Very timely. I am overweight, but also big boned, and broad shouldered as a 6’2” older woman, on thyroid medication, so not in a position to be too critical, but I have noticed how much heavier young people are getting. That sedentary workers in their late 30’s and 40’s, or women after bearing several children should carry extra weight is almost inevitable, but on a recent cruise I was shocked at how many fat young couples there were. It became a rare pleasure to see someone male or female who looked good in a bathing suit!
Speaking of bathing suits we live in a time when there is an incredible selection of tops and bottoms in women’s suits, longer skirted suits, youthful styles that don’t look like grandmoms’s but don’t show flab, a variety I would’ve loved when I was younger, but young women never seem to pick out the ones that would flatter them. The body positivity movement has a lot of aesthetic horrors to its credit. One sight I would love to unsee was a girl carrying perhaps 80-100 extra pounds wearing a suit with slashes across the midriff. This was a style that would not have looked good on a young Sophia Loren.
The DoorDash phenomena still stuns me. We sometimes stop for breakfast after early Mass on Sunday. The waiting area is filled with door dash drivers. Of all meals breakfast is easy to prepare and unpleasant to eat cold. The restaurant is somewhat pricey, so you are paying top dollar plus delivery for congealed eggs or cheap carbs. It is mind boggling. I have had the privilege of being a stay at home wife and mother for 42 years, which has meant almost all meals and baked goods prepared from scratch. This vanishing lifestyle has certainly made eating healthier more of a challenge but anyone can cook a couple eggs and a few slices of bacon…
Obviously some have medical reasons for weight gain as well as women having kids. All get a free pass. But the young people worry me. If you are already out of shape at 20 you'll be done by 50.
I think your observations about female fashion provides some insight. I too have seen sartorial horrors. Leggings are probably my number one example. They can look good on a trim young woman, or with strategically positioned tops on the less trim ladies. But I often see it all on show on women 50+ lbs overweight. As my sister sometimes says, don't they have mirrors in their house? So I am not sure what that is. Is it confidence or personal gaslighting?
As for proper cooking. It doesn't take much. And there are healthier microwave meals too. So it is not totally black and white. But the delivered food thing is a troubling development. Breakfast seems especially pointless as you say. Even pizza isn't great five minutes out of the oven.
Leggings are really a disaster, and yes we often say “don’t they have mirrors?” It is an unfortunate fact that once you pass a certain point of obesity nothing looks really good, but most young women aren’t there yet. When my older sons were at university, 2002-2008, bare midriff tops were in. Girls who would’ve looked quite nice in a sweater or blouse and jeans insisted on tight hip huggers and short tops, resulting in the “muffin top look”. My eldest wrote a poem to the music from “paint it black” with a refrain “I see the girls dressed in their summer clothes…it makes me want to cry they look like marshmallows”. The fact is nature has designed it so the vast majority of girls 18-22 look quite lovely naturally. There is something unnatural causing them to become so deformed so early.
Leggings have replaced yoga pants as ubiquitous wear. The worst is when they are stretched so tight that the color and opacity change…. When you look at older pictures of people you realize that they wanted to look their best in public, it was considered a mark of self respect. Many now seem to feel that dressing to look decent is somehow a concession to the long defunct patriarchy. Madness.
There is much madness afoot, not just fashion. But I do think post-modern life is quite unattractive. And there is something much more attractive in those older photos. Men and women took the time to dress well when in public. Changed days.
Interestingly, my wife took a Viking cruise to Russia a few years ago and was impressed with the fact that all Russian men seemed to wear suits, the women wore dresses, and the famous subways are still works of art. I often think that Russia is the last bastion of decency, propriety, and Christianity.
My vision of Russia is drunk men in Adidas tracksuits with Kalashnikovs and vodka. But I do agree they seem to have retained some traditional values.
But I suspect so have we. Our media is absolutely captured and will only broadcast approved material. So I think there is a skewed view of what we are really like.
