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Are We Really Fatter Nowadays?

charliebrown said:
A MacDonalds “ Big Mac “ by itself will give you 25% of your daily calories and 40% of your daily fat intake.

When you add fries, the calories shoot over 1,400 when a person should only eat 2,000 calories a day.
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Now that I am post-menopause, I have to keep an eye on my calorie intake which I never used to do so much when I was younger. And I am frequently astonished to see people eating food as a snack that would comprise a main meal for me, simply because, I suspect, they don't understand just how many calories there are in such things.

Our shop sells things like 'snack pack' crisps (I think the word 'snack' should be banned and foods renamed 'eating between meals foods', because that's what they are). People will buy these and eat them and barely even know that they've had anything, yet it will be over 100 calories, wasted on meaningless and nutritionless rubbish.

A lot of my customers are hard-labouring farm workers and engineers, so they can cram down this stuff without feeling the effects, but as soon as they slow down a bit with age, unless they change their intake (which will be very hard after twenty years or so of eating every half hour and a Mars bar with every meal), it's going to come and get them.
 
What gets me as well though, is the cost of these 'snacks'. I see people go into the supermarket, over to the section that sells this crap stuff, grab a couple of (very small) bags of crisps, a vile looking fizzy drink and maybe some kind of chocolate and it comes to about £5k.

Also, eating and drinking whilst walking down the street. What's that all about? I don't know if it makes people fatter, but it surely can't be good for your digestion.
 
Floyd1 said:
What gets me as well though, is the cost of these 'snacks'. I see people go into the supermarket, over to the section that sells this crap stuff, grab a couple of (very small) bags of crisps, a vile looking fizzy drink and maybe some kind of chocolate and it comes to about £5k.

Also, eating and drinking whilst walking down the street. What's that all about? I don't know if it makes people fatter, but it surely can't be good for your digestion.
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I think a lot of this goes hand in hand with people not wanting to feel the slightest discomfort nowadays. When I was young we had three meals a day. That was all. None of this 'oh, I'm a bit peckish I'll make myself a sandwich' because families didn't have the money to keep the breadbin full of 'just in case' bread. Food was carefully rationed out, enough to get through the week on the once-a-week shopping trip. If we were absolutely STARVING, we may, grudgingly, have been allowed a banana or apple.

The slightest tummy rumble now and people are reaching for 'a snack'. It's perfectly all right to feel hungry. You won't die if you wait until dinner. But people are taking 'peckish' to mean 'absolutely starving' and eating continually, all day. So they forget what actual hunger feels like.
 
catseye said:
I think a lot of this goes hand in hand with people not wanting to feel the slightest discomfort nowadays. When I was young we had three meals a day. That was all. None of this 'oh, I'm a bit peckish I'll make myself a sandwich' because families didn't have the money to keep the breadbin full of 'just in case' bread. Food was carefully rationed out, enough to get through the week on the once-a-week shopping trip. If we were absolutely STARVING, we may, grudgingly, have been allowed a banana or apple.

The slightest tummy rumble now and people are reaching for 'a snack'. It's perfectly all right to feel hungry. You won't die if you wait until dinner. But people are taking 'peckish' to mean 'absolutely starving' and eating continually, all day. So they forget what actual hunger feels like.
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This is where the French have got it right.
Mind you, McDonald's is even creeping in there now apparently.
 
catseye said:
If we were absolutely STARVING, we may, grudgingly, have been allowed a banana or apple.
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Fruit? Luxury.
The only time my family had fresh fruit was when we went out and stole it. There'd be family walks in the country, with an eye open for an orchard with a climbable wall, and the nimbler kids would be sent off to scrump. :chuckle:
 
escargot said:
Fruit? Luxury.
The only time my family had fresh fruit was when we went out and stole it. There'd be family walks in the country, with an eye open for an orchard with a climbable wall, and the nimbler kids would be sent off to scrump. :chuckle:
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All the fruit in the fruit bowl was, essential for my mother. She liked bananas and apples (and grapes) and so would buy them. We had to ask permission to eat any (which we didn't usually do, because we weren't that fond of fruit!).
 
catseye said:
All the fruit in the fruit bowl was, essential for my mother. She liked bananas and apples (and grapes) and so would buy them. We had to ask permission to eat any (which we didn't usually do, because we weren't that fond of fruit!).
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To me, even now, eating fresh fruit is the height of luxury. :)
As for those darling little tubs of cut fruit, with chunks of melon an' all sorts, well. Heaven. :cool:
 
escargot said:
To me, even now, eating fresh fruit is the height of luxury. :)
As for those darling little tubs of cut fruit, with chunks of melon an' all sorts, well. Heaven. :cool:
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According to most of my friends growing up, we were well posh, we had a fruitbowl.

