If "big business" could make money selling healthy food they would sell it.
They don't sell it because we don't want it!
Why are there zero healthy fast food joints? Because they would go broke!
And they know it! They have studied it! It isn't a government conspiracy...simply put we don't want it!
If there were enough of us to support healthy fast food joints there would be some...or even just one!
My wife teaches middle school. The free breakfast/lunch is semi-healthy....the kids always go for the crappier stuff. It is mandatory that they take a milk with their meal...they have to take it....almost all of those milks end up unopened in the trash. It cannot be given away by law (don't ask me why)
Milk is healthy....we don't want it!
There are a bazillion fast food places within two miles of me. Angie has been married to me and lived here for 12 years. I bet she hasn't had fast food 12 times....other than KFC maybe once a year (my fix) ...there are at least 6 places to get pizza in that same area, we probably get pizza every couple of months, it used to be more when the kids were here.
Now then, before she made me...ahem...."encouraged" me to give up fast food I would say I ate fast food at least 4 times a week for lunches and dinner. I liked it! And I knew it was bad for me!
I don't have the desire for it anymore, or at least often. I have finally decided it isn't good for me and accepted the fact that...for me...I can't have it in order to get where I want in life.
I drive several more miles to the produce market and whole foods store.
But that is MY CHOICE....not the city council's!
Would I love to see a healthy fast food place in my area...of course
just don't tell me that the next guy can't build his place because he has too many calories in his food
EZMONEY-My mouth just about fell open when I read your above post that all those FREE milks go in the trash unopened and you can't even salvage it and save it and give it away to the food banks or etc. I guess I'm going to have to get used to seeing that type of thing myself when I get into education. I really wish my HS had offered a nutrition/cooking class when I was in HS.
Last edited by blondebritbrat17; 07-31-2008 at 02:12 PM.
You'd be the exception among my friends who live alone then.
I'm a good cook but like I said, I don't like cooking for just myself. I also don't like eating the same things every day.
With me, I see frozen food and think it looks so unappetizing and rather cook something myself.
Of course, at my highest weight, some of my 'meals' consisted of just bread and cheese. Bread and cheese was one of my favorite dinners. That and Dryer's cookies and creme.
I also don't necessarily have the same thing every night, but it really depends. Sometimes I'll cook multiple things in one night and eat something for lunch and a different variation of that something for dinner. Although my one staple is I do eat 2 salads almost every day, one for lunch and one for dinner.
As a proponent of "everything in moderation" (which is actually kind of an unpopular opinion on this board), I think this legislation is crap. First of all, as nelie has pointed out, the other establishments aren't necessarily going to be any healthier than the fast food places. Chances are, they'll just be more expensive. If I can get a grilled chicken sandwich and a side salad at McDonald's for a few bucks on the way home from work, what the heck is wrong with that? Or if I want a bunch of greasy fried chicken mcnuggets and french fries and a milkshake, I'd get those too.
I lost 110 pounds by restricting calories and including many MANY treats within my set calorie limit. Quite often, that included fast food, whether it was the grilled chicken and salad kind of option or the greasy fries. It's none of anyone's business how many calories I'm eating or whether I'm on the way up or down in terms of my weight. And contrary to most people's opinion, I can eat fries and still lose weight. It might mean I'm doing a 10-mile run the next day or I'm cutting out something else, but again...my business.
As for relating it to smoking, I have a hard time relating health choices regarding obesity to the ones regarding smoking because smoking affects not just the user but everyone around him or her. My being overweight doesn't cause someone else to be overweight. If I smoke in public, however, it's the same as releasing toxins into the air for other people to breathe. That's a whole separate issue, though, so I won't ramble any further on it!
I'm really torn on this issue...on the one hand, it makes me sad that it is hard to find fresh produce in low-income areas, since it isn't included in the currently active WIC program that provides food for women, infants, and children. LUCKILY, the WIC program is currently undergoing a revision to include more healthy whole grains, fruits and veggies, etc. Convenience stores and the like DO stock the WIC foods, since they get reimbursement for the food coupons from the government, so as that program gets phased in, we may see a greater selection of whole grains, fruits and veggies, and lean proteins in convenience stores, giving better access to those foods to people who don't have easy transport to grocery stores. I definitely think it'll make a difference in the profit-driven convenience store market. And if this legislation frees up space for other types of vendors, it might be a really good thing.