It's all by design. A population that is fat and unhealthy is much easier to control than a society of fit and healthy individuals. By slowly poisoning the food supply, and us along with it, they have essentially neutered their biggest threat, those they seek to enslave. I absolutely do not understand how people can drink pop, eat bags of doritos, or, for fuck's sake, a goddamn 7/11 burrito and not realize that all they are doing is poisoning themselves. Yes, let's slurp down poisoned water along with a whole host of other chemicals and call that nutrition, then wonder why they are fat and cannot lose weight. Oh, but it tastes good so therefore who cares what it's doing to your body. It's hard living in this world sometimes when you're surrounded by people so absolutely sedated by chemicals, propaganda, and sheer stupidity that it's a wonder they can dress themselves without the government telling them that pants go on the legs and shirts go over the head.
It is a challenging dilemma, to watch adults poison themselves with junk as you say. The antidote is personal responsibility. Some are not saveable. We know this. It is a kind of public test of mettle. Many fail.
I doubt any of the 7/11 junk food brigade will be taking the time to read 2000 word pieces on Substack either, so we are probably unlikely to get any comments from them, lol. How you do anything is how you do everything.
I would argue there must be a massive overlap with the people you describe and the phone zombies I mentioned. I do have some sympathy since the social media companies know what they are doing. But it is the same dynamic. It is killing them.
Good reminder as I plan pur meals for the day as we're running some long distance errands (actually to pick up some used garden beds for next year 😂)
Two thoughts:
There is a social element to this as well to make access easier. Depending on where one lives they may be sourcing food from several places (not that the grocery can't provide healthy food but for those looking for even more transparency) growing a sources customer base can increase access for everyone if they can create additional pick-up or delivery spots.
My other thought was how easy it is to let one's self take the convenient mental path and the decline that ensues. Substack can be a great remedy for that!
I agree there is a social and a logistical element. But I also think attitude is important. We must not just reach for regulation as it requires constant policing. Much easier to police ourselves.
Yes, agreed, my thinking was more for local farms and gardens that want to expand but need a certain level of demand to provide additional pick-up points or delivery options.
Yes. I would love to see farmer's markets and equivalent producers do better and become more commonplace. But we cannot deny modern supermarkets are extremely convenient. Hard to beat as it is all under one roof.
You speak the truth, the expansion of grocery stores into marketplaces means I sometimes buy food, clothes, housewares, and flowers all in one place 🤦♀️ the pull of convenience is strooooooong
Every time I pass my local McJunks, I am astonished at the amount of delivery people going in or out with their branded bags. A few years back, the idea of having a burger and coffee or whatever actually delivered would have been laughed at. And where I live anyway, the hugely overweight people are getting younger-just kids now in large part (so to speak!). It seems a vicious circle: laziness and junk food makes you fat and unhealthy, and being fat and unhealthy makes you less and less likely to be able to face the thought of the physical exertion involved in getting up and walking out the door to do anything physical. And the "body positive" normalisation of obesity on TV and social media all helps perpetuate the phenomenon, as "hugely fat" is now "average". They have even re-sized clothes so that people can kid themselves they are still the size they were...or at least only a couple of sizes larger. Blimey. The addiction to convenience at almost any price is proving to be the death of the Anglosphere by the look of things just now. We have seen that writ large over the last few years in every sphere of life.
Remember, the imports are more prone to it than us, believe it or not. So perhaps what we are witnessing is a cosmic race to the bottom. I would put money on the Anglos producing the most people who resist, followed by East Asians. Perhaps we will win when everyone else gets diabetes.
Some of the Gulf States are facing an obesity crisis thanks to imported junk food from America. They have relatively poor internal control mechanisms from what I have read. Their evolutionary path was one of scarcity, not abundance so the self-control is largely absent.
And I too have seen virtually everywhere with Just Eat and Deliveroo riders picking up orders. Its main effect on me is to help stiffen my resolve.
Yup. Our health is in our hands. It’s our responsibility. If you give your responsibility to the government to “Save” you from the Food Industry (persecutor), then you are becoming a slave to whether or not the government takes action and solves the problem.
