Our Food is Killing Us!

Abookamongstthemany wrote:

Our lunches were like 20 mins. How do they have the time to chug this stuff so fast, as well? They must spend their whole lunch feeding dollars into the machine.

Good nutrition starts at home. i blame the parents that are to busy to practice good nutritional habits with their kids

Sorry to get geeky, but a lot of scientists believe that we are naturally vulnerable to obesity. We are attracted to fatty foods because on an evolutionary basis it was beneficial for us to seek out high concentrations of calories which were hard to come by. However, that was at a point where we were using much more energy and exercising (hunting/gathering/migrating...) so now we are predisposed to fast food etc.

I support additional taxes on fast food and junk food. obesity related problems etc drains the health care system and so it should be discouraged and subsidized by people who are high users/

I didn't read through this whole thread, so my apologize for restating something that may already have been said.

As it turns out, exercise has very little to do with weight loss. Most exercises such as lifting weights target muscle developement. The amount of energy burned is actually very little. A few months ago I was curious so I pulled up the old Tim Horton's nutrition guide on their website and pulled out my bro's physics book.

According to Tim Horton's there is something like 400 calories in one of their sandwiches. According to the physics book, a fit person lifting 50kg burns about 3 calories per repetition. (I could be wrong on the exact numbers).

That means it would take over 130 reps with that weight to burn off that sandwich. Most people eat more than a sandwich in a day, and well, Tim Horton's is a hell of a lot healthier than McDonald's.

This of course doesn't take into account any nutritional facts. This is simply energy consumed and energy burned. You can see, it wouldn't be realitistic for a person to lift a 50kg weight 500 times a day just to burn off their intake.

Weight Loss is 90% what we eat. Exercise is a factor, however the most effective form of exercise for burning energy and fat is walking/running. I figured out through math that when I walk to work every day I burn off enough calories to account for one coffee from Tim Horton's. I walk two ways, to work and from work and drink 3 coffees, and I eat one or two meals a day. So that explains why I've increased in weight since I stopped working in the warehouse, where I burned a lot of calories all day.

So, eat an apple and grab a baseball bat

Jeanwah wrote:

And whatever happened to Health classes in schools? Are they not teaching that anymore??

They were a joke way back when, and I doubt that they have gotten any better in the schools of today. The Health class was generally something given to the football coach to teach to warrant his large salary as compared to real teachers.

Abookamongstthemany wrote:

So, in other words, we shouldn't choose to make these companies label goods because their profits are more important than our health as consumers of their products?

I am fully aware that costs would be a factor and was suprised it took you this long. I know that these companies have millions for advertising and new packaging. How about putting it to good use, there is plenty of room on most packaging for this kind of thing.

No, he was saying that they are going to pass the cost onto us, the consumers. Their pocket book is never in danger as long as they can take from ours.

Jeanwah wrote:

Exercise, in combination with eating right, has everything to do with weight loss. You said it yourself! Don't put down weight training, as it increases metabolism, this is a fact. So it does help. But I do agree with you that what we eat has more to do with it. I run 3 times a week, and if I'm trying to lose a couple pounds, running alone does not do it. But if I decrease my portion sizes and food choices, I end up losing the pounds.

Yea, sorry, I was saying running/walking is a great way to burn calories and keep the system running smooth. I was putting down weight training because it targets muscle developement. Too many people go to the gym and pump iron expecting to drop some pounds and are dissapointed by the results.

sourdough wrote:

I second this. On a different but similar tangent, I really think that we should also have labels ala Europe about whether our food products are genetically modified.

Why is that?

Did you know that GE crops account for something like 80% of our food? Without GE crops we would all starve to death?

Still don't like them?

Watch: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-7592468947754427068&q=bullshit+food

Abookamongstthemany wrote:

Yes, I know, but how is using a portion of the package for labeling going to be that much more costly?

Additional research, legal fees, ink, design costs......etc. basically whatever the marketing people trot out as a good excuse. If you add regulation, they will feed creative ways to prove that they need to pass along some additional costs.