34 replies to this topic

[Darkness]

[Robin]

I always hear that but I don't think people realise fat and stupid are not mutually exclusive. There are plenty of smart fat people and plenty of pretty stupid skinny people too.

[IKnowNothing]

http://www.youtube.c...bed/TEmuTX_HaNQ

Edited by IKnowNothing, 16 August 2012 - 12:19 PM.

[Clearwitch]

I didn't watch at all, how any medals did you get total? Norway, being the size of a small american wal-mart, got two golds, I think?

Edited by Clearwitch, 16 August 2012 - 02:06 PM.

[Arawan]

46 Gold, 29 Silver, 29 Bronze with a total of 104.

[Skadi]

I would just like to counter with:

[Rhuen]

46 Gold, 29 Silver, 29 Bronze with a total of 104.

How many did China get,I had heard the whole thing had come down to a contest between America and China over who could get the most metals with the rest of the world basically just competing for third place.

[Darkness]

USA! USA! USA! USA! lol


Rhuen, here's the medal count
http://www.london2012.com/medals/

[Arawan]

How many did China get,I had heard the whole thing had come down to a contest between America and China over who could get the most metals with the rest of the world basically just competing for third place.

88 total, not much of a contest.

[Synari]

I would say that while this statement may seem a generalization, it has alot of merit. What most ppl don't realize is that alot of chemicals being added to US foods and drugs/medicines MAKE PPL FAT. Not to mention the availability of food and the subsequent poor eating habits (along with the huge sizes of meal portions) and virus/bacterial diseases all contributing to Americans having serious struggles with weight.

Many of those same drugs/chemicals and virus/bacterias that i above mentioned are also responsible for causing toxicity and destroying brain cells....so when you talk about obesity or declining intellegence, please remember that its not ALL about someone being an overeater or lazy/stupid. For many, it is out of their control. A proper diet with high quality food is often, financially out of people's reach.

Judge lest you be judged.

[Rhuen]

or its part of the serentonin conspiracy to create an apathedic masses, thus no matter what the government does they just have to wait out the attention span of the general populace.

Celebrities and others like them tend to have more opinions on matters and speak out more only because their forced healthier diets allow them to think straight (that doesn't mean they are right or wrong, only that they are more likely than the average person to retain their attention on something).

[Clearwitch]

You can't blame the portion sizes. Nobody holds a gun to your heads and forces you to order plus size meals, and then eat every last bite of it. Even when you eat out it's perfectly ok most places to leave the rest when you're full. We get huge portions most places here too, but I still don't push myself to eat all of it unless I'm really that hungry.

A lot of the probems I believe lies in general stupidity, and the belief that you can actually call McD food "dinner", and that pizza is healthy and full of vegetables once you put tomatoe sauce on it. Fast food isn't meant to be eaten every day.

[Archangel]

The American (and the Mexican) food system is based on one crop in particular - corn. The most heavily government subsidized product in the USA, corn is in everything, particularly the sweetener High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Because corn is so heavenly subsidized, everything made from corn is extremely cheap, so HFCS is added to almost everything, from bread to soft drinks to pretty much anything processed for human consumption. It's almost inescapable - you'd have to buy organic, or avoid any processed foods altogether. With Americans facing increasing demands on their time and money, fewer and fewer people can afford to buy good wholesome foods and prepare them, as they used to do. If you get off work at 5, arrive home at 6, then have to go to another job at 8, who has the time to make dinner, particularly if you have kids? It becomes easier to stop at McDonalds, pay way less for a bunch of BIg Mac meals, and save time.

[Clearwitch]

There's a lot of meals you can cook up in less than 15 minutes, Who watches the kids while the parents are working? If they're too young to heat or cook their own food, they surely can't be left home alone? My 11 year old has been fully capable of cooking simple dinners for a long time already. I'd rather leave some veggies and a chicken for them than a Big Mac. If vegetables are hard to get or too expensive, it's amazing what you can grow yourself in the windowsill.

[Bard of Thorns]

Yeah, but you still have to get the seeds first. Many people can't even get access to that sort of stuff, especially in more impoverished neighborhoods. In many areas, there's no store in walking distance that offers ANY fresh produce.

Edited by Bard of Thorns, 18 August 2012 - 03:46 PM.

[Rhuen]

and then once its all grown its a limited food supply anyway, I have a small garden, the corn, watermelon, strawberries, lettuce, and cabbage, that came from it would never last through the winter, hell lucky if they last through a week after being picked.

Actually we could grow more food if we were allowed to use our yards (especially in the city/towns) like that. But you start to put edible plants in the front yard and the city gets up your ass. You are expected to buy your food not grow it*unless you intend to sell it*, and spend money on your yard rather than make anything useful from it.

but that aside, our general food stuffs are horrible, with the economy and holding down good paying jobs you are lucky if you can afford the Angus Beef hot-dogs instead of buying the 75cents (lets pray it comes from something with only four legs) hotdogs,
let alone buy the basic ingredients of food unless something special is coming up to make real food for.

[Clearwitch]

Yeah, but you still have to get the seeds first. Many people can't even get access to that sort of stuff, especially in more impoverished neighborhoods. In many areas, there's no store in walking distance that offers ANY fresh produce.

Take the bus. One bell pepper gives about a gazillion seeds, you can even store them dry and plant them years later. I live in a city apartment on the 4th floor, no balcony, I can still grow bell peppers, tomatoes and chili each year in my windows, in a few years time my lemon and clementine trees might start yielding too. I've never bought seeds, I just take them from the ones we eat. I'd happily plant pot too if it didn't smell so much.

It's not enough to live on, but it gives that little extra so their kids can learn what tomato taste like when it doesn't come out of a can.

You do have a responsibility for what you eat. I'm not sayineg everyone should buy organic and turn vegan, but at least make an effort to turn around their habits. Avoid the worst fast food chains. stop drowning your food in grease, you really don't need much to cook/fry anything. If you don't have timeto spend an hour in the kitchen each day, get on the net and look up quick, cheap dinners.

When I moved out my mom gave me a cookbook, 100 dinners for less than 1 pound. Cheap, easy meals that cost little or nothing, but are still rather nutritious.

http://www.heartheal...-ideas_ss1.html

[Bard of Thorns]

You're making another assumption that public transit exists and is accessible in those areas.

[Clearwitch]

The world's greatest nation has no bus lines? Sounds like we're talking African villages here.

[Arawan]

The world's greatest nation has no bus lines? Sounds like we're talking African villages here.

No, our country is much larger and less densely populated. You have train tracks kriss crossing the whole continent. Going to another city isn't a big deal, it's a matter of buying a ticket. Our cities are not so closely packed together. To take so extreme examples, you could drive from Berlin, pass through Leipzig, Nuremburg, Ingostadt, Munich, Salzburg, Linz, Vienna and end in Bratislava in less time than it would take to drive from Houston to El Paso. Also a thing I've noticed about European countries is that rural area are right next to the urban ones. This is not the same in the US either, from a city center you have to drive a good hour or so to get to the nearest farm. I'll be a hundred dollars there are no city buses that go to rural areas in the US.

Now coming down to the corn issue. It's not a perfect plan but at the time we switched to corn as our main crop it was choice between feed everyone or feed most of everyone. You could have a fat society or healthy society with a good percentage underfeed or starving, but not both at that time. Another thing is that most seeds you can buy in the US are designed to not be perennial (no doubt you can see why). And most Americans do not have the time or money to waste on it. Most Americans do not have the money to waste any food, actually (I certainly don't) which is why it is important to most of us to eat every bite of that super sized meal.

You're applying the way you live against us, things are not the same world over.