They don’t solve the problem. First, because they have no incentive to solve the problem. If the government solved all our problems, there would be no use for it any longer and it would cease to exist. But they also can’t solve the problem because the problem is not the Food Industry. The problem is that people don’t want to take responsibility for their own health and well-being and want to shift that responsibility around like a hot potato to the point that no one has any incentive for it to get fixed.
We are in the midst of a world-wide crisis (people's reactions to COVID in particular) because people are refusing to take responsibility or they want to force the government to take over that responsibility. But that's why I write on Substack, to help people see it and see the solution.
I am veering into that territory a little as I experiment with my own life. I quit smoking this year and it opened up a new world of exercise for me. It feels amazing. I would love everyone to quit their addictions and feel like this.
Being stuck in the Drama Triangle, giving up responsibility to get things done, is living in a place of powerlessness. Responsibility equals power. I'm glad you're feeling that. I wish it for everyone, especially the people who are stuck in this political mess of grievances. If everyone took responsibility, they'd feel powerful and have no need or desire to try to force others to act differently any longer. It would be the end of authoritarianism if everyone took personal responsibility and expected that of each other.
Yes it is powerful. And I agree it would usher in a new world. But I cannot see people giving up their victim status in the current climate. And I think it will get worse before it gets better.
We’re lucky in that we’ve got a community of young farmers in our area. We pick up a bag of veggies every week. I am feeling great, eating fresh salad nearly every day of the week. I’ve cut grains and sugar out of my diet too, and I’m down 15 pounds in the last three months. The first weeks were tough, passing up deserts and bread (god bless bread!), but the results began immediately and they are incredibly motivating.
The carbs and sugar are almost certainly the culprits in many diseases. The inflammation they cause. It will be decades before we have those conversations.
I am the same. Sugar and stodge is off the menu. Plenty of salads, good sources of meat and traditional fats.
Here's a couple of things I've noticed since we've been prioritizing healthy food choices over "convenient" ones:
1) RIght now, it is so much easier to make good, homemade food than it would have been a generation or two ago. We have electric and gas-powered ovens and myriad electrically powered kitchen appliances that make doing things so much easier - food processors, blenders, coffee grinders, coffee makers, the list goes on. Do you have any idea how much time it would take to bake a cake if you had to chop the firewood yourself to just get the oven hot? It makes the slide into "convenience" foods that much more inexcusable.
2) In my household, we've been at this for a while, so we have almost completely eliminated processed foods. Once in a blue moon I'll use something like store-bought pepperoni on a (homemade) pizza, or be given some kind of "gourmet" snack food by a well-meaning friend. It always stuns me how these foods affect us - of course, they are delicious, like almost everything else we eat that we grow or make ourselves, but beyond that: they are so *addictive* tasting. Even when I'm full after eating them, I still want more - it's like they override your sense of satiation. I recognize what is going on since I eat such foods so rarely - but it gives a me a taste of what other people are up against in terms of regulating their own consumption.
But I 100% agree with you, Spiff, that the decision is truly in our hands to decide what we put into our own mouths.
1) You are correct. We don't stop to think how much easier it is to make good food with all our convenient devices. Instead we go all out for even easier. Microwave the lot!
2) I think everyone is the same. I would argue eating occasional processed food or even really bad food is fine. It is when the basis of our diet is junk we see all the lifestyle diseases.
Ultimately the escape from the convenience maze begins with completely accepting absolute responsibility for all we consume. It starts there, and only then can most begin to map their way out of it. It is a process really.
"they must feel serious financial pain...This is about education first and foremost...Education and discipline solve virtually everything."
Exactly. Top down regulation always backfires. We can simply stop supporting the conglomerates.
Discipline is easier with sufficient incentive. Sadly, in many cases the incentive comes from being diagnosed with a lifestyle disease or autoimmune condition.
I do think it would help if the government stopped subsidizing the major ingredients of highly processed foods. This would return food prices to more realistic levels. Thanks to lobbying and subsidies, the worst food is the cheapest.
