i can see why america has problems with obesity

[durendal]

Ok, i stayed in indianapolis for a week. Let me first say that i am in no way a health buff. I don't eat a healthy diet and I'm not a wellness nut. I'm just a regular person who eats what i want when i want to.

 

Now, based on the foods that i have consumed in a weeks time with different kinds of food, as well as the foods i ate the last time i was here, i found the food to be very unsettling. I mean majority of the food are oily. They have large servings of food, and down to the drinks, not really helpful with my digestion. God, it was really unhealthy even for my standards. And they serve you cold drinks all day long. Although the steaks are very nice and tasty, after one meal, i am really stuffed. And this is coming from a guy who can eat 2 whole 12 inch pizza in one sitting.  And every morning, i only get a choice of coffee or ice cold orange juice. No other hot beverages? Cold beverages in the morning screws up your metabolism for the day. (well, it does in my case).  

 

Also, i can understand why most people would not want to eat vegetables. I love vegetables, even broccoli, but the vegetable here is tasteless. Every establishment that i have been to, their vegetable has no taste. I guess it is how they are customarily prepared.

 

I don't know about you guys, but if i continue to have that kind of diet, i would either get bloated or have my life expectancy reduced.

 

Do remember that these opinions are purely based on my experiences. If these are not what they are for you, then good for you.

[river_chaos]

I have pretty much stopped going to fast food chains after what my dad uncovered after he had a galblatter attack years ago.  There's a lot of chemicals used in the processing/cooking of food that you would think would be illegal to add.  And we wonder why we have so much cancer now...

[Matt Bellamy]

Yet, it is all true.

 

While here in Canada, we have a similar problem, it is on a smaller scale... Until more recently. Sure, we've always had "Fast Food" but in comparison, our "Large" size is the normal American "Medium" size.

 

Sure, they still are dirt cheap, so it's easy to just buy more.

[Cannibal]

We had a lot of new McDonalds opened recently here in Russia. Not using it often because I find it expensive I think that such an expensive food should be super-tasty, but there is something wrong with those burgers, I think. And alcohol is not allowed there!

 

I love KFC's "Hot Wings" (I love hot/spicy food). But sometimes it's difficult to find a KFC, they are not so common as McDonalds here.

 

----

Don't know if it is good or bad in that fast-food situation, but I have very fast metabolism. So to gain a weight is extremely difficult for me, even if I'll eat non-stop 24/7.

[*YoungGuyver]

While I was China, KFC and Pizza hut were everywhere, and side by side in most situations.  They were different than here though.  Pizza Hut was more high end, and the KFC there was what KFC was here 20 years ago.  Now, the KFC recipe here give me a burning sensation in my throat a few hours after eating it.  And they've tried to be more of a personalized menu item, which is more expensive.

 

I can totally agree with you on the vegetable Durendal.  At the regular supermarket, any vegetable you eat either needs loads of salt or salad dressing to not make eating it a chore.  I can actually taste something coming from the weird food in the Chinese supermarket.  Granted, it's weird for me culturally, and my inlaws cook it to death anyway, but the vegetable itself has flavor.  Even my sister in law compared an apple in the UK to one here.  A UK apple may be a little brown, but is incredibly tasty.  Here, it is a little bitter/sour, if that.  The tomato is mostly water, but it looks great in the McDonalds commercial when they cut it open and you have the zesty mist of water pop out.

 

What's also fun is that commercialism is supposed to allow the consumer to make the choice about what they want to buy... and yet we have no idea what foods are natural or genetically modified.  There is no label for that in this market, even though some countries over seas REQUIRE it, if not ban GMO's.  I remember pulling into Wendy's, and they had a sign saying that all tomatoes were 'recalled' for an unknown reason.  Perhaps another case of anaphalactic shock.

 

I wonder if we'll ever get a control in place for monosodiumglutamite.  I mean, apparently the FDA and CFIA approved it because it can help elderly people maintain body weight (because it makes you want to eat more), but aside from the foods that it naturally appears in, do we really need to add it to regular peoples food too when there is no medical reason to do so?  And can we please come up with a SINGLE name for it on packaging instead of any of the 20 different?  How else can I tell what I'm actually eating?  Why do we have to all but 'trick' the consumer?

