Charas-Project
Off-Topic => All of all! => Topic started by: Zerlina on October 14, 2010, 07:53:59 PM
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Thought this was incredibly nasty:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/13/mcdonalds-happy-meal-photos-6-months_n_761364.html
The state of the food industry right now is terrible...GMOs, preservatives, dyes, salts, manufactured sugars...not to mention the global food trade leading to decreased biodiversity. We have apples in Ontario but we have to import them from thousands of kms away...? All we need is a parasite that attacks one breed of apple (or potato, or banana) in one concentrated spot, and pretty soon the whole continent has a shortage of apples/potatoes/bananas.
We're constantly told preserved and processed food is bad for us, but the price of groceries has increased by over 50% in most places over the past four years while minimum wage in many places has yet to catch up. For a lot of people processed and canned foods are the only choice. Obesity is steadily increasing across the board... not to mention various forms of cancers, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Nutritious, sustaining, and nourishing food (coined or marketed as "Health Food") is being seen as a trendy luxury rather than a basic need.
So why isn't there more action being taken about something so fundamental to our existence as our food?
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Where I live Mc'Ds shut down and moved away since they got facerolled by nicer, local places
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Eh, I have a hard time getting worked up about food that will give me health problems in about forty years when there are people dying of starvation right now. We take our food situation for granted. It wasn't all that long ago when many of our relatively inexpensive, commonplace meals were rare or impossible to get.
Besides, this one has an easy solution. If you care, don't eat at McDonald's. Eat at healthier places, or cook for yourself. If that's too much of a hassle, or too expensive and you're not willing to change your lifestyle, well, something's gunna have to give. Maybe give up that cell phone with the $60/month plan. Just a thought.
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I don't mind unhealty food. When I've heard how they make the KFC sauce... I didn't mind. At all. In fact, I still love this sauce! I've heard hot-dogs are made with pretty much trash. I still enjoy eating these things. What can I say? They taste great!
I'd rather eat things I like, which are even cheaper, than healthy food that costs too much for simply being... healthy. Taste over health!
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This thread title is totally misleading.
Mickey D's definitely does not count as food.
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I live in Austin, where a huge "BUY LOCAL ONRY" movement has taken root. I'm not strictly a localvore, but I am a vegan, and most of the stuff I eat ends up being organic or close to it. So I'm not all that afraid for my sake.
What surprises me is that this thing about McDonald's food not growing mold is "news." Someone did that experiment years ago. Isn't the idea of being an artist to do your own thing?
On the other hand, I like that it's raising this issue.
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I like how everyone feigns disgust and pretends that they WERENT aware of the preservatives in a McBurger.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSPxGPQizZ1fMxpsNOfWGqFB-jfcqrqUopsMNjPvlANdnJLrzY&t=1&usg=___KqcZAvGkShLZ2b50nv76sTcfHQ=
This is processed chicken
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Ah, looks exactly like penis.
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Eh, I have a hard time getting worked up about food that will give me health problems in about forty years when there are people dying of starvation right now. We take our food situation for granted. It wasn't all that long ago when many of our relatively inexpensive, commonplace meals were rare or impossible to get.
Besides, this one has an easy solution. If you care, don't eat at McDonald's. Eat at healthier places, or cook for yourself. If that's too much of a hassle, or too expensive and you're not willing to change your lifestyle, well, something's gunna have to give. Maybe give up that cell phone with the $60/month plan. Just a thought.
You're speaking as if everyone who is eating unhealthy is eating at McDonald's and keeping an expensive cell phone. Yes there are people in places of privilege who can make the luxurious choice of a phone for doing business and talking to their distant families, and the choice of eating nutritious food. There are also a lot of people hovering the poverty line, who are choosing between two $1 boxes of processed kraft vs. the entire cost of a homemade dinner- some people can't afford that extra cost every day while still making their rent, electricity, hydro, heating, children's expenses, or the expenses of dependent adults such as grandparents, and aging parents. It's a little insensitive to say that people who can't afford nutritious food are spending their money frivolously.
