Nope. There an obesity epidemic in France.

Don't listen to that guy.

 

20 minutes ago, martin-w said:

Nope. There an obesity epidemic in France.

Don't listen to that guy.

 

Yes many people, mainly young, are fond of "Mc Do" regime unfortunately!

Well, there is a significantly higher percentage of obese people in the USA compared to Europe, so in that sense Berg has a point.  A lot of American food is modified to make it more visually appealing and addictive by adding all sorts of sugars, salt, and chemicals.  Anyway, this is a big part of the reason why so many Americans are obese. 

Unfortunately, the unhealthy food from the USA which is loaded with sugar, salt, and a host of artificial flavor and color enhancers and preservatives, has made its way to Europe, especially the fast food junk.  We've seen it even in Italy, where McDonalds is now a popular hangout for young people in many locales - oh boy.  This is music to the ears of the big food, big agriculture, big healthcare, and big pharma conglomerates - get more people hooked on unhealthy and addictive foods requiring more unhealthy and addictive(but legal!) drugs and more expensive medical treatments and tests.

Then there's the "Frankenfood", IE the genetically modified stuff.  I don't really know if this GMO stuff is bad or not, but I'd rather it all be as nature intended.

Dave

Edited December 29, 20241 yr by dave2013

I'm an overweight and perhaps obese American.  The reason is eating and cooking are hobbies of mine.  I simply love to eat and am willing to suffer the consequences. 

Noel

On 12/29/2024 at 3:49 PM, dave2013 said:

Well, there is a significantly higher percentage of obese people in the USA compared to Europe, so in that sense Berg has a point. 

 

Relative to the US, yes, but his thumbnail that reads "Why are French People So Thin" is inaccurate. They aren't. They have an obesity issue too.

20% I recall in France. 25% in the UK. 40% in the US. None of those percentages are good. And then there's the issue of being overweight to add to the obesity figures, which is also very unhealthy, especially visceral fat. 

 

On 12/29/2024 at 3:49 PM, dave2013 said:

A lot of American food is modified to make it more visually appealing and addictive by adding all sorts of sugars, salt, and chemicals.  Anyway, this is a big part of the reason why so many Americans are obese. 

 

Yep, and as you go on to point out, it's now an issue in Europe too, and other parts of the world. 

There was some research done a while back where they studied remote tribes living a stone age existence. Guess what? They didn't burn any more calories than we do, the difference was the quality of the food, they were thin as a result of not eating junk. 

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 20241 yr by martin-w

It's funny that many govts. have cracked down hard on smoking, as they claim to care about the little people's health, but they're more than happy to allow unhealthy and harmful food to be mass produced and sold to an often unwitting public.

It's all about the money.

Dave

When I was in High School we had a smoking area on school property for students to smoke, and the rule was you had to be 14, (But if you were 13 they would just tell you to put it out), we also had soda pop machines in the hallways and a can of Coke was 50 cents back then. Todays kids don't smoke or drink soda's, they vape and drink Energy Drinks, so we haven't gotten healthier we are just replacing one thing with the other. Overall Food is far worse today as it is mostly processed foods now so we haven't improved at all. 

For the record I never smoked but I did hang out in the smoking area at times because that was where the cool kids hung out 🤣

16 hours ago, Matthew Kane said:

For the record I never smoked but I did hang out in the smoking area at times because that was where the cool kids hung out 🤣

 

Mathew... you are cool no matter what you do. You have no hair! Like, Kojak, Patrick Stewart, Kwai-Chang Kaine, all Buddhist monks, Vin Diesel, Lord Voldermort, some Doctor Who characters, Doctor Evil, the thing from The Thing, the alien from Aliens, Captain Sisko... you get the picture. 

I could see you on the bridge of Enterprise, any day. 

Captain Kane, of the star ship "Long White Cloud."

 

Edited January 1, 20251 yr by martin-w

5 hours ago, martin-w said:

 

Mathew... you are cool no matter what you do. You have no hair! Like, Kojak, Patrick Stewart, Kwai-Chang Kaine, all Buddhist monks, Vin Diesel, Lord Voldermort, some Doctor Who characters, Doctor Evil, the thing from The Thing, the alien from Aliens, Captain Sisko... you get the picture. 

