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I have lived in Iceland, Mexico, and the UK and each time reveled in their grocery stores (or the open air market I shopped at in Mexico). Less choices but better quality all around. While living abroad, I was able to eat very healthy The cereal aisle is what I think struck me the most. When I first came back from living in London, I went to the grocery store with my mom in the Atlanta suburbs and had a total sensory overload. The number of options is opressing in some ways. Meanwhile, I can find 10 varieties of Frosted Flakes but my grocery store often doesn't have cauliflower, parsley, or red cabbage in stock.
The lack of home cooking is also a problem. As a society, we work more, move less, spend more time on our commutes, and seem to have more obligations than ever. If I am not really good about making my meals for the week ahead of time (mason jar salads for lunch, something in the crock pot for dinner), I am bound to make bad, quick choices. I have gained a lot of weight in the past year - even while watching what I eat - because my commute is an hour each way and I'm rarely out of the office before 6:30 at night. If I don't have a meal ready to microwave, toss in the oven, or very quickly prep, I am likely to pick up takeout or a frozen meal.
I try to mitigate by making a different big meal each week and portioning it up right then and there for future use. Half goes in the freezer, half used for lunches or dinners. It can get boring eating the same thing every day, but the longer I do it, the more options I have in the freezer. Right now, I'm enjoying a homemade curry with collard greens, mushrooms, and chicken thighs - very healthy and balanced, measured out portions, cheap, and interesting to eat. There are a few more servings in the freezer along with tortilla soup and mushroom congee so that whether I am craving Indian, Mexican, or Chinese food, I have a backup.
Location: Went around the corner & now I'm lost!!!!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stan4
You don't have to read labels if you make all your food from whole ingredients.
This is why I say lack of health boils down to laziness.
It's the preponderance of prepared, processed food that is the problem.
Calorie-dense and nutrition-poor.
Lack of understanding of what is going on in the food,drug and agricultural industries is the main suspect here. They label thing as 1 serving when the container actually has 4 servings. The salt and sugar content in packaged foods have increased three fold to the unsuspecting buyer. A chiropractor I go to has a display of how much sugar was eaten 100 years ago in a YEAR (about 5#) while today we eat about a pound a WEEK now in comparison.
The GMO foods and chemically coated foods lack the nutrients compared to food we had 60-70 years ago. Food used to spoil then but now food last for weeks. Their gut can't process this high tech foods so people are malnourished but overweight because they are still hungry. Our system has soooo many chemical in them that our stomach can't digest and absorb properly nor prevent illness. FYI, did you know that when thye first introduced GMO food in the 90s that childhood illnesses increased 300%??? I didn't know that until someone told me that statistics.
I right now have thyroid problem due to lack of iodine and lack taurine amino acid. Both are needed to metabolize fat. WHAT THE...no doctor told me this... but most don't know ANYTHING about nutrition; my fault for thinking they did!! Most med schools are grounded in teaching directed by pharm, who benefit from people being sick, fat and almost dead (but don't want you dead because you won't need med at that point!) Grass fed meats and organically grown is key but most find it out of their price range so they shop Walmart.
Let's not forget the good old food pyramid that stated the major food group was carbs; potatoes, cereals, breads, pasta etc. They never told us all those carbs convert to sugar and any excess sugar is stored as fat!! Hard to change that concept we all had been brainwashed with for decades..huh?
Yes, we have a generation of people who don't know how to cook but my mother used to say "If you can read, you can cook." Most people don't know how to cook, clean, sew, wash dishes, wash clothes correctly, plant, save money, critically think, reason, do an interview, show respect to others.......shall I go on???
This is the fault of the previous generations not MAKING them learn these things. And with every two decades of "new" parenting going on, the generation are getting dumber and fatter. A re-education of this generation is needed and that my friends takes TIME from people who CARE to dispel the LIES we have been told.
^^I agree for the most part, but I also hold fad diets responsible for people just not knowing what the hell to eat! You can be an excellent cook and make every meal from scratch, but it doesn't mean diddly if you don't know how to balance out your meals and still be able to squeeze in some "cheat" foods.
I agree with you.
But the HFCS argument is superfluous if Americans were to prepare and cook their food from scratch like they used to.
I can make a beef stew to feed a family of six that costs less than a Big Mac and Fries with a half-gallon cup of sugared water laughingly called soda.
Laziness and stupidity is what drives obesity in this country.
I agree with the last sentence in your post!!!
There are too many people these days who don't believe in meals- eat when and whatever they "feel like;" and even people with children rely on fast-food, junk, and ready-made stuff because they never learned how to cook.
And that's your prerogative. From my perspective, a little "crap" within the context of a healthy diet is fine.
And that is how the food industry gets people.
By normalizing non-food so people say, "Treat!" Or think it is something they even should take in "in moderation" simply bc it is available.
Bc it exists on a shelf and makes a brain receptor ping in delight.
I dunno about you, but the rolled oats are in the cereal aisle at our store.
Bingo.
Exactly why I was there.
And because WalMart is the nearest store to me it also has all the fresh produce and healthy food I need for our weekly shop.
The selection is really very good - tonight we ate home-cooked seafood linguine,green salad and a fresh fruit salad with organic yogurt.
Delicious.
Watch the people load their carts up with wheat derived products and make a note of weight. Ditch all wheat and weight goes down by quite a bit.
I think this is a very simplistic view.
I am sure you have to look at the overall picture, diet and exercise, rather than placing all the blame on a single factor.
As an example, I am on a high carb diet because I do a fair amount of running, but I eat a variety of fruits and vegetables as well as meats and fish. I will be 64 years old this month and am 5ft 11 inches tall and weigh 168lbs running low mileage as it is winter. When I am training hard I weigh about 155-160lbs.
I realize personal anecdotes are not the same thing as data, so I am not trying to prove you are mistaken, but at least there are exceptions!
I'd say it more to do with prepared foods than any other single factor. I graduated in 65 and only one girl was over weight looking at old class photo in year book. There was one fast food place just opened and otherwise burger shops but that was pretty much a special treat then for middle class families. I watched and no neighborhood football games in vacant lots where I live. before Super Bowl.
That's from Michael Pollan, author of several books on food/nutrition.
I think he beautifully wraps it up in a nutshell. Eat how he says and most all of us would avoid obesity and many diseases. It's the way I try to eat. Works for me so far.
What do you think? Isn't it beautifully simple?
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