America gets even fatter!

[Valmy]

where i live , food is cheap in the summer. the fresh local organic produce is cheaper than the conventional stuff that I used to buy at Safeway in Saskatchewan.

but to cook foods, you need some basic cooking skills, which people don't have, and you have to do shopping/menu planning, which is alien to a lot of people.  for some reason, it's a chore.

Yeah I buy lots of fruit and vegetables and frozen chicken and packs of rice.  I save alot instead of going out to get fast food all the time like I used to.

On the other hand having to cook every night is a serious pain in the ass.  Then you have to clean up.  I wish I was rich enough to hire a staff.

[saskganesh]

Even cooking from scratch you can't eat a healthy meal for the cost of a quarter pounder meal from McDonalds. 

fail.

for example, red beans and rice is healthier. materials cost pennies. lettuce is in season now, so a quick salad on the side is very doable.

the trick is to remember to soak your beans and rice the night before. but this is hard for people.

[crazy canuck]

Solution: end corn subsidies?  Who cares about Iowa anyway.  If Iowa fell into the ocean Garbon wouldn't even notice.

That would take more political will then just confronting the corn lobby.  Cheap corn makes almost everything North America eats cheaper.  Everything is now sweatened with corn syrop, in including all the Soda we drink (sweetened with Corn syrop since the 80s), the beef we consume - most of which is now corn fed, leading to all kinds of problems - but its cheaper then grass fed beef, the breakfast cereals we eat, all of the other processed food we eat, the list of which is way to long to make here.  It all depends on cheap corn.

One line I recently read is that Americans dont consider themselves to be corn eaters when in fact most of their diet is made up of corn and corn by-products.  A very tiny percentage of corn grown in the US is for direct consumption.  Most of it is grown for manufacturing into processed food.

[ulmont]

Cheap corn makes almost everything North America eats cheaper.  Everything is now sweatened with corn syrop, in including all the Soda we drink (sweetened with Corn syrop since the 80s),

Yeah, but there's an easy solution to this one:  end the punitive tariff on sugar imports.

[crazy canuck]

but to cook foods, you need some basic cooking skills, which people don't have, and you have to do shopping/menu planning, which is alien to a lot of people.  for some reason, it's a chore.

More to the point it is both quicker and often cheaper to grab processed food, warm it up and call it cooking.

[Barrister]

Even cooking from scratch you can't eat a healthy meal for the cost of a quarter pounder meal from McDonalds. 

fail.

for example, red beans and rice is healthier. materials cost pennies. lettuce is in season now, so a quick salad on the side is very doable.

the trick is to remember to soak your beans and rice the night before. but this is hard for people.

Thats what I was getting at by filling up on starches like our grandparents.  There's no doubt a diet heavy on beans and rice is better than processed foods, but it's not terribly nutritious either.

And I say all of this as the person who cooks most nights (and when I don't cook, my wife does).  I've been on a "old fashioned cooking" kick for awhile as well - I made chicken soup from scratch the other day.  It was delicious and very nutritious and used only basic ingredients - but fastfood would have been cheaper on a per-meal basis.

And while my produce costs are high, I have lived in other places, and have cooked in other places.

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, but there's an easy solution to this one:  end the punitive tariff on sugar imports.

Agreed.  But that just replaces one sweetner with another and corn sweetners would still be prefered in processed foods.  It would do nothing to end the obesity problem in North America.

[Barrister]

Yeah, but there's an easy solution to this one:  end the punitive tariff on sugar imports.

Agreed.  But that just replaces one sweetner with another and corn sweetners would still be prefered in processed foods.  It would do nothing to end the obesity problem in North America.

But it would help to revive the Canadian sugar beet industry.   

[crazy canuck]

But it would help to revive the Canadian sugar beet industry.   

Sadly there are not enough people making Borscht anymore.

[Norgy]

I have a solution to the world obesity problems. Okay, it will screw over the third world, but that's nothing new.

Increase all greenhouse gas emissions until we have a balmy 35-40 degrees Celsius on average all over the northern hemisphere. Let those fuckers in the Pacific drown. When we get summer all year, we don't need them.

In this heat, people's apetites will naturally be lower. Also, the temperatures will kill off a lot of the species we feed off and make us eat more veggies. To avoid people snacking after sundown, I suggest a curfew and anyone seen eating will be shot on sight. This will also reduce unemployment considerably.

[Eddie Teach]

Cheap corn makes almost everything North America eats cheaper.  Everything is now sweatened with corn syrop, in including all the Soda we drink (sweetened with Corn syrop since the 80s),

Yeah, but there's an easy solution to this one:  end the punitive tariff on sugar imports.

You tried that Pepsi throwback crap? Tastes better with corn syrup.

[Valmy]

You tried that Pepsi throwback crap? Tastes better with corn syrup.

The fact that you like Pepsi at all invalidates any claim you have in knowing what tastes good.

[Eddie Teach]

You tried that Pepsi throwback crap? Tastes better with corn syrup.

The fact that you like Pepsi at all invalidates any claim you have in knowing what tastes good.

Actually it was Mountain Dew that I had, just said Pepsi because they made it for all the Pepsi brands.

[ulmont]

You tried that Pepsi throwback crap? Tastes better with corn syrup.

I meant to, for curiosity's sake, but I haven't really seen it around and haven't gone looking too far.  I mostly drink the diet version these days anyway.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Water is better for you than those crappy fizzy drinks and it's a lot cheaper too