On the other hand, I generally don't like restrictive legislation like this...I find incentives work better to acheive whatever objective you're going for. I'd love to see legislation with incentives to get stores with healthy options into inner cities. I understand that most people don't want the healthy stuff, and most people may still pick the fast food choices. But for the people who DO want to make healthy choices, but can't get healthy foods due to lack of access, I think encouraging healthy food vendors to get into these areas could be really positive. I think it is a tragedy, given the state of health in this country, that some people WANT to make healthy choices, and try to do so, but can't access the sorts of foods that make living that healthy lifestyle easier.
It's not always unappetizing and it has improved a great deal over the years. I try things that look appealing on the box and if I don't like it, I don't buy it again. I also add things to them to make them taste better (herbs, sometimes parmesan cheese, which I note in my food diary). I couldn't have lived on bread and cheese. I don't eat much cheese and I definitely don't like to eat it cold. I'm extremely picky about what kinds of cheese I will and won't eat, and too much of any of it upsets my stomach. Too much bread makes me hiccup and gives me a stomachache.
With the enormous quantities many of my favorite fresh foods are sold in, it's hard to use it all up before it goes bad. I buy a lot of frozen vegetables and just cook what I want to eat that day. That way they don't go bad and it's a lot cheaper for me in the long run. Many brands of frozen vegetables are virtually indistinguishable (to me) from steamed fresh vegetables. Most of my food is frozen because I simply cannot use it fast enough to make it worth my while to buy it fresh. I'm sick of throwing out moldy strawberries, wilted slimy lettuce, dessicated onions, etc.
I'm not a big fan of salads. I like vegetables, but I don't dig on salads. Never have.
Oh I definitely buy frozen veggies. Now that I have a CSA, I'm eating a lot more fresh stuff than frozen but once fall hits, I'll revert to frozen veggies. I just think frozen dinners look unappetizing and they always have. When people have them at work, I think 'yuck'.
Also, now i'm 'pickier' in that I don't eat animal products and there are frozen meals that cater to that but still, I find it easier to cook large batches of rice, beans and veggies. I don't eat the rice much but my husband does.
The bread and cheese thing was really a comfort/binge food for me honestly. I loved brie and imported cheeses along with bread. Sometimes crackers but mostly nice soft bread. Now I don't eat cheese and I rarely eat bread but then again my eating has evolved over the years to what it is now.
Well there you go; when I had a husband to cook for, I cooked almost every meal fresh from scratch. It's very different when you have nobody to cook for but yourself.
I agree but my cooking now (other than cooking rice often) isn't much different from when I was single and eating healthier. Same style, cook in batches. As I said, I was single, living by myself for the most of the time for 12 years and cooked throughout those 12 years.
I wouldn't cook every meal from scratch though, forget that. If he wanted a fresh meal every night, he'd have to cook himself.
My ex-husband (besides being a wussy and a mama's boy...his mother split us up) was a 85% vegetarian, i.e. he ate very little meat, and was extremely fussy about what he ate. He was also a bad cook and while he did offer to cook, I took over cooking because I didn't want to eat what he made. Two people can go through fresh produce a lot more quickly than one can.
I agree totally in regards to produce although even when I was single, I was a member of Costco and bought such staples as grape tomatoes and snap green peas.
I may be one of the few cases where someone cooked food on a regular basis despite cooking only for myself. Although sometimes still it feels like I'm cooking for one. There are a lot of things I'll cook for my husband but won't eat myself and there are some things I'll cook for myself but won't serve my husband. We are on different paths, he is on the low end of where he should be in regards to weight and I'm trying to lose/maintain my loss.
Even in college, I may have eaten out for lunch with friends but generally, I was home cooking dinner for myself. At the point where you eat out lunch and cook dinner and try to cook leftovers, you even have to be more careful in regards to making sure food doesn't go bad.
With the enormous quantities many of my favorite fresh foods are sold in, it's hard to use it all up before it goes bad.
Definitely a problem I have to deal with, but to a large degree, I deal with it by using it to make me eat lots and lots and lots of veggies. But Trader Joe's does cause me some problems - I can't use up one bunch of celery before it goes bad, much less the two they package into one bag. But I easily use up a bag or bunch of spinach, a head or two of broccoli, a couple bell peppers, a box of mushrooms, a bunch of cilantro, etc.
Most of what I freeze is ingredients rather than meals. Plus bread - I can't use it up, and I toast it anyway. I freeze a few things, like soup, for a convenient meal, but homemade.
But even though I am cooking almost every day, this is still pretty new to me, so my way of eating and cooking and shopping is still evolving.
A Can of Worms. . .?