I do agree. It is not as simple as self-discipline. But ultimately we have little control over the lobbyists and the regulators. And even with occasional wins it is a constant battle.
If we accept the notion all of us have limited energy then at least some of that needs to be directed towards ourselves and our betterment. The cultivation of discipline, then, is where the focus should be. It can work for anyone with a little luck and help from others.
Counterpoint: regulators coming under capitalist corporate control is almost uniquely a feature of British and American neo-liberal economic theories out into practice.
We don't have that problem, and our food/agri-lobbyists are quite influential anyway. Over 3/4 of our food market is under the thumb of three corporations, and the Center Party of our parliament used to be called the Farmers' Union, for obvious reasons, and is still quite strong in the country-side, their recent forays into woke libertarianism aside.
And we have several agencies deciding what may be put into food, not just one, and these look at different aspects of the food no matter if it is hyperprocessed vegan fake food, or rutabagas. But we don't have american problem. If it was just down to agency capture, then we would have that problem too.
The underlying difference is, we are not capitalists as a cultural trade, we are traders, businessmen, workers, and so on by necessity. May sound like same same different name, but it makes a world of difference:
To a capitalist, more money made is the only metric for any ethical concern. Hence, if destroying production of real food in order to maximis profits and minimise costs by depriving the majority of the market real and affordable alternatives to Big Biz "food", then that is what a capitalist will do, every time. Not being capitalist doesn't mean not interested in turning a profit, it simply means there are things you won't do because they debase you, and money isn't worth that.
Market-wise, the US situation is perfect for those already emplaced on the top: the mass market is stuck with cheap-o fake food, the upper middle class that can afford to eat stuff based on lifestyle choices can also be catered to, and so can those rich enough to afford real food. A truly class-based society. About the same as in a communist nation: the proles get prole-feed, the Outer Party gets Victory Goods, and the Inner Party get the real stuff.
Maybe, just maybe, having capitalism as the underlying ethos of a nation isn't all that clever? Maybe put better charitable ethics, be they Lutheran or secular, in place above capitalism would work to the advantage of the common man/woman? After all, no Christian can be capitalist - that would be a mortal sin and heresy:
You make some good points, and good to know Sweden has not succumbed. Britain definitely has. Obesity on the rise etc.
I don't think there is any easy answer as our systems ultimately reflect the character of the people. So our system did work well in the past. But that is a different country.
Just like water finds the easiest path downhill, so too do we humans. I like the banning of this food or that drink from my diet because if I give myself even a little wiggle room then I will inevitably fail.
We are all weak, lol. I don't have a sweet tooth so my downfall is savory things like crisps (potato chips). That comment about eating ten inches of Pringles is a personal sore point 😜
Tonight’s menu at this house is thinly sliced fennel, onions and garlic, halved sweet tomatoes, all sauteed in olive oil and served with parmesan cheese, plus oven baked coho salmon en papillotte. I believe in cooking with good fresh ingredients. Unfortunately not skinny though, as my back pain prevents much walking. But you are very right! People are often too lazy to cook, or prefer to spend no time in the kitchen. Even when i still went to the office (now working from home) i always planned for dinner. All it takes is planning, really, thta plus a good fridge and freezer. Keep up the great writing,
I do believe an addiction to convenience is a kind of meta addiction driving the others. Processed food tends to be empty calories. But it tastes nice and is easy to prepare and consume.
Very timely. I am overweight, but also big boned, and broad shouldered as a 6’2” older woman, on thyroid medication, so not in a position to be too critical, but I have noticed how much heavier young people are getting. That sedentary workers in their late 30’s and 40’s, or women after bearing several children should carry extra weight is almost inevitable, but on a recent cruise I was shocked at how many fat young couples there were. It became a rare pleasure to see someone male or female who looked good in a bathing suit!
