Obesity...can we blame the food industry?

[walker]

the Yanks have it bad, but as I said before the food is sooooo cheap its easier and cheaper to eat out at fast food joints than it is to eat indoors (taking into consideration the added electricity/gas that cooking on your own entails)

 

[walker]

Lol Elmer, your meant to run on a treadmill, you lazt good for nothing......

 

[Fab Foodie]

I must say I've never seen so many huge people as I did the first time I was in downtown chicago...I couldn't believe my eyes!

Downtown Chicago's not too bad by American standards...try Atlanta or Cleveland...

Lifestyle plays a big part though even in the USA, In Seattle for instance which is pretty well educated and pretty cosmopolitan and the landscape is conducive to outdoor activities you don't see anywhere near as many wardrobes clumping around as you do say in Ohio where people only ever walk in the Mall. In Seattle you actually see people on bicycles, people jogging, sailing, canoeing...on lake Erie in the Midwest it's beer and powerboats!

 

[Johnny Thin]

People should be more discriminating and selective about the ethics of what they eat - give the farmers a better deal by buying from farmers markets etc. Then you need less food as you have less guilt and look after yourself better, good karma etc. But try telling that to the f***wits who allow themselves to be told what to eat via eternal exposure to TV etc ...

 

[col]

The farmers markets we have had charge a fortune.

 

[Fnaar]

Mrs F and I recently decided we'd no longer buy the cheapo cr@p chicken etc from supermarkets... end result is eating a lot less meat, as the local butchers charged me £8 for 4 chicken breasts t'other week! 'Kin 'ell!
You can see why Johnny Public likes the "2packs for £3" option.

 

[Tetedelacourse]

Mrs F and I recently decided we'd no longer buy the cheapo cr@p chicken etc from supermarkets... end result is eating a lot less meat, as the local butchers charged me £8 for 4 chicken breasts t'other week! 'Kin 'ell!
You can see why Johnny Public likes the "2packs for £3" option.

Aye, or a whole chicken for £3.

Or a whole cooked chicken for £2.50!

 

[User482]

I don't think that the food industry can be let off the hook so easily. There's no doubt that being unhealthy is much easier than it used to be: unhealthy food is cheap, convenient, and superficially appealing. Back in the day, you had no option but to cook a meal from scratch using raw ingredients.

But even supposedly healthy food is not what it seems: battery-bred chicken has far higher levels of fat than proper organic free-range, and fruit & veg are often far from fresh, meaning that nutrients have degraded.

So we're asking the public to spend more money and time in order to cut obesity - a tough sell.

 

[bonj2]

On a shallow level, yes the food companies are to blame. But on a deeper level, it's capitalism that's to blame really.

Capitalism gives rise to food companies springing up that spot the opportunity for profit by playing on people's want to have instant gratification in the form of a burger. This is a problem because people fall for it hook line and sinker and become fat.
I'd like to see your little local burger vans with delicious fried onions that you always get in town centre markets and outside football matches start opening up drive throughs, that'd take the big buggers down a peg.

 

[Big Bren]

We live in a society that allows people to adbicate responsibility for virtually all of their shortcomings and misfortunes; suggesting that food companies and/or capitalism are to blame for the rise in obesity is symptomatic of that national disease.

Choice is an indicator of civilisation; please don't suggest that mine should be taken away because large swathes of society are unable to exercise theirs responsibly.

Bren