Re: fast food places, I used to work for a well-known purveyor of sweetened beverages. I was a member of an account team serving a single client, a well-known purveyor of fast food. This was during the time when the “upsizing” (as the Industry calls it) craze was just getting underway (it was the only way the Execs could think of to boost sales). And the thing I want everyone to know is - those people do not eat the food themselves. In fact, they consider the food they produce and sell to be a substandard product that only “the masses” consume. It’s a class issue. Business lunches were always held at far superior restaurants.
That is a job worth leaving, even in these risky economic times.
That they want to play games with their health and metabolism is fine, albeit stupid. That they made it mandatory is ridiculous, and that you didn’t succumb speaks well of your self-control, integrity, and determination.
"and they have done nothing to bother you" LOL, talk about an exception that swallows the rule. Not quite Kant’s catagorical impairitive you have crafted there.
I don’t particularly care what other people eat or why, let alone how much they weigh, but I find this hard to believe. I’m single and I spend about $50 a week on groceries – and I’m not buying the cheap stuff, I like good-quality cheese and fresh-baked bread. Around $15 of that goes for beer, snacks, and nonfood household items, leaving about $35, or $5 a day, for meals. Where is this drive-thru that you can get three meals for under $5?
I guess I made it sound a little worse than it was. It was all just in fun. Still there was pressure to participate. We even got a $5 per diem allowance from corporate for snacks.
As part of my diet I found a tasty but fat free cracker called Bible Bread. I got endless flak about that.
This is simply not true. If you have some evidence that contradicts mine, cite it, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index finds these are average prices for foods per pound:
chocolate chip cookies $2.92
potato chips $3.59
soda (per gallon, 2L size) $4.76
Sorry to repeat myself on the societal responsibility thing.
When I first went to the States and saw the choice of S, M and L -I thought the L size drink of Coke at the cinema was a mini pool to cool off in.
Australia comes second to the States in being the fatest in the world now. Australia serves most meals with the fries option, has large portions and you can up size to fairly large Ls in most fastfood chains.
However, I have yet to go to a country that compares with US serving sizes - I have lived in and visited many.
Now tell me that a capitalist, free market ecomony with no societal accountability and that screams ‘freedom of choice’ is not partially to blame. If the options weren’t there, noone could choose them. Fuck your freedom of choice, sometimes people need to have their choices reduced for them. I’m not talking about eliminating the bad stuff altogether, just making the sizes smaller - check out ‘rest of world’ for better sizing options.
I’m guessing she was guilty of “impersonating a police officer”.
My wife and I have a relatively healthy diet – perhaps a little high in carbohydrates (pasta, mostly), but no fast food, no huge portions, lots of fish, salads and vegetables. I probably eat 50% more than she does calorie-wise, yet I’m more or less the right weight, whereas she can’t seem to lose any of the 20 or so pounds she’s been trying to lose for ages.
The main difference seems to be metabolic – I burn calories quickly and easily, whereas she doesn’t; equivalent levels of activity produce different results. So does this mean I’m conscientious and she’s lazy and weak-willed? Nope. I’m just lucky; she’s not. Them’s the breaks.
Yosemitebabe, I think we may have been separated at birth. Your physique, as you describe it, is almost identical to mine. The exception being that I am 5’2", not 5’4". That loss of two inches sometimes makes me lean toward a 14, especially in blue jeans.
I have often been dismayed to learn, that while I feel fairly good, engage in moderate activity, eat very healthy (lots of veggies, fruits, whole grains), the doctor’s chart says that technically, I am obese.
I wear a 12/14…that works out to a medium in some sizing. How can I be obese and wear a medium? Hello?
I do think the breasts account for some of the weight (maybe 10-15 pounds?..I wear a 36 DD)…but not the 50+ pounds that I am not supposed to have. What’s the deal?
So taking away choice is a good thing? How is this going to be enforced? Will there be the appointment of a Serving Size Czar. Will we create another level of bureacracy to enforce these rules? Who gets to decide what the correct serving size will be?
My next question is where will we end the regulation? Why not ban alcohol? Surely that is as harmful as a Big Mac? Lets make it so cars can’t go faster than 50 mph. Surely it would save lives and be “good” for us. Your solution seems to be that people are too stupid to make their own decisions.
Ultimately the consumer is the one who has to make his or her own decisions. Society shouldn’t have to hold your hand through every decision. No one is putting a gun to any one’s head and forcing them to eat fast food. No one is forcing anyone to get the bucket sized soda. Anyhow, banning the large size wouldn’t make much difference as most fast-food restaurants in the U.S. offer free refills.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by brujo *
**So taking away choice is a good thing? How is this going to be enforced? Will there be the appointment of a Serving Size Czar. Will we create another level of bureacracy to enforce these rules? Who gets to decide what the correct serving size will be?
My next question is where will we end the regulation? Why not ban alcohol? Surely that is as harmful as a Big Mac? Lets make it so cars can’t go faster than 50 mph.
I didn’t say we should ban anything - just moderate serving sizes and not encourage those who make poor choices to make poor choices. Nor did I say we should take away choice, I said we should limit choice. If no limits on serving size are a good thing, then why is the US the fatest nation in the world? Benchmarking is a basic tool of business excellence, so why not look outside of the US to see what other countries do that stops them from being obese nations ie. they don’t have such large serving sizes to choose from.
All nations regulate as do all businesses.
Asking about the appointment of “a Serving Size Czar” is naive. Businesses decide on serving size by what kind of profit they can make or how they can hook consumers. Businesses can regulate if they want to, but they don’t because for the most of them, they have no social conscience and economic rationalism is the bottom line.
The US clearly demonstrates that a large number of people are not good at making food choices that benefit them and their health when they have a large amount of choice that includes many unhealthy options.
While I do agree with the people who are saying that confrontation with loved ones who are ruining their health through obesity is fairly futile (and creates hard feelings and, really, more desire to eat…personal experience), I also agree with the people who say that it’s personal responsibility to find out as much as possible about metabolism and nutrition and keep up with new developments, and put those into practice.
Again, at the same time, I land on the side of “What the hell is it any of your business?” A stranger who comes up to me at the mall, sees my twice-a-year Steak & Potato Company meal, and informs me that I’m a fat fuck and shouldn’t be ingesting food of any kind in public because it’s vomit-inducing to watch, will feel the sharp side of my tongue three ways: quickly, firmly, and painfully.
My point regarding the forced reduction of serving size is that this isn’t something that I want government involved in. It really boils down that the consumer should be responsible for his own damn actions.
I don’t see why the problem is with the companies trying to make a profit by selling more food. I don’t eat fast food because it’s not good for me, but someone else eating it doesn’t have a direct effect on me, so why should I care what choices they make for themselves, when ultimately they are the ones who have to live with those choices and the consequences thereof.
The American diet is merely one of the variables that causes people in this country to be heavier than the rest of the world. Also important is the car culture. Since most of us have cars, most of our communities are designed only with cars in mind. They aren’t designed for people to walk long distances, thus reinforcing the need for people to drive.
Don’t other nations have larger problems with alcoholism than the U.S.? Should they have some way of limiting the size of liquor bottles that one can buy in the store? Ultimately, you are responsible for yourself. If someone has made choices that lead them to be obese, than this is something that they must deal with, without others trying to regulate what they eat and what portions are available to them.
Personally, my wife and I like the large sized portions that we can get in some places. This means that we’ll have leftovers to take home and eat the next day. If the portions are so large, two people can split one dish.
