68% of Americans are overweight (including 38% that are obese).

BrokenArrows · 26-01-2018 04:12PM

Mokuba wrote: »

The ham, even as thick as you describe, was probably lower in calories than the other individual ingredients.

Ironic.

Probably not. Likely about 150 calories in the bread
About 300+ in the ham if it was actually ham and not some processed ****e.

Billy86 · 26-01-2018 04:13PM

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

Ditto. This is a massive part of the problem, people drinking calories in massive doses every day.
There was a study in the UK where they removed soft drink vending machines from one school district and left them in another and did base line tests on kids at the start of the year and then checked again at the end of the year and the difference in weight and body fat percentage gained on average over the year between the two districts was dramatic.
The fact that schools are allowed to let private companies make profit off kids is madness.

This was posted on the YLYL thread last night, funny picture and all, and it obviously wasn't the place to point it out, but just take a look at that's actually inside...

I'm fond of a can of Club Orange here or there, but that's 48 cans of soft drinks and if I'm squinting correctly, another 24 bottles of Gatorade which is probably another 48 cans in terms of volume. That's 98 cans, or a little of 30 litres, of absolute crap. And there's a fair chance that the Pepsi is the "least bad/sugary" of the lot of them.

And that's before the rest of it - aside from the Campbells soup it's hard to spot any foods that are non processed/frozen/junk/etc.

Billy86 · 26-01-2018 04:15PM

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I remember you and your OH telling me about this actually.

Can't remember... did she bring up the jar of cheese?

Junk food in moderation is grand but I never, ever want to lay eyes on that sh*te ever again. It might as well have been dyed vomit.

BrokenArrows · 26-01-2018 04:16PM

Billy86 wrote: »

This was posted on the YLYL thread last night, funny picture and all, and it obviously wasn't the place to point it out, but just take a look at that's actually inside...

I'm fond of a can of Club Orange here or there, but that's 48 cans of soft drinks and if I'm squinting correctly, another 24 bottles of Gatorade which is probably another 48 cans in terms of volume. That's 98 cans, or a little of 30 litres, of absolute crap. And there's a fair chance that the Pepsi is the "least bad/sugary" of the lot of them.

And that's before the rest of it - aside from the Campbells soup it's hard to spot any foods that are non processed/frozen/junk/etc.

Even the canned soup is probably loaded with salt.

ancapailldorcha · 26-01-2018 04:16PM

Billy86 wrote: »

Can't remember... did she bring up the jar of cheese?

Junk food in moderation is grand but I never, ever want to lay eyes on that sh*te ever again. It might as well have been dyed vomit.

Think it was just bread. I don't blame you. Crikey. My friend in New York recently moved to Paris and seems to be a lot happier. This might be part of the reason why.

Mokuba · 26-01-2018 04:23PM

There are a few massive issues.

1. Activity levels - People aren't active enough for what the are consuming. Fairly simple. Desk job, drive home, no exercise. Recipe for disaster.

2. Portion size - I guarantee if you ask a normal person to pour a bowl of cereal they will nearly 100 percent of the time over estimate the correct portion size. Just one example.

3. Food on the go - If you don't make it yourself it's a lot harder to regulate it. Hot Chicken Rolls, Work Canteens, etc. I worked in a multi national factory for a year and the work canteen had almost everything deep fried.

4. Carbohydrate overload - Carbs are not the devil, but they make up far too much of the normal persons diet. Cereal, those belvita biscuits, a banana and a yogurt gets quite a lot of people to afternoon. Incredibly unbalanced. Where is the protein and fat?

5. Alcohol. Nearly guaranteed to add pounds to you if you consume it regularly.

Billy86 · 26-01-2018 04:23PM

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Think it was just bread. I don't blame you. Crikey. My friend in New York recently moved to Paris and seems to be a lot happier. This might be part of the reason why.

It didn't require refrigeration and had something like 2-3 years on the expiry date... I've no idea how she's not 300lbs with a waistline around her ankles.