Speaking of bathing suits we live in a time when there is an incredible selection of tops and bottoms in women’s suits, longer skirted suits, youthful styles that don’t look like grandmoms’s but don’t show flab, a variety I would’ve loved when I was younger, but young women never seem to pick out the ones that would flatter them. The body positivity movement has a lot of aesthetic horrors to its credit. One sight I would love to unsee was a girl carrying perhaps 80-100 extra pounds wearing a suit with slashes across the midriff. This was a style that would not have looked good on a young Sophia Loren.
The DoorDash phenomena still stuns me. We sometimes stop for breakfast after early Mass on Sunday. The waiting area is filled with door dash drivers. Of all meals breakfast is easy to prepare and unpleasant to eat cold. The restaurant is somewhat pricey, so you are paying top dollar plus delivery for congealed eggs or cheap carbs. It is mind boggling. I have had the privilege of being a stay at home wife and mother for 42 years, which has meant almost all meals and baked goods prepared from scratch. This vanishing lifestyle has certainly made eating healthier more of a challenge but anyone can cook a couple eggs and a few slices of bacon…
Obviously some have medical reasons for weight gain as well as women having kids. All get a free pass. But the young people worry me. If you are already out of shape at 20 you'll be done by 50.
I think your observations about female fashion provides some insight. I too have seen sartorial horrors. Leggings are probably my number one example. They can look good on a trim young woman, or with strategically positioned tops on the less trim ladies. But I often see it all on show on women 50+ lbs overweight. As my sister sometimes says, don't they have mirrors in their house? So I am not sure what that is. Is it confidence or personal gaslighting?
As for proper cooking. It doesn't take much. And there are healthier microwave meals too. So it is not totally black and white. But the delivered food thing is a troubling development. Breakfast seems especially pointless as you say. Even pizza isn't great five minutes out of the oven.
Leggings are really a disaster, and yes we often say “don’t they have mirrors?” It is an unfortunate fact that once you pass a certain point of obesity nothing looks really good, but most young women aren’t there yet. When my older sons were at university, 2002-2008, bare midriff tops were in. Girls who would’ve looked quite nice in a sweater or blouse and jeans insisted on tight hip huggers and short tops, resulting in the “muffin top look”. My eldest wrote a poem to the music from “paint it black” with a refrain “I see the girls dressed in their summer clothes…it makes me want to cry they look like marshmallows”. The fact is nature has designed it so the vast majority of girls 18-22 look quite lovely naturally. There is something unnatural causing them to become so deformed so early.
Leggings have replaced yoga pants as ubiquitous wear. The worst is when they are stretched so tight that the color and opacity change…. When you look at older pictures of people you realize that they wanted to look their best in public, it was considered a mark of self respect. Many now seem to feel that dressing to look decent is somehow a concession to the long defunct patriarchy. Madness.
There is much madness afoot, not just fashion. But I do think post-modern life is quite unattractive. And there is something much more attractive in those older photos. Men and women took the time to dress well when in public. Changed days.
Interestingly, my wife took a Viking cruise to Russia a few years ago and was impressed with the fact that all Russian men seemed to wear suits, the women wore dresses, and the famous subways are still works of art. I often think that Russia is the last bastion of decency, propriety, and Christianity.
#FuckZelenskyyyy
My vision of Russia is drunk men in Adidas tracksuits with Kalashnikovs and vodka. But I do agree they seem to have retained some traditional values.
But I suspect so have we. Our media is absolutely captured and will only broadcast approved material. So I think there is a skewed view of what we are really like.
Amerika 2024:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-kdRdzxdZQ
Fitless Humans (WALL·E) - YouTube
It's all by design. A population that is fat and unhealthy is much easier to control than a society of fit and healthy individuals. By slowly poisoning the food supply, and us along with it, they have essentially neutered their biggest threat, those they seek to enslave. I absolutely do not understand how people can drink pop, eat bags of doritos, or, for fuck's sake, a goddamn 7/11 burrito and not realize that all they are doing is poisoning themselves. Yes, let's slurp down poisoned water along with a whole host of other chemicals and call that nutrition, then wonder why they are fat and cannot lose weight. Oh, but it tastes good so therefore who cares what it's doing to your body. It's hard living in this world sometimes when you're surrounded by people so absolutely sedated by chemicals, propaganda, and sheer stupidity that it's a wonder they can dress themselves without the government telling them that pants go on the legs and shirts go over the head.