I now eat an inordinate amount of raspberries though.
 
catseye said:
I have to keep an eye on my calorie intake which I never used to do so much when I was younger. And I am frequently astonished to see people eating food as a snack that would comprise a main meal for me, simply because, I suspect, they don't understand just how many calories there are in such things.
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I think you're right. A chocolate hob nob is about 100 calories. Have two a day and that's very nearly an extra meal a week.
 
catseye said:
According to most of my friends growing up, we were well posh, we had a fruitbowl.

I now eat an inordinate amount of raspberries though.
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Spotted a load of packs of raspberries dirt-cheap last week so I pounced and lobbed'em in the freezer.
There's my week's tangy smoothie needs catered for. :cool:

Did I ever tell you my strawberry story?
 
Coal said:
I think you're right. A chocolate hob nob is about 100 calories. Have two a day and that's very nearly an extra meal a week.
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And the really worrying thing is how many people will eat a couple of these with a cup of coffee mid morning and not even remember they had them. They'll then eat a salad for lunch and wonder why they are putting on weight, when they swear they are watching what they eat.
 
Since my wife and I are both retired, we came up with a plan where we would only eat one large meal a day.

We have also tried to cut out excess sugar, goodbye to jelly filled doughnuts and to my favorite coconut cake.

We are slowly loosing weight.

This is not for people who physically work hard daily.
 
Lots of green leafy salads, vegetables, rye or grain breads, unsweetened ice tea, different fruits each day, fish, chicken, a reputable yogurt instead of any type of ice cream.
Along with miles of walking and zumba classes on youtube, and my old jeans fit me again!
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
Lots of green leafy salads, vegetables, rye or grain breads, unsweetened ice tea, different fruits each day, fish, chicken, a reputable yogurt instead of any type of ice cream.
Along with miles of walking and zumba classes on youtube, and my old jeans fit me again!
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OK, but what do you have for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
 
charliebrown said:
Since my wife and I are both retired, we came up with a plan where we would only eat one large meal a day.

We have also tried to cut out excess sugar, goodbye to jelly filled doughnuts and to my favorite coconut cake.

We are slowly loosing weight.

This is not for people who physically work hard daily.
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OMAD (one meal a day) has a lot of followers as a diet.

I only eat one meal a day on days when I'm not working. When I'm working I eat a breakfast of muesli before I go and then a cooked meal in the evening when I get home. When I don't go to work I eat once a day, in the evening. Works for me, but that's because once I have eaten I find it hard to stop...
 
I eat fresh fruit every day. So I guess I am rich. Funny, I don't feel rich. And where is all my money if I am rich? Oh yes, my money went to buy the fresh fruit. Only partially joking. Since covid here in the US, our grocery bills have gone up by about 50%.

Most of us in Western countries are fatter than our ancestors. "Calories in = calories out" is a dismal and unescapable arithmetic.
 
Well Endlessly Amazed.

I agree that since covid, grocery prices are “ shocking “.

You are forced to buy store generic brand, but the wife will buy a few trade brands like brand name Folgers Coffee.

A side story is that a local farmer will build you a hen house with laying hens for the rent of $600.00 dollars for 6 months.

Then after 6 months he will take everything back unless you want to rent the hens and their house for another 6 months for another $600.00.

Egg prices are still unusually high in the groceries.
 
charliebrown said:
Well Endlessly Amazed.

I agree that since covid, grocery prices are “ shocking “.

You are forced to buy store generic brand, but the wife will buy a few trade brands like brand name Folgers Coffee.

A side story is that a local farmer will build you a hen house with laying hens for the rent of $600.00 dollars for 6 months.

Then after 6 months he will take everything back unless you want to rent the hens and their house for another 6 months for another $600.00.

Egg prices are still unusually high in the groceries.
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I buy a lot of groceries at Costco - that huge, capitalist dark overlord of vertical supply chain integration. The eggs there locally have finally gone up to $3.00/dozen.

Edit: I just came back from Costco, and eggs are $2.70/dozen.
 
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Ronnie Jersey said:
Lots of green leafy salads, vegetables, rye or grain breads, unsweetened ice tea, different fruits each day, fish, chicken, a reputable yogurt instead of any type of ice cream.
Along with miles of walking and zumba classes on youtube, and my old jeans fit me again!
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How can you tell if a yoghurt is disreputable ?
 

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