 

Sorry about the rant

[*PrimalNemesis]

I am absolutely disgusted with the quality of food in America. Everyone is screaming about eating healthy, but most of what is being offered is either limp, tasteless, and or just down right gross! You practically pay an arm and a leg to try and get anything that is considered "naturally" grown. Try eating a tomato that literally denigrates into a bitter tasting glob of watery crap! I swear I can taste the damned pesticides even after thoroughly washing it! It is a no wonder why people in America want to eat garbage rather than a healthy alternative. The alternatives suck! They are just as poisonous as a Big Mac or Whopper! If you want eat healthier then you better plant your own damned garden and slaughter your own meat because the American food industry is out to severely reduce your life expectancy.

[*Jess♥]

I can understand your frustration guys.

This is the main reason why I have not already visited America.

Here in the uk, I can usually be mostly confident that the food I buy is good.

Recently, I have been buying the majority of my fruit and vegetables from the supermarket. it makes me sad because I don't think i am getting as good as what I normally buy from the green grocer.  but it will do for now until I get into my new place.

it is surprising that much of teh food over there does not contain vegetables or that vegetables are not seen as important.

for me, I do not feel like I have eaten properly unless I have had something green and fibrous.

today I plan to cook broccoli and some eggs and maybe something else.  I like to experiment with some different types of things, some beans, some pulses, some kind of vegetable sauce, onion and tomato maybe..

I don't like to eat foods that have to have an ingredients list. if it's already made, then it has got to be something like rice crackers or something that is difficult for me to make myself. otherwise i make it. 

That way I know there is no MSG in it.  It's a shame a lot of thai and chinese products also love to throw loads of MSG in it. Korean foods are excellent for being healthy and japanese foods as well. at least in my experience.

 

hey Youngguyver, our apples are brown?

yeah some varieties are. we have many many varieties of apples. I believe a russet is brown. but a granny smith is a lime green with red bits. golden delicious is light green/yellow . a cox is usually red. we have access to lots of tasty fruit.

I wonder if it is all good though. it is certainly tasty but maybe it would be even more tasty if I got it from an organic farm.

[*Chernaudi]

I do have to say as someone who about a week ago found out that I'm diabetic, and also tends to be moody, I've found that the best thing that one can do with any food is portion control.  Instead of eating 2-3, or even 1-2 big meals a day, it's better to try and eat 4-5, or in some cases even 6 smaller meals a day, and don't keep meals so spread out.  That's probably part of my diabetes problem, because i used to eat usually only 2, or sometimes even 1 big meal a day.  That can cause a big energy crash, and you have to compensate by snacking, which doesn't do one's weight or blood sugar any favors.

 

I've cut back on sweet snacks and fried foods--not completely, mind you, but I've cut back a bit, and I'm on medication for my stuff now.  My blood sugar at it's lowest since I had it first taken during a physical was 198.  I'll bet that times during some days it was significantly lower than that.  But since I've started on my altered diet, my blood sugar went from a high of 329 last Friday morning, to a low of 215 this morning.  Still a ways to go, since I've been told that normal is between 90-160 or so for most people.

 

You don't have to cut out fast food and sweet stuff--I haven't.  But it's about portion control and meal planning, and find healthier alternatives to some things.

[*Jess♥]

i have to comment on that. not that what you said is in any way false or misleading,  but one important thing to bear in mid is slow release foods such as potatoes, bread, oats, etc.  if the starchy foods are good quality, then the body is happy until next meal. but if the food is made with bad ingredients and delivers most of it's nutrition through sugars, etc. then the body will clearly not be happy.

 

in other words, a person who eats fruit loops for breakfast will have a problem, but a person who eats healthy organic porridge for breakfast will probably be fine.

[*YoungGuyver]

I think the problem here is the way in which we have commercialized the food industry.  I'm not saying commercializing it is bad, I'm saying that they way in which we have done it is bad.

 

Value added to the Nth degree.

How long does an apple last before it goes brown?  Can you extend that life with wax, pesticides, or preservatives?  Just a penny for a light mist over the apple, and you might make it last another week on the store shelf.  Value added.

 

A few years ago in Alberta, a farmer was sued.  It wasn't the customer, or the supermarket; but rather the competition.  You see, this farmer planted his crop and everything, but then it was tested, and found that one of the GMO companies had the patent on some of the grain in his field.  He had never bought any GMO wheat, and so he had no right to use it.  He had to pay out big time.  The problem is that he NEVER planted a single GMO crop.  Birds and the bees... and by that I mean the wind blew seeds in from one of his neighbors, and well, pollination and such happens.  We've turned mother nature into a product, perhaps a little too much.  The 'value added', the excuse for jacking the price up and employing more people and such, is now in overdrive and is now devaluing the product.