It is a challenging dilemma, to watch adults poison themselves with junk as you say. The antidote is personal responsibility. Some are not saveable. We know this. It is a kind of public test of mettle. Many fail.
I doubt any of the 7/11 junk food brigade will be taking the time to read 2000 word pieces on Substack either, so we are probably unlikely to get any comments from them, lol. How you do anything is how you do everything.
I would argue there must be a massive overlap with the people you describe and the phone zombies I mentioned. I do have some sympathy since the social media companies know what they are doing. But it is the same dynamic. It is killing them.
Good reminder as I plan pur meals for the day as we're running some long distance errands (actually to pick up some used garden beds for next year 😂)
Two thoughts:
There is a social element to this as well to make access easier. Depending on where one lives they may be sourcing food from several places (not that the grocery can't provide healthy food but for those looking for even more transparency) growing a sources customer base can increase access for everyone if they can create additional pick-up or delivery spots.
My other thought was how easy it is to let one's self take the convenient mental path and the decline that ensues. Substack can be a great remedy for that!
I agree there is a social and a logistical element. But I also think attitude is important. We must not just reach for regulation as it requires constant policing. Much easier to police ourselves.
Yes, agreed, my thinking was more for local farms and gardens that want to expand but need a certain level of demand to provide additional pick-up points or delivery options.
Yes. I would love to see farmer's markets and equivalent producers do better and become more commonplace. But we cannot deny modern supermarkets are extremely convenient. Hard to beat as it is all under one roof.
You speak the truth, the expansion of grocery stores into marketplaces means I sometimes buy food, clothes, housewares, and flowers all in one place 🤦♀️ the pull of convenience is strooooooong
Very much so.
Every time I pass my local McJunks, I am astonished at the amount of delivery people going in or out with their branded bags. A few years back, the idea of having a burger and coffee or whatever actually delivered would have been laughed at. And where I live anyway, the hugely overweight people are getting younger-just kids now in large part (so to speak!). It seems a vicious circle: laziness and junk food makes you fat and unhealthy, and being fat and unhealthy makes you less and less likely to be able to face the thought of the physical exertion involved in getting up and walking out the door to do anything physical. And the "body positive" normalisation of obesity on TV and social media all helps perpetuate the phenomenon, as "hugely fat" is now "average". They have even re-sized clothes so that people can kid themselves they are still the size they were...or at least only a couple of sizes larger. Blimey. The addiction to convenience at almost any price is proving to be the death of the Anglosphere by the look of things just now. We have seen that writ large over the last few years in every sphere of life.
Remember, the imports are more prone to it than us, believe it or not. So perhaps what we are witnessing is a cosmic race to the bottom. I would put money on the Anglos producing the most people who resist, followed by East Asians. Perhaps we will win when everyone else gets diabetes.
Some of the Gulf States are facing an obesity crisis thanks to imported junk food from America. They have relatively poor internal control mechanisms from what I have read. Their evolutionary path was one of scarcity, not abundance so the self-control is largely absent.
And I too have seen virtually everywhere with Just Eat and Deliveroo riders picking up orders. Its main effect on me is to help stiffen my resolve.
Yup. Our health is in our hands. It’s our responsibility. If you give your responsibility to the government to “Save” you from the Food Industry (persecutor), then you are becoming a slave to whether or not the government takes action and solves the problem.
They don’t solve the problem. First, because they have no incentive to solve the problem. If the government solved all our problems, there would be no use for it any longer and it would cease to exist. But they also can’t solve the problem because the problem is not the Food Industry. The problem is that people don’t want to take responsibility for their own health and well-being and want to shift that responsibility around like a hot potato to the point that no one has any incentive for it to get fixed.
It is comforting to have someone to blame for our problems. The economy, the government, space aliens.