I could see you on the bridge of Enterprise, any day. 

Captain Kane, of the star ship "Long White Cloud."

 

Ah Thanks Martin, you are too kind

Happy New Years my friend

@martin-w Geeohdee made only a few perfect ones!  The rest he put hair on! 🧑‍🦲

C-3P0 got in trouble for calling Jabba the Hut fat!

On 12/31/2024 at 9:31 AM, dave2013 said:

t's funny that many govts. have cracked down hard on smoking, as they claim to care about the little people's health

This issue with smokers and smoking is that the process affects others.  And that's the primary issue ... it impacts others that don't smoke and don't want to inhale it.  Just as driving around dumping exhaust and remove catalytic converters produces more harmful chemicals into our atmosphere that we humans "share".  There are "shared" responsibilities that can't be "avoided" and then there are activities that don't impact others.  

I don't care about activities that don't impact my life.  You wanna smoke in your house and kill yourself slowly, go for it, hopefully you don't shorten the life of other family members.  But when people decide they don't care what their activity does to others is where it becomes a problem.

On 12/31/2024 at 11:35 AM, Matthew Kane said:

Todays kids don't smoke or drink soda's, they vape and drink Energy Drinks, so we haven't gotten healthier we are just replacing one thing with the other. Overall Food is far worse today as it is mostly processed foods now so we haven't improved at all. 

Are you talking choices?  Overall food and water has become much better tested for a multitude of very harmful things salmonella, E. coli, listeria, etc. ... why do you think the average age of humans has increased from 1900's at 32 years old to 2021 at 71 years old.  Much of that is due to science, medication, and testing of food products.  As far as human choices on food ... good luck with that ... maybe Logan's Run wasn't such a bad idea 😉

Edited January 1, 20251 yr by CO2Neutral

1 hour ago, CO2Neutral said:

Are you talking choices?  Overall food and water has become much better tested for a multitude of very harmful things salmonella, E. coli, listeria, etc. ... why do you think the average age of humans has increased from 1900's at 32 years old to 2021 at 71 years old.  Much of that is due to science, medication, and testing of food products.  As far as human choices on food ... good luck with that ... maybe Logan's Run wasn't such a bad idea 😉

The best food has always been food that is unaltered, for example, catch a fish, skin it and eat it is as good today as it was 30,000 years ago. It is not science that has made food better it is availability. I live in New Zealand so the best agriculture on the planet, I can eat an entire diet not consisting of science, medication or testing, just grow your food and eat it, you will live easily over 71 years by doing that. The issue is for those living in cities around the world they don't have this same access to food, and therefore most of what they eat are processed foods, and this is mostly due to busy lives and limited budgets etc, yes it is better then 100 years ago for feeding the masses, but food closest to cultivation has always been the best and that isn't science behind that, its nature that's behind it

1 hour ago, Matthew Kane said:

The best food has always been food that is unaltered, for example, catch a fish, skin it and eat it is as good today as it was 30,000 years ago.

No, not the case ... see how you feel after catching a fish and eating it when it had mercury or lead in it.  Or go drink water from a stream, lake, river without knowing it's potential for virus that kills humans ... nature doesn't care that some animals upstream used a lake to deposit feces/urine on a regular basis. 

Again no, without science we could not produce anywhere near the quantity of food to support 8 Billion humans.  Why do you think "organic" foods cost so much more, yields are much lower.  

In the 1900s growing food and eating it was the only option (which is still the only option today just helped along with science - DNA and machinery and intelligent planning for weather), average age was 32 for those growing food and eating it in 1900s so no they weren't living to 71 on average.

Eating processed foods is a choice and not all processed foods are the same.  GM food (DNA modified) can be both, healthier and also less healthy ... depends on the desired result, but either way those modifications happen at the seed level and are still grown and cultivated from "nature" (rain/soil/sunlight).