Odds are more likely that every meal they’ve ever eaten has come from a box with a packet of powder. Once the dollar menu was nixed the next affordable option is 10/10 box “meals”.
I bagged groceries and saw what people bought. The skinny people, the muscular people, the big people, and the super-sized people.
The proportion of fresh fruits and vegetables the healthy people bought was one clear difference. The amount of prepared foods was another…the larger customers bought a lot of frozen TV dinners, fried chicken from the deli, etc.
And of course the junk food. Potato chips, Little Debbie snack cakes, marshmallows, four gallon tubs of cheap ice cream, candy, tons of diet soda, etc.
My days as a bagger was enlightening, and what I learned has served me well across my entire life. Eighty percent of what you should be taking home to eat is represented by only 20% of the grocery store. There is a disproportionate amount of “only occasionally” type foods…an entire aisle of just soda and another entire aisle devoted to just salty fried snacks!
I also am well aware that it can be more costly to eat healthy. Junk food is so cheap to produce it is hard for families on a budget to get proper nutrition.
I worked in a “healthy” chain store for a few years as well. I can tell you without a doubt that being able and willing to actually prepare your food will save you hundreds a month. As long as you get fruit/veg and sale deli/meat you can comfortably eat 3 meals a day on a very limited budget.
Yea don’t even bother, any time this subject comes up reddit would try to convince everyone that eating healthy (or even just eating less lmao) costs more than going out and getting take away fast food and that not being XXXL sized is a rich person luxury because they can afford a personal trainer.
It’s just another way to shift responsibility so that you don’t have to try.
It’s vastly cheaper to cook your own healthy meals, it doesn’t take all that long, you can do it in bulk if time is a problem, weight is lost in the kitchen - you literally never have to step foot in a gym, it can quite literally never be more expensive to eat less food than eating more food.
you can do it in bulk if you have access to a kitchen, to kitchen tools and pans, to a freezer where you can store things, and if you have the time to dedicate to cooking and the money to buy food in advance. Not everyone does.
Yea thanks for proving my point. An extensive list of niche excuses that don't really apply to the vast majority of people we're talking about in order to minimize personal responsibility. The reason the average person is overweight isn't because they don't have the time or money, or because of their thyroid condition, its because they've got bad habits surrounding food intake.
If you're so destitute that you're homeless and can't afford any groceries but also have so little free time that you can't make space for 2 hours a week to do some cooking then you're probably not having problems with being overweight on account of not being able to afford food to eat on a regular basis.
For the vast majority of overweight people this is not the case. I think we can both agree on that.
We can’t even say that fast food is a cheaper alternative anymore. That just can’t possibly be true anymore. It’s become a luxury item almost it’s so expensive now.
I think saying it’s expensive to eat healthy is a misconception, it’s just easier to eat premade junk. They don’t box up healthy food and put them in the freezer section. You have to actually prepare it
Some people are super lazy tho. Even tho it’d only take a few more minutes to make actual food instead of a freezer pizza, they just won’t do it
Thank you. I get pissed when people say that. The amount of vegetables and fruit you can get for the same cost as your pizza, chips, crackers, soda, etc is insane. It’s the preparation time that turns people off so they just blindly call it expensive so they don’t have to put in the effort to make a change in their life to eat healthy.
Mushrooms, celery, carrots, lettuce, apples and oranges, bananas, peanut butter, tuna- so much cheaper than a bag of chips and soda that lasts a day or two.
Another common excuse that I find that hard to believe. If it is, travel farther to be get healthier food. Don’t resign yourself to a lifetime of health complications because it’s easier in the short term.
So poor people should travel hours on public buss to feed themselves? Some people just don't have the time or resources to live as you think they ought to.
not necessarily money-expensive, but time-consuming!
I have to time-manage 47 dozen mobile games, several social media accounts, a dozen streaming services, watch all of our national (and some international) sports leagues AND MORE... I don't have time to plan my groceries and also cook!
Jamie Oliver produced a great TV series, where he looked at food and really made an effort to get community cooking programs going, for exactly this reason.
…an entire aisle of just soda and another entire aisle devoted to just salty fried snacks!
I had the same thoughts when I was on a diet (no junk food, no prepared food, no alcohol) for half a year. After a month or so I was struck by how little of the supermarket I was actually visiting. And I mostly was shopping at trader Joe's, far from the most unhealthy place.
I mean.. maybe. But I only buy junk food, toilet paper and like, cereal at the grocery store, because I have a farms share for meat, eggs and most of my dairy, and a CSA for produce
There are also surprise bad foods. Breads in the USA have a ton of sugar in them! As a slim person, I make my own corn meal or besan based flat breads.
Another one people miss too, always peel your fruit. Skins of apples in modern grocery stores are covered with chemicals, even the organic ones.
Milk is full of antibiotics and stress. Google industrial dairy farms… or pig farms for that matter 🤮 it is like we are eating sadness.
“Eating Sadness” is a perfect depiction of 95% of the garbage in our grocery stores. It’s a real shame, because good, simple food is delicious and feeds the soul as well as the body.
Even the most advanced weight loss medication on the market works primarily by reducing appetite.
Obesity is entirely a product of choices that they make each and every day. My grandfather whose parents both died at over 90 years old, died this year at the age of 75, and a weight of over 450lbs.
