FAT: What no one is telling you.

[milvushina]

Gunny...you are my hero now. That post was awesome.

[alphamale]

I don't know why you've turned this into a socio-economic battle. .

My basic points were that the food companies are all jumping on the organic band-wagon cause the profits are HUGE. What they fail to tell you is that you're getting very little benefit for the inflated prices. In addition, we need to start eating healthier which includes eating more fresh produce. The chances are greater that the average person will eat more of the cost-effective non-organic produce which provides the exact same nutritional value as organic. If you want to waste your money then go ahead.

 

And how would you all feel about eating meat from cloned animals and milk from cloned cows?

If they were genetically identical and the flesh tasted the same then no problem man.

 

Alpha, what's your theory as to why more people than ever have been getting cancer in the past 50 years, including those countries that import our foods.

I don't know but I can tell you that organic food is not going to slow down any cancer rates anywhere.

 

A lot of people just don't know how to shop either? I know how and can make my own yogurt ~ but I've acquired a taste for Yoplait. The six pack of individual containers of Yoplait yougurt at the local WalMart is $2.65 ~ the quart size of Yoplait is? $2.65 but you get like 5X's the amount.

Excellent post G-Man....and I agree. I also like yoghurt too.

[josie54]

The chances are greater that the average person will eat more of the cost-effective non-organic produce which provides the exact same nutritional value as organic.

 

This is the main point where we disagree. Although the two probably have similar nutritional content, we disagree that one has more chemical content than the other. I believe there is more chemical content in the nonorganics. I believe buying organics minimizes that exposure. Therefore, I do NOT believe I am wasting my money.

 

Gunny, I also loved your post! We have a bit in common. I was raised by my maternal grandmother, also of modest means. In her 20s, my grandmother was a "Rosie the Riveter" who worked on an assembly line during WWII. After the war, she married and had three kids of her own. Then, when my mother (her daughter) couldn't take care of me, she adopted me as a baby and raised me on her social security payments and a Sunday-afternoon job she worked at the local funeral home. We lived on 40 acres two miles from a small town, and ate the meat from our own pigs and cows and eggs from the neighbors' chickens (in return for helping them bale their hay). Strawberries and tomatoes came from our garden, and we picked blackberries from the bushes at the edge of the pasture. Throughout the year, we had jams and canned goods that she canned herself. The luxury for me as a kid was white grapes and watermelon, only in season and on sale. Boy, did they taste good! I never knew until I grew up just how much she really did.

 

In her lifetime, she took three run-down houses and renovated them herself, economizing all the way. Even in her 60s and 70s, she was always building or working on something.

 

Sounds like my grandmother and your grandmother would have had much in common! Both very strong, wonderful women.

[Fun2BMe]

A little background ~ I was raised as an only child by my paternial grandparents on a long dirt road back in the pine thickeets of Alabama.

 

They had also raised seven children through the Great Depression. We had one fireplace in a four room house, a wood burning stove, and yes for many a year and outhouse, but later added a bathroom on to the house.

 

My GM cooked everything on that wood burning stove. We raised most of our our food, raised and slaughtered a hog each year, chickens etc. We went to town once a month to buy coffee, sugar, flour, corn meal, stuff we couldn't raise on our on for one reason or the other. My GM would riase vegetables and fruits, and "can" them herself in Mason Jars.

 

Give me a space of about the size of an average apartment's bathroom, and I can plant a garden. (Ref: Reader's Digest book "Back To Basics") even in a city. Just need access to good water and sunshine.

 

 

You sound like you were raised 200 years ago. That's great how you learned to cook and got to eat fresh foods growing up. I always think about growing my own fruits and veg. but the thought of finding a bug on any of them would prob. never want to eat another fruit or veg so I leave the growing to others.

 

 

A lot of people just don't know how to shop either? I know how and can make my own yogurt ~ but I've acquired a taste for Yoplait. The six pack of individual containers of Yoplait yougurt at the local WalMart is $2.65 ~ the quart size of Yoplait is? $2.65 but you get like 5X's the amount.

I don't buy yogurt from the store due to the artificial ingredients in it so the cost isn't a factor. As far as 'not knowing how to shop.' If you buy a tub of yogurt, once you unseal it, if you don't eat it in a short period of time the whole thing goes bad verses individually packaged portions. Also the smaller portions can be easier to eat out of or pack to go. It's like carrying a gallon of water because it's cheaper than smaller sizes. Sometimes you have to pay more to get the convenience and not sweat the small stuff otherwise it makes life more complicated and stressful and is not worth the money you save.