Taking responsibility is becoming a superpower. We seem to be moving ever further away from this position.
We are in the midst of a world-wide crisis (people's reactions to COVID in particular) because people are refusing to take responsibility or they want to force the government to take over that responsibility. But that's why I write on Substack, to help people see it and see the solution.
I am veering into that territory a little as I experiment with my own life. I quit smoking this year and it opened up a new world of exercise for me. It feels amazing. I would love everyone to quit their addictions and feel like this.
Being stuck in the Drama Triangle, giving up responsibility to get things done, is living in a place of powerlessness. Responsibility equals power. I'm glad you're feeling that. I wish it for everyone, especially the people who are stuck in this political mess of grievances. If everyone took responsibility, they'd feel powerful and have no need or desire to try to force others to act differently any longer. It would be the end of authoritarianism if everyone took personal responsibility and expected that of each other.
Yes it is powerful. And I agree it would usher in a new world. But I cannot see people giving up their victim status in the current climate. And I think it will get worse before it gets better.
We’re lucky in that we’ve got a community of young farmers in our area. We pick up a bag of veggies every week. I am feeling great, eating fresh salad nearly every day of the week. I’ve cut grains and sugar out of my diet too, and I’m down 15 pounds in the last three months. The first weeks were tough, passing up deserts and bread (god bless bread!), but the results began immediately and they are incredibly motivating.
The carbs and sugar are almost certainly the culprits in many diseases. The inflammation they cause. It will be decades before we have those conversations.
I am the same. Sugar and stodge is off the menu. Plenty of salads, good sources of meat and traditional fats.
Bingo.
This is not a health choice, but my relatives , excluding my wife, roll their eyes at me because I grind our coffee by hand.
3 minutes every day. For me it is a brief time of reflection.
It's all about the grind 🤓
Truer words were never said.
Here's a couple of things I've noticed since we've been prioritizing healthy food choices over "convenient" ones:
1) RIght now, it is so much easier to make good, homemade food than it would have been a generation or two ago. We have electric and gas-powered ovens and myriad electrically powered kitchen appliances that make doing things so much easier - food processors, blenders, coffee grinders, coffee makers, the list goes on. Do you have any idea how much time it would take to bake a cake if you had to chop the firewood yourself to just get the oven hot? It makes the slide into "convenience" foods that much more inexcusable.
2) In my household, we've been at this for a while, so we have almost completely eliminated processed foods. Once in a blue moon I'll use something like store-bought pepperoni on a (homemade) pizza, or be given some kind of "gourmet" snack food by a well-meaning friend. It always stuns me how these foods affect us - of course, they are delicious, like almost everything else we eat that we grow or make ourselves, but beyond that: they are so *addictive* tasting. Even when I'm full after eating them, I still want more - it's like they override your sense of satiation. I recognize what is going on since I eat such foods so rarely - but it gives a me a taste of what other people are up against in terms of regulating their own consumption.
But I 100% agree with you, Spiff, that the decision is truly in our hands to decide what we put into our own mouths.
Yes, exactly.
1) You are correct. We don't stop to think how much easier it is to make good food with all our convenient devices. Instead we go all out for even easier. Microwave the lot!
2) I think everyone is the same. I would argue eating occasional processed food or even really bad food is fine. It is when the basis of our diet is junk we see all the lifestyle diseases.
Ultimately the escape from the convenience maze begins with completely accepting absolute responsibility for all we consume. It starts there, and only then can most begin to map their way out of it. It is a process really.
Yup. It boils down to survival of the fittest, not the fattest.
"they must feel serious financial pain...This is about education first and foremost...Education and discipline solve virtually everything."
Exactly. Top down regulation always backfires. We can simply stop supporting the conglomerates.
Discipline is easier with sufficient incentive. Sadly, in many cases the incentive comes from being diagnosed with a lifestyle disease or autoimmune condition.
I do think it would help if the government stopped subsidizing the major ingredients of highly processed foods. This would return food prices to more realistic levels. Thanks to lobbying and subsidies, the worst food is the cheapest.
