The Fat of the Land
Researches have linked obesity to… food portions. Pardon my French, but no shit, Sherlock. What’s next, cigarettes cause various diseases including cancer? Give me the grant, I’ll link reading funny stories to me inadvertently squirting out of my nose whatever I happen to be drinking at the moment.
Seriously, obesity which plagues this country is not a complicated nut to crack. Oversized portions, lack of exercise and general activity, foods high in sugar and fructose, obnoxious advertisement of junk food – they all contribute in fairly equal manner. Yes, there are genetic reasons but those are rare. And no fad diet or fat burner pills or miracle herbs will save the poor obese kids or adults. Not Atkins, not Dr. Phil, not anyone but themselves. Start moving, cut down on junk food, reduce portions, get some exercise, build up lean muscle mass and watch the pounds melt away. That’s the only recipe, buddy.
04/01/2004 at 3:12 pm Permalink
No shit! Diet and exercise (the more intense, the better). Aint rocket surgery.
04/01/2004 at 3:17 pm Permalink
Actually, I think exercise is most important. Get enough of it and you can eat just about anything and still be trim. But you need the nutrition essentials, and it’s not a good idea to totally clog your arteries, or try to induce adult onset diabetes.
04/01/2004 at 8:20 pm Permalink
It’s actually more simple than any of this. If(calories.in > calories.out) { Person.makeFat(); } else { Person.makeThin(); }
How you manipulate the calories you take in versus the calories you use, is up to you. I lost 30 pounds on Atkins. Is it the only way to regulate your weight? No, but it subscribes to the fact that if you take in fewer calories than you use consistently, you’ll lose weight.
04/01/2004 at 8:46 pm Permalink
Yes, the equation is true. And Atkins diet adheres it by making you consume very little carbs (rich in calories) that cannot be converted to long-term storage, i.e. fat. Whereas if you build up lean muscle mass, you will automatically increase you basal metabolism and burn more calories even without regular exercise and watching your daily food intake like a hawk.
04/01/2004 at 10:21 pm Permalink
There’s a “floor” to calorie intake as well. If you go below it your body will go into conservation mode and shedding weight will be more difficult.
05/01/2004 at 12:22 pm Permalink
Agreed — but add in high-priced fresh food.
Imagine a busy mother or father in the middle class or lower faced with preparing dinner for the family after a typically grueling day spent in the Sisyphean struggle against the twin boulders of inflation and taxation. Money’s tight. Mom or Dad could:
a. Buy a hot and tasty ready-to-eat meal from the 99 Cent Value Menu of his or her choice, which while convenient is laden with fat, calories and possibly teenage acne drippings. Price: Cheap. Time Investment: Little.
b. Go to the grocery store and buy one of those “all in one box” complete dinners, which give the illusion of freshness by requiring assembly and cooking but are just as laden with fat and calories. Price: Fairly cheap. Time Investment: Moderate.
c. Go to the grocery store and purchase fresh fruits vegetables, meats and grains to make a meal that looks a bit more like the wide end of the USDA’s Food Pyramid. Price: Shockingly high. Time Investment: Depends on whether you’re Rachael Ray. If you’re not, heavy.
When two incomes supported operations at One Fulwider Plaza, we used to wonder why our monthly grocery bills regularly topped $400. After one income “just blew away” like Mike Wazowski wishes his paperwork could, we figured it out. No more oranges, apples, grapes, green beans, snow peas, zucchini, squash and salad greens means a grocery bill cut in half.
It’s all about comparative prices; the processed stuff is cheaper and easier. We’ve got to make the mortgage, so we’ve written off the healthy foods we use to enjoy. What choice would you make?
05/01/2004 at 3:47 pm Permalink
I blame it on modern toilet habits. Few things make my skin crawl as much as people leaving their reading materials behind in the bathroom to share with others. What makes people think I want to leaf through their poo-stained Wall Street Journal anyway?
If you spend so much time sitting on the toilet that you think you should read while you’re in there, then I have two words of advice: eat fruit.
05/01/2004 at 4:00 pm Permalink
Where I live, healthy food aint expensive. Making rice, pasta, beans, etc. is pennies! And most fruit and veggies aint much either. Lastly, processing INCREASES the cost of food.
05/01/2004 at 7:49 pm Permalink
Gotta be very careful when you talk about starches and sugars as healthy food – this isn’t just an “I’m on Atkins, Do As I Say” thing either. You’re very correct – pastas, rices, potatoes, et. al. are pretty cheap – it’s why they’ve become a staple of the American diet in the low-fat era of food consumption. Fruits and vegetables CAN be expensive, especially in the northern part of the country where a majority of fresh produce needs to be shipped in. John – frozen vegetables at my local supermarket are incredibly affordable. It may not be the same as eating fresh stuff, but you need the beta carotene and such that a can of Pringles just can’t give you.
The good news is this – with this mad cow scare going around, and all these countries banning U.S. Beef – you’ll be able to get a choice cut sirloin for the same price as chicken breasts. Hooray for Atkins!
05/01/2004 at 8:21 pm Permalink
Ryan’s right, frozen vegetables are affordable, and convenient for some uses. Bake a bag of California Mix veggies with a couple of Italian dressing-marinated chicken or pork pieces and you have a tasty treat. But frozen veggies just don’t cut it for my favorite use — stir fry. If someone knows some Cooking Kung Fu that will keep frozen veggies crisp in a stir fry, do please share your wisdom.
On the fresh vs. processed cost issue Sherlock raises, this is a point on which I’ve been cogitating for quite some time now. If you’ll forgive me for not having a full argument prepared yet, I’ll simply respectfully disagree with Sherlock by saying processing does not in all instances increase the dollar cost of food to the consumer. In any situation where a food products manufacturer can buy lots and lots of ingredients at bulk-discount rates, there’s a chance a like quantity of processed food will be cheaper than the fresh variety. For example, 10 ounces of frozen snow peas are cheaper at my local no-frills grocery store than 10 ounces of fresh. But they sure don’t taste as good in stir fry.
05/01/2004 at 10:10 pm Permalink
LOL, mad cow disease. Is there any risk at all there? Isn’t it next to impossible to transfer to humans, and only if parts like the brain or spinal column are eaten?
05/01/2004 at 10:44 pm Permalink
The problem is that the minutes parts of the cow containing the disease can end up in your ground beef or the T-bone steak, so it’s not out of the question. See http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/cjd.htm.
06/01/2004 at 1:44 am Permalink
Prodigy fan? They sure are taking FOREVER with the lastest album.
06/01/2004 at 9:25 am Permalink
Where I come from, we call that “flavor,” Andrei.