Canada isn't a world better - there are better, healthier options to be had but all the bad stuff is there and broke students and whatnot often fall into it (the fact you have to mortgage the gaf for a litre of milk or bottle of thick cream doesn't help either). And that's in Toronto - options outside are far more limited; same in Australia where the average city person tends to be in good shape but out in the country they've got massive obesity issues. A friend of mine from Canada was over last month while doing the whole backpacking around Europe bit and still can't get over the difference in quality of cheap food.

Billy86 · 26-01-2018 04:24PM

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Even the canned soup is probably loaded with salt.

Oh yeah most likely, but it's a veritable mix of superfoods in a tin compared to the rest of the stuff in that basket!

Mutant z · 26-01-2018 04:25PM

In fairness with the way things are heading over here we will soon be as fat as the Americans.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 26-01-2018 04:28PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPxUWPy8zFw

For Forks Sake · 26-01-2018 04:33PM

wakka12 wrote: »

Why are mexicans so fat?

Probably eating Americans.

26-01-2018 04:39PM

bluewolf wrote: »

"A healthy weight for ireland" - the action plan goes on about the food pyramid and taxing high fat products.
Taxing my olive oil sounds like a great plan altogether ye. Oh and taxing salt. We're definitely obese due to salt

Like not telling us to eat more bread and pasta??
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html

The one main thing i agree with is on sugary drinks I guess

To be honest the actual amount of carbs/starch they suggest isn't that high, it's the fact that's it's completely unrealistic and is the "base" of the pyramid. 6 servings sounds like a lot til you realise a "serving" is tiny. 25g of rice is a serving but you can get 150g boil-in-the bag, meaning that's all of it gone in one go.

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Its the general food available to americans and the portions that they have become used to.

Ive gone to the US a few times for work. Usually a week or two at a time.
Every single meal i eat you leave the table literally bursting and it doesnt cost much either.

Even in the work canteen. They had a counter like in a Centra where you could get a sandwich made. I usually got ham + cheese and the thing would be filled with about 2cm thick of sliced ham for about $3

I started telling them to just put 2-3 slices in there.

When you go to supermarkets its just row after row of processed ****.
You have to go to some more upmarket places to just get a normal unprocessed whole chicken.

The hotel served bacon + eggs but it came with a side of pancakes and maple syrup by default + large coffee with free refills. So thats a whole load of sugar before you even start your day.

What I noticed in Canada (which is a bit dearer than the US for fast food I think) is that fast food was a decent bit cheaper than Ireland and Europe, though not enough on its own to make me eat a lot more. I think the issue in Canada is the price of non-fast food which was so much higher. I went to Costco with my friend and despite buying in bulk and him thinking things were quite cheap I was really surprised how expensive proper food was. There seemed to be no cheap, healthy option like there is here.

26-01-2018 04:41PM

sugarman wrote: »

Also, all the genetically modified foods cannot be good for you. Literally everything is GM, from corn to chicken. I've never seen straight up chicken breasts from a butchers as big as my head anywhere else.

99%+ of what you've ever eaten is GM. But it was done by selection and experimentation and breeding rather than more simply like they can do. My issue with GM food isn't our health but just that a lot of it is done for "convenience" at the expense of a few different environmental and resource issues.

igCorcaigh · 26-01-2018 04:42PM

One of the issues I have with our food pyramid: where are the legumes?

Chrongen · 26-01-2018 05:14PM

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

I actually send food with my young wan when she goes to the states because even stuff like peanut butter is full of sugar and processed oils. Their bread is over processed cake basically.

Probably seems overkill but fcukit like.

You're not wrong there. When I first went to America I was staying at my aunt's house and the first morning I got up and came down to the kitchen on a beautiful July morning on Long Island. I sat down and she poured me a glass of Tropicana orange juice. So far so good. Then asked me if I wanted a tea or a coffee so I opted for the tea.

Then she plonked a plate of doughnuts and danish pastries in the middle of the table.

