OT: Hostess Gone Bankrupt!

[Caduceus]

If you don't think America has an eating disorder, check out the NHANES II study that showed American kids obesity has doubled in the Last ten years.

If you don't believe that, go to your local Wal-Mart and take a look around.

Wildcard [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon46.gif[/img]

[Gandalf Parker]

So what makes it a disorder? Looks to me like America eats well. No one starves in the US. Even our homeless look good because we have the highest grade of garbage in the world.

Actually, the fact that this conversation is happening at all means that you guys dont know what MSG is. Its a food additive that the FDA approved to add to foods because it had "no harmful side effects" other than making people want to eat more of the product. Now its in everything in the US, especially snack foods and fast food. Do a google search on MSG obesity FDA
Scarey reading

[Loser]

wildcard06 said:
If you don't think America has an eating disorder, check out the NHANES II study that showed American kids obesity has doubled in the Last ten years.

If you don't believe that, go to your local Wal-Mart and take a look around.

One of the reasons for this is the silly asertion, made first in the late seventies, that he reason for poor health and obesity was not sugar and heavy starches, as thoguht for centuries before, but fat. This lead to the 'low fat' craze.

Now, you might not know it, but fat satiates. That means it fills you up. Add to this the fact that in order to make a low fat food more appealing you have to add sugar (if it isn't appealing it doesn't sell), and you have an increase the the average calorie count for americans of . . . some stupid number.

So we're getting fat.

True, higher fat intake menas more colesterol and a greater risk of heart desease. But if you drop your fat intake down to near nothing, while increaseing your sugar and other carbohydrate intake (as Americans have done), you are going to, on average, get fat. Once you're fat you have an even higher risk of heart desease than you would have if you had stayed on the high-fat diet to begin with.

Not only this but obesity has special risks in children. If a person is obese durring puberty things turn out decidedly different. in addition to changing the way their body retains fat for the rest of their lives, more fat means more estrogen. This means obese girls have an accellerated puberty which increases their risk of ovarian and cervical cancer (though it usually leaves them more fertal (except in cases of morbid levels of obesity). Obese boys, on the other hand, have a retarded (slowed) puberty and will have softer jawlines, less body hair, less height, less testosterone, and more pectoral fat (man-boobs) for the rest of their lives. In cases of morbid obesity in males durring puberty their voices may not even change.

If that doesn't scar you this should. There is a sort of ban on studies involving the causes for different sizes in the most distinguishable male feature, so it's hard to find raw data on that. But a lady friend once told me that she only goes after tall skinny guys (who I noticed happened to have strong jawlines as well) because it invariably indicated the presence of certain other qualities. I've asked around a good deal since then (some people are very open, like the SCA for example), and have gotten nothing but confirmation. It's just anecdotal, but still should emphacize the risks of childhood obesity.

Declaring that people need to go on low-calorie, low-fat diets is great. The only problem is the third word in that sentance. If you realistically want people to stick to such a diet you must make it satisfy them, which will be very difficult.

Me, I'm overweight. I was obease, but I've been on somethign close to the atkins diet for about a year. I lost forty-five pound (~20kg) before I recently got sick and dropped out of ketosis (a differnt metabolic state) because I was eating things that got me healthy faster and put bacteria back in my stomach (anti-biotics).

Of course, if I come off this diet I will gain back much of the weight I've lost, but I don't plan on doing that. The most I will do, when I get back under the BMI that says I'm 'overweight', is bring back some fruits, some of the richer vegatables I've been avoiding (not potatoes, not ever again), and perhaps true-whole-grain breads now and then.

No sugar, no refined-grain breads, no pasta (there is 'Atkins friendly' pasta, but it is mostly dietary fiber so you shouldn't eat to much of it). I can live with that.

Gandalf Parker said:
Actually, the fact that this conversation is happening at all means that you guys dont know what MSG is. Its a food additive that the FDA approved to add to foods because it had "no harmful side effects" other than making people want to eat more of the product. Now its in everything in the US, especially snack foods and fast food. Do a google search on MSG obesity FDA
Scarey reading

I don't know, man. Around here you can't even buy MSG anymore. I know, because I used to keep the stuff around. They used to sell it as 'seasoned salt' in the spice isle. What you now find with the same lable is a mix of spices consisting mostly of pakrika.

I seriously doubt it's still in anything.

[Roanon]

wildcard06 said:
True, higher fat intake menas more colesterol and a greater risk of heart desease.

Another myth. Helps to sell low-fat junk food sells if people think it is "healthy", and help the pharma industry, nothing else.
Fat alone does not increase cholesterol to dangerous levels. One of the most significant factors that increases cholesterol level is stress, for example. Also, cholesterol alone has absolutely no impact on heart diseases. Only in conjunction with other factors, like smoking or overweight. To blame cholesterol for heart diseases is like to blame petrol for car crashes.

Amazing how many americans believe they are eating healthy if they eat artificial everything instead of real food. Buying food was always one of the biggest problems for us when being in the USA. Apart from the usual problems with different taste in bread and coffee. Saltless salt, fatfree fat, sugarfree sugar - it took long to find anything without this junk. Supermarkets with thousands of types of coke and other pops, but no mineral water. Healthy? Argggh.

[Fyron]

Roanon said:
Supermarkets with thousands of types of coke and other pops, but no mineral water. Healthy? Argggh.

Haven't noticed such a problem in California... At least, not in the Last decade or so.

Roanon said:
Another myth. Helps to sell low-fat junk food sells if people think it is "healthy", and help the pharma industry, nothing else.
Fat alone does not increase cholesterol to dangerous levels. One of the most significant factors that increases cholesterol level is stress, for example. Also, cholesterol alone has absolutely no impact on heart diseases. Only in conjunction with other factors, like smoking or overweight. To blame cholesterol for heart diseases is like to blame petrol for car crashes.

Actually... using too much fat and cholesterol can lead to becoming obese, thus increasing the risk of heart disease. Same with using too puch petrol. Drive too fast, increase the risk of an accident. These are not the causes of the respective problems, they are just the instruments used by some dangerous activities...

Also, I should point out that, in California at least, these unhealthy eating trends are coming to an end. Or at least being reduced... there is a lot of drive in the fast food industry for better, healthier food, for example. Not as served by the giants (eg: McDonald's), but by the increasing popularity and quantity of fast food restaurants that serve higher quality food that is not junk.

[Instar]

gimme freaking wheat bread, white bread is sugar and bleach

[Fyron]

Instar said:
gimme freaking wheat bread, white bread is sugar and bleach

There is some filler material in there as well...

[Captain Kwok]

To be fair, white bread is on the same level as most breads in the grocery store. If you want something healthy go with "whole grain" and watch out for things that say "whole wheat".

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I once squished a peice of store bought white bread. It squished down to around a millimeter.