 

I also pay more to buy smaller size shampoos for the same reason. Less clutter, chemicals don't start to separate from sitting for so long while it lasts and lasts, and it's also fun and refreshing to open a brand new bottle and throw out the old. I also buy 2 smaller sizes of milk instead of the largest gallon size and so on down the line. It's not like "I don't know how to shop" and you are presenting a new fact that if you buy in bulk or larger sizes it's less expensive!

[Aloros]

I just wanted to add: organic stuff tastes better. Sometimes there's not much different, but in some produce, such as tomatoes, the difference is HUGE. I always try to buy my tomatoes organic because they taste about a gazillion times better. I count it worth the cost.

[a4a]

You sound like you were raised 200 years ago. That's great how you learned to cook and got to eat fresh foods growing up. I always think about growing my own fruits and veg. but the thought of finding a bug on any of them would prob. never want to eat another fruit or veg so I leave the growing to others.

 

 

 

I don't buy yogurt from the store due to the artificial ingredients in it so the cost isn't a factor. As far as 'not knowing how to shop.' If you buy a tub of yogurt, once you unseal it, if you don't eat it in a short period of time the whole thing goes bad verses individually packaged portions. Also the smaller portions can be easier to eat out of or pack to go. It's like carrying a gallon of water because it's cheaper than smaller sizes. Sometimes you have to pay more to get the convenience and not sweat the small stuff otherwise it makes life more complicated and stressful and is not worth the money you save.

 

I also pay more to buy smaller size shampoos for the same reason. Less clutter, chemicals don't start to separate from sitting for so long while it lasts and lasts, and it's also fun and refreshing to open a brand new bottle and throw out the old. I also buy 2 smaller sizes of milk instead of the largest gallon size and so on down the line. It's not like "I don't know how to shop" and you are presenting a new fact that if you buy in bulk or larger sizes it's less expensive!

 

I hope you are recycling those extra little container you buy.

[hotgurl]

I hope you are recycling those extra little container you buy.

 

word a4a I was just thinking that is not environmentally friendly.

 

Anyhow the cheapest and best tasting produce it the produce I grow organically myself.

 

Also fresh milk & eggs taste better. we have a lot of farms where I live and some have co-op programs where you can buy a cow or chickens and they cut up the meat and package it for you. It is more expensive up front because you pay for everything at once but in the long run it is cheaper.

 

I also do most of my own cooking. I bake bread cook dinners I try to avoid processed food. etc.....

 

My goal is to grow my own veggies in the summer enough to get me through the summer & fall, Than buy fresh meat milk and eggs. I have to get a freezer and freeze the meat.

[amerikajin]

It's no mystery why we're fat: it's our lifestyle, not just the food we eat. I can look at pictures of my parents, grandparents and great grandparents in my family photo album right now: not a single one of them (or anyone pictured with them) is fat. The food they ate back then was just as Southern fried - and even more so - than it is now, and there was no FDA warning us to read labels.

 

The difference?

 

Factor number one: people were more active a generation or two ago than they are now. People got outside their homes and did physical labor a lot more often than they do now. These days, people sit inside their homes as though it's a castle and they are Henry VIII; our ancestors got out in the fields or worked in the steel mills, or did other kinds of physical work and needed high-calorie diets just to give them enough energy to get through the day.

 

Factor number two: the value meal culture. It seems like a great thing: you get more, for less. In reality, you're taking the highway to a heart attack by age 50. Ordering and picking up a meal has never been easier. The idea of not having to cook and just enjoy a meal with a friend or your family has a wide appeal, but it is destroying our health.

 

The root cause of it all? Well, I used to blame it on suburban sprawl, as that tends to be a pet issue of mine; however, it is in all likelihood a product of socio-economic standing, and more specifically, it probably has a strong relationship to education about health, and a family's emphasis on good health, exercise and dietary intake. The poor tend to be the fat. I don't think it's a coincidence, either, because it goes back to the second factor: the value meal culture, which plays right into the hands of poor families who are in some cases not up to speed on proper diet and exercise habits. Also, single parents may simply not have the schedule that would permit a regular cooking system.

