Sugar is poison

[MadImmortalMan]

Portion sizes just doesn't sound plausible.  How many people eat out with any sort of regularity?  I agree that portion sizes are ridiculous, but over-eating once a week doesn't seem like an efficient way to get fat.  Chugging a 2-liter bottle of soda a day is another matter entirely.

Chugging 2-liter bottles of soda every day doesn't sound plausible.

i knew someone wo did. little French Canadian guy in my class. Scrawny too. Must have had diabetes or something

I survived on a diet composed primarily of Mountain Dew through High School. 2 liters a day is probably not far off...


And yeah, I was scrawny and hypoglycemic. I can't stand sugary stuff now.

[alfred russel]

A lot of fat people that eat more then they should and dont exercise as much as they should.  The sytem you are looking for is something that will force people to do less of the former and more of the latter.  Lots of people make lots of money selling that "system" and yet we still have a lot of fat people.  Why is that?  because at the end of the day food is plentiful and excerise is hard to do for a fat person.

Yes but that was all still true in the 70s and 80s and we were alot thinner.  That is what I do not get.

But maybe it is the tendency to eat out more as Brazen said.

You have to look at how much society has changed. Video games and computers are much more available and popular than the 70's and 80's. Cars are more available for transportation. People just don't have the need or desire to exercise as much as they did in the 70's and 80's, and entertainment is more geared towards non-physical participation.

I think this is the answer. If you take away video games, computers, and all be 5 TV stations, activities that require movement might not seem so horrible. If we went back to those days, I know I would consider hanging mself or jumping from a tall building.

[crazy canuck]

Portion sizes just doesn't sound plausible.  How many people eat out with any sort of regularity?  I agree that portion sizes are ridiculous, but over-eating once a week doesn't seem like an efficient way to get fat.  Chugging a 2-liter bottle of soda a day is another matter entirely.

So the invention of Coca-Cola in the late 1980s is the cause of the epidemic?

I dont think there was such a thing as a 2 litre bottle of any pop when I was a kid. And pop was something I got on special occasions or if I made enough money (cutting people's lawns etc) to buy my own.  And even then I jumped on my bike to go to the corner store to buy it - nevermind the physical work required to earn the money to buy the pop.

Now it seems a staple of kid's diets.

[Ed Anger]

If I have to get up and turn the knob to change the channel again, I'm climbing a clock tower with a rifle.

[crazy canuck]

If I have to get up and turn the knob to change the channel again, I'm climbing a clock tower with a rifle.

Empty threat.  You would never make it to the top lardass.

[MadImmortalMan]

If I have to get up and turn the knob to change the channel again, I'm climbing a clock tower with a rifle.

Empty threat.  You would never make it to the top lardass.

His child bride would push his wheelchair up there.

[Capetan Mihali]

It seems like soda serving sizes in particular have increased a ton in the last 30 years.  From the 8oz bottle being standard to the 12oz can to the 20oz bottle that is virtually standard today.  Even 24oz single-serving plastic bottles are unremarkable these days. 

Last year, I noticed they were rolling out a variety of sodas in 16oz tallboy cans for 99 cents.  Plus all of those 24oz Arizona iced teas and what not that are loaded with sugar.  And now the 1 liter family bottle of yore (which you still see in Europe, IIRC) has become the 2 liter by default, if not the 3 liter bottles of discount soda.  To say nothing of the soda servings at convenience stores (e.g. the 44oz Double Big Gulp at 7-11) or fast food restaurants.

I remember reading somewhere that the percentage of calories from soft drinks in the average American's diet is one of the things that has really taken off dramatically, which is easy to believe.

[jamesww]

It seems like soda serving sizes in particular have increased a ton in the last 30 years.  From the 8oz bottle being standard to the 12oz can to the 20oz bottle that is virtually standard today.  Even 24oz single-serving plastic bottles are unremarkable these days. 

