest Washington State
30,585 posts, read 25,041,229 times
Reputation: 50796
Quote:
Originally Posted by TracySam View Post
I just watched a very interesting episode of Our America with Lisa Ling last night, and the topic was obese kids. . . .

This woman may have learned from her mother to cook fattening food, but she never watched any TV show that talked about healthful fooods? She never saw a healthy cookbook? She had a big huge TV, so I'm sure at some point, some small bit of nutrition knowledge would have trickled in. I see messages about healthy foods every single day in the short time I have my TV on. Even if she couldn't afford cook books (the show profiled poorer families) there are libraries, used books, and TONS of free resources. I can't even imagine the immense number of free government-created resources on nutrition that we've all paid for and are still paying for.

This lady is cooking and eating in an unhealthful way BY CHOICE, not due to any lack of knowledge. . . .

I just ticks me off when I hear people say "oh the poor just need more education about food" or "it's the person's culture...they don't know any better." It's insulting.
I've dealt with low income people a little bit, and really there is no use being ticked off. You assume that someone who might be working 2 low paying jobs has time to visit the library? You assume that a poor woman has a fully functioning stove? Equipment in her kitchen? Time to cook?

It is entirely possible that the woman you make fun of really did need instruction. At least she recognized that. And it isn't just the poverty stricken who have no idea about good nutrition. It is very easy to insulate oneself from basic knowledge in any area. I know people who do.

And I do feel hopeless sometimes about all the bad choices that are so easy to make, and the few good choices which are so hard to make about food.
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Old 02-01-2013, 03:48 PM
 
9,238 posts, read 22,840,492 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by silibran View Post
I've dealt with low income people a little bit, and really there is no use being ticked off. You assume that someone who might be working 2 low paying jobs has time to visit the library? You assume that a poor woman has a fully functioning stove? Equipment in her kitchen? Time to cook?

It is entirely possible that the woman you make fun of really did need instruction. At least she recognized that. And it isn't just the poverty stricken who have no idea about good nutrition. It is very easy to insulate oneself from basic knowledge in any area. I know people who do.

And I do feel hopeless sometimes about all the bad choices that are so easy to make, and the few good choices which are so hard to make about food.
You obviously didn't read my other posts. This person had no such excuses.
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Old 02-01-2013, 04:03 PM
 
17,189 posts, read 16,333,812 times
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This woman might be cooking food that her mom, grandma and great grandma all cooked for their families. The food was fattening then and it's fattening now, of course. The difference is that now this mom is preparing traditional home cooking and buying her family junk food and fast food. Not a good combination..
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Old 02-01-2013, 06:45 PM
 
Location: Bella Vista, Ark
77,772 posts, read 104,433,328 times
Reputation: 49248
Quote:
Originally Posted by springfieldva View Post
This woman might be cooking food that her mom, grandma and great grandma all cooked for their families. The food was fattening then and it's fattening now, of course. The difference is that now this mom is preparing traditional home cooking and buying her family junk food and fast food. Not a good combination..
another issue and netwit sorta hit on it: our families in some cases grew up on farms. They did not always eat healthy, low fat, in fact they rarely did, but they also worked hard The word exercise wasn't in their vocabulary, they just did it via physical work. Even for those of us who are over 50 or so: we remember when we didn't have dryers, we hung our clothes on the line: we did a lot of ironing, we didn't have light weigh vacumns, we didn't have dish washers. Who heard of a micro, a blender or remote control? Our everyday activities meant burning calories. We also spent more time playing outside, kids rode bikes or walked everywhere, every child had PE in school.

This is why I get a llitle miffed at people who put down overweight people. yes, it is a conscience decision but it goes deeper than that..
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Old 02-01-2013, 07:59 PM
 
206 posts, read 268,816 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nmnita View Post
another issue and netwit sorta hit on it: our families in some cases grew up on farms. They did not always eat healthy, low fat, in fact they rarely did, but they also worked hard The word exercise wasn't in their vocabulary, they just did it via physical work. Even for those of us who are over 50 or so: we remember when we didn't have dryers, we hung our clothes on the line: we did a lot of ironing, we didn't have light weigh vacumns, we didn't have dish washers. Who heard of a micro, a blender or remote control? Our everyday activities meant burning calories. We also spent more time playing outside, kids rode bikes or walked everywhere, every child had PE in school.

This is why I get a llitle miffed at people who put down overweight people. yes, it is a conscience decision but it goes deeper than that..
It doesn't go deeper than that. I come from a fat family and I'm fat currently. The reason I'm fat is laziness, and nothing more. Everyone knows that vegetables are healthy. Everyone knows that sugar is not. Everyone knows that physical activity is healthy. That's really all you need to know to avoid the kind of scenario described in the show.
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Old 02-01-2013, 08:42 PM
 
Location: earth?
7,284 posts, read 12,900,631 times
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There are many variables in food preferences . . . some cultural, some habitual, some pleasure-oriented, etc.

And your premise is faulty. Food preference can be totally unconscious - some people do not resonate with the information they might see or hear.
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Old 02-02-2013, 05:37 AM
 
1,882 posts, read 4,612,390 times
Reputation: 2683
When fresh is expensive I go to the freezer. Frozen peas, corn, broccoli, green beans, etc. Not only are they good to eat, but they make great ice packs for ankles, knees, wrists, etc.

If a person truly cares to make a change, they will do it. Otherwise they just make excuses or blame someone/something else. But that does not incl kids, they depend on their parents until they can see right from wrong.
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