 

As for the pesticides and safety of our food, I am generally not concerned. Cancer rates are actually on the decline and have been for the past one or two decades. I think that whatever amounts of pesticide residues are left on the skins of vegetables are negligible and are probably handled by the liver without much problem. There are all kinds of potential environmental toxins that can enter our food supplies and have for years; it's not the toxins but the amount of toxins that determine how hazardous they are to our health.

[FleshNBones]

Cereal for breakfast $1.50

Large bowl of oatmeal for lunch $0.50

Bannanas for a snack $0.50

Some carrots for dinner $0.50

Some eggs and whole grain bread for dinner $1.50

Some juice $0.50

A big bowl of beans $0.25

A plate of peas $1.00

A plate of corn $1.00

A can of tuna $0.75

I probably spend around $5.00 to $6.00 a day on food, and I'm actually trying to increase my calorie intake.

Spaghetti is also cheap. I recommend eating it with some meat to feel full longer.

I like to eat a lot of french toast. The stuff is easy to clean up.

Crunchy peanut butter (by itself) on whole grain bread is a also good.

I would consider soy products if they didn't contain estrogen.

I like to avoid resteraunts becuase the food is usually very fatty, the portions are very large, and the price a little high.

You can save a lot of money by developing a taste for simpe unprocessed and less processed foods. Old fashon whole oats taste okay when you add a lot less water. Cook eggs in a cast iron pan to increase the iron content, but be careful with the ammount of oil used. If possible, avoid cooking vegetables because the heat tends to destroy the vitamins. You are better off watering down the %100 juices than buying the dilluted kind. Tuna (with water) seems to taste better when dried out and cooked in a skillet, but that is my opinion. Plain pinto beans, by themselves, seem to cause odorless flatulence.

[katiebour]

I lived in Japan for a year, and lost 30 lbs the first three months I was there.

 

I ate pretty much the same as I do here in the U.S.- I had my Mickey D's every few days, Starbucks once or twice a week, ate tons of tasty pastries from the bakery underneath Kyoto Station on my way to work, bought red bean ice cream from the konbini, and so on.

 

The biggest change was exercise. I walked from my apartment to Yamashina Station (10-15 mins), took a train from Yamashina to Kyoto, walked from Kyoto Station to work (5-10 mins), worked, walked somewhere close for lunch or browsed the underground shopping mall at lunch (5-10 mins), went sightseeing after work (1-2 hours maybe twice a week), took a train to Yamashina Station, and walked home (10-15 mins.) Every day I worked I walked at least a half an hour. When I went grocery shopping I walked 30 mins to the supaa, bought my food, and walked home (or took a cab if I was tired or lazy) I went from a size 16 to a size 10 between March (when I started work) and December (when I came home for Christmas and went shopping) I was already 30 lbs lighter by July. I wore out a pair of zippered washable boots that I bought in Japan and wore incessantly. I bought a cd/mp3 player and listened to it EVERYWHERE while I walked.

 

Then I came back to the U.S. after a year of working in Japan, and within a year, was back to a size 16

 

I have tried to put more walking back into my daily life, but I only live a short distance from work (4 min walk, max) and even waiting tables and cooking, being on my feet all day doesn't make a difference.

 

The grocery store is across town and I haven't been able to force myself to walk there.

 

I make a concentrated effort to eat well most of the time- I choose salads and lean meats for my work meals, and at home I often cook something simple or eat Lean Cuisine. I still have cookies, candies, ice cream, and fried foods from time to time, but it's not every day. As for fast food I eat it maybe twice a month.

 

But the weight won't come off again- I think it's mostly about the exercise.

 

Sigh.

[alphamale]

Factor number one: people were more active a generation or two ago than they are now.

agreed...

 

Factor number two: the value meal culture. It seems like a great thing: you get more, for less. In reality, you're taking the highway to a heart attack by age 50. Ordering and picking up a meal has never been easier. The idea of not having to cook and just enjoy a meal with a friend or your family has a wide appeal, but it is destroying our health.

not only that but these companies and restaurants have these test kitchens that produce these recipes. they make their stuff with high salt and fat contents to make it as tasty as possible so their customers will keep on comin' back...

 

The root cause of it all? Well, I used to blame it on suburban sprawl, as that tends to be a pet issue of mine;

yea you can partially blame the domestic big-three car companies for that....

 

But the weight won't come off again- I think it's mostly about the exercise. Sigh.

yes you're right KATIEBOUR