An interesting item here about how fast foods can be ‘addictive’. Besides an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, these convenience foods become easier and easier to eat. Portions that used to be fairly small have become huge, and we think nothing of it, I don’t even know if McD’s sells their original size of fries anymore, it’s tiny!
We’ve gotten used to eating more and doing less.
blowero, Canadian bacon is considerably leaner than the U.S. grocery store bacon. Pork chops are lean.
That’s back bacon for the Canadians.
I wish I could eat healthier. I’m not overweight, but at my age (22) I worry about my metabolism suddenly changing and me going from a skinny to very large (it happened to my uncle) over a period of only a few years.
The problem with me is that I can’t eat most vegetables. They make me gag. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Asparagus, Brussel’s Sprouts, Carrots, Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Celery, Artichokes, Avacados, etc will literally cause me to vomit if I eat them. What’s worse, nobody really takes my problem seriously. They think I’m being melodramatic, but its hell for me. I wish I could enjoy the taste of vegetables, but its been virtually impossible and my diet has been devoid of them for much of my life (surprisngly, to little ill effect).
About the only vegetablally thing I can stomach is V8, which tastes very good but sadly is quite high in sodium. The low-sodium version still has a considerable amount of sodium but tates like crap. Sigh.
Irish Girl didn’t say Canadian bacon. Is that what she meant? I thought that since she revised what she said and suggested trimming the fat off the bacon, that she wasn’t talking about Canadian bacon. American bacon is usually about 1/2 fat - if you removed the fat, there wouldn’t be much left at all, and it still wouldn’t be the best thing for you.
This site http://www.heartpoint.com/Cholfoodpyramid.html says a broiled pork chop contains 18g fat and 160g cholesterol, compared to a skinless chicken breast, which has only 6g of fat and 140g of cholesterol. I’m not saying don’t eat butter, cheese, bacon, and pork chops in moderation. I’m just saying don’t call them low fat, 'cuz they’re not.
It’s simple… a few obvious reasons:
-Easy and inexpensive acces to overprocessed fat-filled fast food (I’m from Canada and I spent a couple of days in Long Island. It’s impossible to have a normal-sized meal that isn’t laden with sauces, butter or isn’t incredibly salty. Also, there is a fast-food place at every corner.)
-Soft drinks…the silent killer. These are packed with sugar.
-products made with white flour. Donuts, breads, buns…these things will mess up the way your body burns fat.
-of course, lack of exercise. These days, it’s too easy to NOT get any regular exercise. The modern american lifestyle also makes it difficult to find the time to do exercise. Unless you own a gym, you may be hard pressed to motivate yourself to go to one.
-ever-increasing portion sizes…Supersize this, supersize that…Value at the expense of one’s health.
-In some cases, yo-yo dieting. A person becomes obsessed with losing weight and manages to lose a great amount of weight in a small period of time only to gain it all back. Our bodies adjust to calorie-restricted diets and burn energy more and more slowly. Once we resume normal eating habits…BOOM back comes the weight, and more often than not, more
-I find that there are many books out there that propose better ways of eating. Some of the better ones; Montignac and Body-For-Life (though the exercise regimen is brutal)
Unfortunately, all this good advice/weight watchers stuff is aimed at people who do thier own cooking, and who decide what they get to eat. Unfortunately, I live with my parents, and my Mum does all the cooking, and she decides what meals we have, I have no say in the matter.
White bread is fattening you say? Hard luck for me then! We have white bread every day, because Mum likes it. She hates the taste of brown bread. So I just have to carry on getting fatter and fatter. There is nothing I can do. We have potato every day (I understand that bread and potato are the things to cut out if you want to lose weight), but we have it every day, 'cos Mum likes it that way. She’s done it that way for 40 years, she isn’t going to stop doing it that way for me.
And yes, I would love to live on my own and do my own cooking, but it isn’t possible right now. (don’t make me go through my whole psycological history to justify the fact that I live with my parents, not to mention the fact I can’t afford it, so shut up about that already) So I am stuck with it. Why doesn’t anyone come up with weight loss programs for people who are stuck with mothers who veto the non-fattening foods! eh?
DISCLAIMER (since disagreeing with a parent is considered a Capital Offence on the SDMB)
-yes I am pissed off with my mother and the way she treats me like a child and takes my freedom away. This doesn’t mean I hate her or want to stab her with rusty knives. All you soccer moms who want to tell me I’m a spoiled brat for daring to disagree with the maternal unit, are cordially reminded that I am a 30 year old woman not a teenager who is going ‘through a phase’, that you know nothing about me and my life and what it is like to live with a controlling harridan like her, which incidentally, would make a saint go on a crazy spree with an axe probably, that 2 adults living together who have very different views and desires is inevitably going to result in conflict and that if it was possible for me to have my independence our relationship would be just peachy, and that is probably true of lots of people and if you still don’t like it you can bite me!..)
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Ooooookay…
No food is inherently fattening. A diet/lifestyle is. Eat less, and exercise more.
That’s ridiculous. You control what you put in your mouth. You also control how much exercise you do or don’t get. As long as you keep blaming your “mum” for your obesity, you’ll never lose weight.
Anyone who can think for themselves should be able to decide what to put in their mouths.
I’m a male, and while I was living with my parents in my late teens, I drastically changed my eating habits and lost about 40 lbs. A typical weekly dinner menu included:
-Spaghetti
-Shepherd’s pie (hamburger meat, corn, potatoes)
-Sausages, blood pudding with baked potatoes
-fish with batter and french fries
-pizza
-hamburgers
I started buying my own food (I only had a part time job) and preparing my own meals.
Soon after, my dad who had a history of heart problems, also adopted a health eating lifestyle as did my mom.
Basically, it’s up to you. Don’t start blaming those around you.
just to clarify…the meals I listed was the way my family USED to eat, not the way I started eating to lose weight…
Hey, if you’re the bizarro Ron Jeremy, does that mean you have a small weenus?
Yes it does…I didn’t realize that, but it’s true
[HomerSimpson]Mmmmmmm…[/HomerSimpson]
Blood pudding?
What in God’s name is that?
ah i see bacon issues.
in Ireland “Bacon” means back bacon. sort of pork chop shaped, just a little rim of fat around the edge.
i guess american bacon is streaky? thin lines of meat and fat?
that stuff is cheap and nasty.
White bread can be fattening - any food can be fattening - if you choose not to eat the right portions. I eat chocolate - I eat eggs - I eat pizza - I eat meat (not all together obviously) - and I managed to lose 60 pounds on weight watchers, and maintain it for 9 months.
You may not be able to control what food goes in your mouth (and even on that I am very skeptical) - but you can control how much.
Susan