Last year, I noticed they were rolling out a variety of sodas in 16oz tallboy cans for 99 cents.  Plus all of those 24oz Arizona iced teas and what not that are loaded with sugar.  And now the 1 liter family bottle of yore (which you still see in Europe, IIRC) has become the 2 liter by default, if not the 3 liter bottles of discount soda.  To say nothing of the soda servings at convenience stores (e.g. the 44oz Double Big Gulp at 7-11) or fast food restaurants.

I remember reading somewhere that the percentage of calories from soft drinks in the average American's diet is one of the things that has really taken off dramatically, which is easy to believe.

Indirect Govt subsidy of corn syrup ?

Have to get rid of the shit somehow.

[grumbler]

I did close to that for many years.    That's just 6-8 glasses a day.  If you drink that instead of water, that's just the recommended daily fluid intake.

I think we have learned to take your personal observations as non-standard.  68 ounces of soda per day is about four times the national average consumption for all sweetened drinks.  It is not credible that consumption at that level is responsible for the obesity epidemic (though surely anyone consuming at that level risks obesity amongst the many other problems resulting from, and responsible for, such behaviors).

[grumbler]

It seems like soda serving sizes in particular have increased a ton in the last 30 years.  From the 8oz bottle being standard to the 12oz can to the 20oz bottle that is virtually standard today.  Even 24oz single-serving plastic bottles are unremarkable these days. 

Last year, I noticed they were rolling out a variety of sodas in 16oz tallboy cans for 99 cents.  Plus all of those 24oz Arizona iced teas and what not that are loaded with sugar.  And now the 1 liter family bottle of yore (which you still see in Europe, IIRC) has become the 2 liter by default, if not the 3 liter bottles of discount soda.  To say nothing of the soda servings at convenience stores (e.g. the 44oz Double Big Gulp at 7-11) or fast food restaurants.

I remember reading somewhere that the percentage of calories from soft drinks in the average American's diet is one of the things that has really taken off dramatically, which is easy to believe.

I think that the number of calories per take taken in via sugared drinks is, as you note, up vastly from 30 years ago.  I also think the intake from fat is vastly greater than 30 years ago, as well.  I seem to recall that over 50% of all calories sold by McD's are fat calories, and that they are pretty typical of fast-food places in general.

[DGuller]

I did close to that for many years.    That's just 6-8 glasses a day.  If you drink that instead of water, that's just the recommended daily fluid intake.

I think we have learned to take your personal observations as non-standard.  68 ounces of soda per day is about four times the national average consumption for all sweetened drinks.  It is not credible that consumption at that level is responsible for the obesity epidemic (though surely anyone consuming at that level risks obesity amongst the many other problems resulting from, and responsible for, such behaviors).

From a statistical standpoint, consumption of soda is probably a skewed distribution.  In a skewed distribution with a reasonable standard deviation, four times the average is far from implausible for a significant portion of the population.

For example, on average about 3 cigarettes are smoked per day per capita in US.  Is it implausible that someone smokes 12 or more cigarettes per day?

[Ideologue]

Portion sizes just doesn't sound plausible.  How many people eat out with any sort of regularity?  I agree that portion sizes are ridiculous, but over-eating once a week doesn't seem like an efficient way to get fat.  Chugging a 2-liter bottle of soda a day is another matter entirely.

Chugging 2-liter bottles of soda every day doesn't sound plausible.

I drink roughly 4.2 liters of soda every day.  Diet, though.

I welcome the obesity apocalypse.  It has more drawbacks than killing every man in the world over 4'6" or turning them all homosexual with gamma rays, but it's far more practical.

I dont think there was such a thing as a 2 litre bottle of any pop when I was a kid. And pop was something I got on special occasions or if I made enough money (cutting people's lawns etc) to buy my own.  And even then I jumped on my bike to go to the corner store to buy it - nevermind the physical work required to earn the money to buy the pop.

Good God, where did you grow up?  Post-war Berlin?

[Ed Anger]

Worse. Canada.

[Ideologue]

I should start a Children's Soda Fund.

[Ed Anger]

I should start a Children's Soda Fund.

That'll go good with Derek Zoolander's School For Kids Who Can't Read Good (and want to learn how to do other things good).