I couldn't fcuking believe it. Now her and her husband were very rich and their kids, my cousins weren't overweight but if that's an indicator of what people have for breakfast then it's not surprising there are so many blimps there.
At dinner time a large bottle of Coca-Cola was in the middle of the table. The dinner was delicious.....potatoes, lamb, vegetables, gravy, roasted onions....but how the fcuk could you destroy a repast like that with a glass of coke? I had milk.

ancapailldorcha · 26-01-2018 05:19PM

Chrongen wrote: »

You're not wrong there. When I first went to America I was staying at my aunt's house and the first morning I got up and came down to the kitchen on a beautiful July morning on Long Island. I sat down and she poured me a glass of Tropicana orange juice. So far so good. Then asked me if I wanted a tea or a coffee so I opted for the tea.

Then she plonked a plate of doughnuts and danish pastries in the middle of the table.

I couldn't fcuking believe it. Now her and her husband were very rich and their kids, my cousins weren't overweight but if that's an indicator of what people have for breakfast then it's not surprising there are so many blimps there.
At dinner time a large bottle of Coca-Cola was in the middle of the table. The dinner was delicious.....potatoes, lamb, vegetables, gravy, roasted onions....but how the fcuk could you destroy a repast like that with a glass of coke? I had milk.

I'd a mate ask for toast in a San Franciscan diner once and was served deep fried bread.

Chrongen · 26-01-2018 05:48PM

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I've only anecdotes here but I've heard more than a few times that the food in the US is awful. There's Whole Foods, good restaurants and the like but if you can't afford them then you're stuck with it.

American basic food is dire. EVERYTHING is processed and laced with sugar, fat and chemicals. The population is basically 300 million guinea pigs to be exploited for profit. The food and agri industries feed them with absolute muck. The pharma industry then cashes in by selling them ripoff "diet" pills, anti-depressants, blood-thinners, cholesterol "reducers", blood-pressure balancers, etc. Then the insurance companies and the medical industry fleece them further for the operations they need on their hearts, livers, kidneys, etc that are shutting down from diabetes, hypertension etc and their bones and muscles that are falling apart from carrying around such a load.

It's scandalous.

aidoh · 26-01-2018 05:51PM

donegaLroad wrote: »

Im surprised that Hungary didn't top the poll :rolleyes:

This pun needs more kudos

jmayo · 26-01-2018 06:22PM

wakka12 wrote: »

Why are mexicans so fat?

It's a plan by the CIA to make them to big to climb over the fences or crawl through the tunnels.

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Its the general food available to americans and the portions that they have become used to.
...
The hotel served bacon + eggs but it came with a side of pancakes and maple syrup by default + large coffee with free refills. So thats a whole load of sugar before you even start your day.

What would be termed a large coffee here is a medium or even small one in the states.

The portions are much bigger and the quality of the food is more often than not shyte.

If you want to be really depressed go to one of those All You Can Eat joints in a poorer area and be amazed at the amount of shyte some people eat. Hell I have seen some not even get to sit down because they just keep eating off the plate as they walk.
That's about the most excercise they get.

If you ever compare the seats in McDonalds in the US with here, the plastic ones here would not take the weight of the average Mcdonalds customers in the states.

And in a lot of areas of the states people drive everywhere.
They stare at you if you walk from one car park to the next rather than move in the car.

So too much food, too little excercise and bad quality food.

Most of the beef in the states and indeed Canada is corn fed and finished off in feed lots.
Animals walking around eating grass wastes too much energy and thus they don't fatten fast enough.
Whilst they are stuffing corn into the animals they are also adding growth promoters and antibiotics just in case the animals might get sick.

Has anyone here ever watch Man Vs Food to see how some Americans think stuffing your face is a competition sport?

Chrongen · 26-01-2018 06:31PM

Mokuba wrote: »

The ham, even as thick as you describe, was probably lower in calories than the other individual ingredients.

Ironic.

Boars Head ham that they swear by, as if a brand somehow makes it high quality, is processed muck. Offal filled with chemicals and carcinogens. Complete poison.

Chrongen · 26-01-2018 06:34PM

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Probably not. Likely about 150 calories in the bread
About 300+ in the ham if it was actually ham and not some processed ****e.

ALL sliced ham is processed in America unless there was a carvery guy there cleaving off cuts from a ham joint.

68% of Americans are overweight (including 38% that are obese).

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