The American "Obesity Epidemic?"

[Yobz]

There seems to be an unjust bashing of fast foods in this thread. While I agree that eating a quadruple cheeseburger with fries and a coke is damn near suicidal, fast food places offer healthy alternatives as well. I often eat fast food after work because I lack the motivation to cook for myself. At McD's I get a premium salad with grilled chicken. Even with the dressing (which I sometimes put on, depends on my mood) it doesn't breach the 500 calorie mark. Have a water with that and I'm all set. The sodium content is higher than homemade food, but otherwise it seems pretty damn healthy.

It's all about choice, even at fast food restaurants.

[Rootabager]

all that stuff is a recent trend. brought on by the fear of getting sued.

A grilled chicken sandwich from McD's if you dont ask them comes with so much mayo on it I will usually have to throw it away if I dont remember to ask for none.

[secretprankster]

Meh, hard to believe you can't go to any random restaurant and cafe and pick up a healthier salad that tastes ten times better for just a few bucks more. If you're fine with McD's salad though then sure.

For me, if I entered a McDonald's and did not walk out with a Super Sized fries, I'd be on lifetilt.

Put in other terms, it's just a bad place to be if your goal is healthy eating or a better physique or somesuch. It's like one of John Berardi's rules - if you have food in your house you're going to eat it. So at least for me, going into McDonalds is just kind've an unnecessary pain - similar to walking into your kitchen to find freshly baked cookies made. Some of this is just the way I approach healthy eating, but also it has more general applications. If you keep going into McDonald's, eventually you're going to be splurging on Nuggets - it's basically inevitable for most people.

[Blarg]

Yeah, to say the least, healthy food is in short supply at fast food joints, and there is little variety.

I'm not sure people used to 1500 calorie meals are going to feel satisfied by 500 calorie meals anyway.

[kidcolin]

yeah.. secret nailed it. Just because there's "healthier options" available doesn't mean jack. If I'm going to McD's, I'm probably getting a 1/4 pounder. Even if I man up and get a chicken sandwich w/o mayo (which still isn't all that healthy), I'm getting fries.

Same goes with snacks in the house. For me, the big no no item in my apartment is beer. I love good beer. One night a week I'll usually enjoy a 12 oz. beer or two with dinner. And that's all I'll buy. This weekend I bought a whole six pack figuring I could spread it out over the next couple of weeks. That didn't work out so well.

[Thremp]

I don't think anyone here refers to "fast food" as food that must come for a "fast food restaurant". I think it more encompasses a lifestyle of eating habits than a set of places.

[CrayZee]

[ QUOTE ]

It's all about choice, even at fast food restaurants.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup. Subway is a pretty common no-brainer choice for me when I'm out and about.

Any comments from me regarding negative aspects of fast food is mostly concerning the junk food, overeating lifestyle choice aspect. I realize that there is a shift to healthier alternatives esp. after Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me came out, but this is a relatively recent thing.

FWIW, I grew up eating heavy amounts of junk food and fast food and have been gradually discarding the less healthy stuff over the years since finishing high school. My parents weren't around to cook and I was too lazy, so they gave me money for food and I'd buy whatever tasted good.

I don't have anything against junk/fast food (in a vacuum) as I like to enjoy fatty, salty food as much as the next guy...moderation is a good thing, you gotta live a little.

[MyTurn2Raise]

unsurprisingly, there is an appaling lack of knowledge on what the most rigorous research says in this thread

Obesity epidemic is pretty much a lie. What we have is a sedantary and lack of nutrition epidemic. Weights, BMIs, etc have been found to have just about no relation whatsoever to longevity and proneness to diseases. Only at the extreme tail of obesity does it show up. An active overweight person has virtually identical longevity and disease stats as an active thin or normal person. It turns out that most of weight and BMI is genetic. The cohort of people than have the worst survival is thin, sedantary people by a significant margin. The cohort of the people that have the best survival are active, overweight people.

For those that are obese, there have been no links that show dieting is beneficial in the long-run and many that show it is negative.

Overweight and obese people on the whole show no differences in caloric intake or sources of caloric intake than those that are thin.

The keys to living longer are just being active and eating mainly healthy, but rigorous restrictions (and most commercially advertised diets) are not good.
The science says that weight is a pretty stupid evaluater.


Stop listening to reporters summarizing abstracts of papers that obscure the actual tables and data of the research. Stop listening to the myths and get to the truths.

Please, Be a skeptical empiricist.

[Thremp]

MT2R,

WTF? I don't think anyone posting in this thread cares if fat people at as much as skinny people.

I'd also be interested in the "sources" for some of the claims you make. I wouldn't be shocked to see biased research from the Lane Bryant Institute for some of the more outlandish comments.

[MyTurn2Raise]

ummmm.... check out The Diet Myth on Amazon and follow it to the source documents

It's pretty standard stuff. None of the comments are outlandish. The obesity epidemic killing off hundreds of thousands of americans is outlandish.