 

Whatever.  Thanks for letting me practice the words

[durendal]

That way I know there is no MSG in it.  It's a shame a lot of thai and chinese products also love to throw loads of MSG in it. Korean foods are excellent for being healthy and japanese foods as well. at least in my experience.

 

I will have to correct you on that.  Chinese food in no way uses MSG.  All of our recipes do not use MSG.  In fact, MSG is not even part of our common kitchen ingredients (like salt, starch etc).  Chinese food in your parts perhaps uses MSG, but traditional Chinese cooking does not have MSG.  Chinese have this abhorrence towards MSG.  MSG does give food their tastes, but it is not healthy.  Do note that MSG was created in Japan.  Ajinomoto ring a bell?  

 

Any decent cook knows full well that MSG is the "cheat code" for every cooking.  

[*Jess♥]

Hey Durendal, I was under the impression that you were not Chinese?

Maybe I got that wrong, but please don't misunderstand what I said.

MSG is present in any and all chinese food I have had access to.

perhaps traditional chinese cooking does not add MSG, depending on where you come from, but the products I bought that were produced by chinese companies, contained MSG. that is a fact.

The foods that I can reference off hand are licensed Nissin cup noodles, manufactured in china for the chinese market. also, Beef Jerky and soy sauce.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am confident that your cooking and the cooking of your friends and relatives are chemical free. I am of course talking about the  mass market as you did bring up the commercial state of food in this thread.

[*YoungGuyver]

MSG naturally occurs in certain foods, such as soy sauce.  It does not have to be added to it

[durendal]

Hmm... maybe it's a culture thing then?  MSG is present in a lot of commercialized or processed foods.  Which is why some people tend to avoid it.  As I said, MSG is the "cheat code" to enhance the flavor of food, which a lot of chefs tends to avoid.  Then I guess this can also be an additional reason for my original topic.

 

Sure, it may be present in some foods, but you know the saying that anything in excess is bad for you.

[*Jess♥]

MSG naturally occurs in certain foods, such as soy sauce.  It does not have to be added to it

 

sorry, need to clarify on this as it's not 100% accurate. glutamic acid occurs naturally in many foods in some form or another.

monosodium glutamate is a salt of glutamic acid.

I don't think I need to say that a salt has different ramifications to a naturally occurring acid.

msg does not occur naturally

[*Jess♥]

Hmm... maybe it's a culture thing then?  MSG is present in a lot of commercialized or processed foods.  Which is why some people tend to avoid it.  As I said, MSG is the "cheat code" to enhance the flavor of food, which a lot of chefs tends to avoid.  Then I guess this can also be an additional reason for my original topic.

 

Sure, it may be present in some foods, but you know the saying that anything in excess is bad for you.

yes.  and sodium can be especially bad, or so we are told.

 

it is a law in the UK that all foods must be labelled accurately with their ingredients.

All the asian products that are imported must have a label affixed to them before they can go on sale translating teh ingredients and clarifying what substances are in there.

I generally always check the ingredients before I buy. interestingly, 'healthy boy' sweet soy sauce has no preservatives of flavour enhancers in it, but normal and light soy sauce has MSG and other preservatives in them.

So If I want to buy regular soy sauce, I have to go for the more expensive 'kikkoman'.

[durendal]

I guess what's wanting in majority in the "west" are natural foods.  I mean over here, there is always a wet market around the corner.  That's probably an advantage to an agriculturally rich region, that you get to see a lot more "fresh" produce.  I'm sure these are also present over there, but at a limited area or at high prices.

 

Also adding to my statement on MSG, over here, MSG is mostly dominant on processed and junk food.  You find them on the shelves of the supermarket.  But they are seldom included normal everyday foods.  There are even restaurants that put on a sign "no MSG" in their establishment.  I'm now more inclined to think that the current state of how people eat in the US is based on the manipulation of giant corporations.

[LordSpleach]

I honestly don't how much MSG is used in the US nowadays. I'm sure fast food joints still use it, but I seen plenty of labels on junk foods saying "No MSG".

 

On a side note, I have tasted pure MSG once out of curiosity and its disgusting. It tastes like liquid salt.

[*YoungGuyver]

MSG can go in under any one of 40 different names over here.

http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html

 

Just to see some of the different names that can contain it.  Malt extract? 'Seasonings'? Citric Acid? Corn syrup?

And to think that Gelatin always contains MSG?  Not where I'd expect to look.  Oh well.