I do agree. It is not as simple as self-discipline. But ultimately we have little control over the lobbyists and the regulators. And even with occasional wins it is a constant battle.
If we accept the notion all of us have limited energy then at least some of that needs to be directed towards ourselves and our betterment. The cultivation of discipline, then, is where the focus should be. It can work for anyone with a little luck and help from others.
Counterpoint: regulators coming under capitalist corporate control is almost uniquely a feature of British and American neo-liberal economic theories out into practice.
We don't have that problem, and our food/agri-lobbyists are quite influential anyway. Over 3/4 of our food market is under the thumb of three corporations, and the Center Party of our parliament used to be called the Farmers' Union, for obvious reasons, and is still quite strong in the country-side, their recent forays into woke libertarianism aside.
And we have several agencies deciding what may be put into food, not just one, and these look at different aspects of the food no matter if it is hyperprocessed vegan fake food, or rutabagas. But we don't have american problem. If it was just down to agency capture, then we would have that problem too.
The underlying difference is, we are not capitalists as a cultural trade, we are traders, businessmen, workers, and so on by necessity. May sound like same same different name, but it makes a world of difference:
To a capitalist, more money made is the only metric for any ethical concern. Hence, if destroying production of real food in order to maximis profits and minimise costs by depriving the majority of the market real and affordable alternatives to Big Biz "food", then that is what a capitalist will do, every time. Not being capitalist doesn't mean not interested in turning a profit, it simply means there are things you won't do because they debase you, and money isn't worth that.
Market-wise, the US situation is perfect for those already emplaced on the top: the mass market is stuck with cheap-o fake food, the upper middle class that can afford to eat stuff based on lifestyle choices can also be catered to, and so can those rich enough to afford real food. A truly class-based society. About the same as in a communist nation: the proles get prole-feed, the Outer Party gets Victory Goods, and the Inner Party get the real stuff.
Maybe, just maybe, having capitalism as the underlying ethos of a nation isn't all that clever? Maybe put better charitable ethics, be they Lutheran or secular, in place above capitalism would work to the advantage of the common man/woman? After all, no Christian can be capitalist - that would be a mortal sin and heresy:
Radix Malorum est Cupiditas
You make some good points, and good to know Sweden has not succumbed. Britain definitely has. Obesity on the rise etc.
I don't think there is any easy answer as our systems ultimately reflect the character of the people. So our system did work well in the past. But that is a different country.
Just like water finds the easiest path downhill, so too do we humans. I like the banning of this food or that drink from my diet because if I give myself even a little wiggle room then I will inevitably fail.
We are all weak, lol. I don't have a sweet tooth so my downfall is savory things like crisps (potato chips). That comment about eating ten inches of Pringles is a personal sore point 😜
💯🙏🏼💙 Thank you.
Thank you for reading.
BINGO!
Tonight’s menu at this house is thinly sliced fennel, onions and garlic, halved sweet tomatoes, all sauteed in olive oil and served with parmesan cheese, plus oven baked coho salmon en papillotte. I believe in cooking with good fresh ingredients. Unfortunately not skinny though, as my back pain prevents much walking. But you are very right! People are often too lazy to cook, or prefer to spend no time in the kitchen. Even when i still went to the office (now working from home) i always planned for dinner. All it takes is planning, really, thta plus a good fridge and freezer. Keep up the great writing,
Thank you. Glad you liked.
Convenience is not the problem.
The problems are addiction, lack of self-reflection, lack of self-control and lack of foresight.
Sugar doesn't cause disease.
Fruit contains enormous amounts of sugar, and is perfectly healthy.
It's what the food is missing that is the problem.
When the ratio of sugar to nutrients increases, you get less nutrients for the same calories.
The same problem exists for alcohol, known as "empty calories".
So you have two choices, get fat, or get malnutrition.
I do believe an addiction to convenience is a kind of meta addiction driving the others. Processed food tends to be empty calories. But it tastes nice and is easy to prepare and consume.