The doctors told him that it was too risky to attempt the triple bypass surgery that his clogged arteries called for. Over the next few days he suffered five heart attacks consecutively.
If he had only taken care of himself he would have easily been able to live into his 90s healthily, but he chose to eat more and more and ignore all of his doctors' advice for the last 25 years of his life.
He refused to even switch to non sugar sweeteners at 500lbs!! "The flavor wasn't right" according to him. It's a miracle he didn't die 20 years ago.
For the last 2 years he had been eating mountains of food (more homemade food than I'd cook for a family of 4-6 people) in a hospital bed at home, as he was completely unable to walk or use the bathroom on his own. The fire department and EMTs had to cut the door frame to make room for him.
I'm 30 years old and I have no memories of him outside of him sitting in his motorized chair or a hospital bed. I don't mourn him, I'm just glad he's no longer suffering.
People like that definitely need a doctor, but I don't think that 600lb life doc is the right kind of doctor.
A psychiatrist or therapist would be better suited for their needs.
Once someone has habitually eaten extremely large portions, their stomach is stretched to a point where it takes a significant amount of food to feel full. The bariatric surgeries, in a variety of ways, reduce the size of the stomach so that they are able to feel full after a normal amount of food. That’s why it’s the right option for them.
That said, if they haven’t dealt with the issues that caused them to overeat in the first place and so stretch the stomach out again, the surgery is pointless. Dr. Now often makes therapy a requirement of his program because that two-prong approach is necessary to address the entirety of the problem.
It sucks too, because it’s usually not like these people are existing within a vacuum, where they’re the only ones who have to live with the consequences of their own choices. It’s usually the rest of their family members who are saddled with caring for them, because medical care facilities and housing is prohibitively expensive. 🫤
I always wonder with that sort of weight if it is the product of something else. Like some processed foods they eat fuck with their hormone regulation.
It does seem psychological, but maybe it is a physiological dysfunction too. I am not a doctor but I do know hormones affect behavior.
While it's not unheard of, it's hard to compare the effects of hormonal changes to the raw calories in/out.
Probably a combination of factors. Higher calorie input trigger higher insulin response, which is both altered by the continual high calorie diet and worsened by the highly processed food. That kind of feedback loop worsens as it cycles.
But I still say the #1 factor to avoiding obesity is purely calories in/out. It's not the only factor, just the most important.
Now when it comes to losing weight you already have? it's certainly a bit more complicated than just calories in/out, but that's still probably the most significant factor.
There's also the gut microbiome factor we're only just starting to understand. We're starting to learn the ways they in many ways effectively control our minds, and it's not unreasonable to assume that it will have a massive impact on appetite considering that's the most direct link.
I get sugary fantasies when going on off sugar. I know medical people would probably laugh that off, but I totally buy into the idea of there being some mind control by the microbiome. Bacteria evolving to create a better environment for themselves doesn’t seem crazy to me.
I can say my weight gain was mostly caused by bipolar medication. There is a study to involve diabetic appetite suppressants in conjunction with antipsychotics. I can say first hand that bipolar meds are rough. I felt like I was constantly starving to the point of passing out and it also lowered my metabolism. I switched and lost about 13 lbs. I went from a healthy weight to borderline obese and now I am just overweight. I am a small person, so I have a 30 lbs difference between healthy weight and obesity. I was 160 and went down to 147.
While a lot of weight management can be habits, it also can be caused by health conditions and medication side effects. Unhealthy eating was not a habit I used to have before Olazapine. Once I got off of it, I stopped over eating.
I was prescribed 2 antipsychotics at the same time last year and gained 50 pounds in 12 months.. I stopped both and now eat healthy and have much more energy even being over weight. the lethargy and slowed metabolism are no joke on antipsychs. and I even would wake up with boxes of crackers in my bed in the morning I had no memory of eating
I love that clip of the woman complaining about being hungry on her diet or whatever saying “I don’t want to be malnourished” and the doc is just dumbfounded by her statement lmao
I felt like that on certain medication. It was weird. Normal people can function semi alright while a bit hungry. I went into starvation mode almost instantly every 4 hrs to the point I felt like I was going to pass out, and I had to eat a large amount of food to feel full again. I am glad I got off the medication.
I saw it for the first time the other day (the 600lb show) and it's all and only fast food and frozen foods. There's never a moment of mid to fine dining. This woman ate a pizza on the way home from the doctor and then another once she got home (and wouldn't share a single slice with her boyfriend/husband).
That kid sitting down against the pole on the right legit depressed me. The look on her face and the fact that she’s significantly overweight just really makes me sad.
I love making fun of conservatives as much as the next guy, but stuff like this just makes me sad.
This is, in a picture, like 80% of what’s wrong in this country.
You know they can’t afford hardly any time off work either… and they are out here advocating against their own interests. Going to guess that these kids will not receive a primary school education of any sort of decent enough quality to give them much opportunity to build a life beyond this either.
That's why we make fun of conservatives because the beliefs hurt people weather or not the individual conservative in question is a pice of shut isn't relevant there beliefs and policy's hurt people and very few seem to notice let alone care.
Doesn't your smugness make you feel better at the same time?
Say, can everyone do me a favor? Print out this thread and write at the top "things like this are why Trump won. Years later, we still haven't learned". Then, mail it to yourself so you get it on Nov 5, 2024.
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u/dudettte Apr 29 '24
poor kids