Family of Four (using this week's Metro Grocery Flyer):
Example Processed Dinner:
KRAFT DINNER- 97 cents CAD x 2 =$1.94
Pop- $1.99 for 2 litres
Total= 3.93
+ 13% HST
= $4.44
For 30 days this makes the cost $133.22 CAD for a family of four to eat dinner (keep in mind this is only ONE meal of the day)
Example Healthy Dinner:
1 package of chicken breast @ Metro Grocery Store- avg. $7.49- $9.49 CAD (@ reg price of 8.99 a pound)
3 Sweet Potatoes (on sale, weighing an average 2/3 of a lb)- $2
Cauliflower- $2.99 a crown, on sale
Can of frozen 100% orange juice $1.29
(There is no HST on whole grocery products)
For 30 days this makes the cost $443.10 CAD for a family of four to eat dinner. Assuming all of these items stay on sale.
The difference in serving ONE healthy meal a day for a month versus one processed meal is $309.88 Canadian
Much, much more than a $60 cellphone plan, and much more than many people can afford. My sister's job is organizing a community garden so that low income and new immigrant families can afford to eat fresh vegetables. If they weren't lucky enough to have had that program organized in their area, they wouldn't be able to afford real food. They work the gardens, and spend their weekends at fundraising markets so that their families can receive basic nutrition. Try telling them they're spending their money on too many luxury items.
Even if you're not a new immigrant or low income worker, it can be difficult to afford nutritious food. Rent in Toronto for one person is about $900 a month, or if you share with someone, about $500, tuition is about $6000 a year for a general arts program + $1000 in books). Not to mention the 13% HST.
Also, yes, people are starving in the world and this is a problem. That doesn't make what's happening here any less of a problem. There is NOT a food shortage problem in the world, there is a food ACCESS problem. We have enough to feed everyone in a way that would sustain and nourish them, yet we continue to make nutritious food too expensive (and therefore inaccessible) for our low income citizens, and geographically inaccessible to places where people have no food at all (of course there are issues of wars, difficulties in transportation, safety, corruption etc).
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I like how everyone feigns disgust and pretends that they WERENT aware of the preservatives in a McBurger.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSPxGPQizZ1fMxpsNOfWGqFB-jfcqrqUopsMNjPvlANdnJLrzY&t=1&usg=___KqcZAvGkShLZ2b50nv76sTcfHQ=
This is processed chicken
Is that... ****ing strawberry ice cream? 0_0
I live in Austin, where a huge "BUY LOCAL ONRY" movement has taken root. I'm not strictly a localvore, but I am a vegan, and most of the stuff I eat ends up being organic or close to it. So I'm not all that afraid for my sake.
Believe it or not, here in western Massachusetts, especially around areas north of where I live in more rural cities, buying local is a HUGE thing. It's even quite trendy and hipster of one to do so.
Someone made a comment about organic not tasting very good. Eh, I think that's very much personal preference. Organic really doesn't taste that bad to me, and plus, non-organic but non-processed foods taste great and is kind of in the middle and is most certainly a hell of a lot better food choice for you then processed food. I mean, where I like I can get a pound of apples for 1.39. That's like, 2 apples for a little more than a dollar. That's not bad.
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That's nothing. I used to live near a grocery store that would significantly mark down produce that was close to expiring. I used to pounce on the bags of apples (like 5 of them) for $1. It probably sounds gross to eat cheap, overripe apples, but don't knock it til you try it...those are the BEST KIND. I could easily eat the entire back in one sitting and still want more.
I was (and am) still skinny though. As they say, no one ever gets fat off eating fruit.
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Yeah. I eat garbage and I'm still skinny. Take that, fruits!
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You guys are dudes. Big difference.
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$1 boxes of processed kraft
KRAFT DINNER- 97 cents CAD x 2 =$1.94
Where the hell do you live? That stuff's four bucks over here.
As for metabolism, it must be a dude thing, I spent two months drinking stuff prescribed from a doctor that was supposed to help me GAIN weight.
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Yeah, me too. I barely weight 130 lbs >_>
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Zerlina, what's your point? That it costs more to eat better food? I'm not sure that counts as news.
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Well I suppose she also point out that a cellphone costs way less per months than having healthy food, since you mentioned something about this on your last post.
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Yeah, she kind of made a big deal about that. It was, like, you know, an example. People spend their money on odd stuff. Instead of a cell phone, maybe it's that gym membership you don't use. Or those movies you buy and rarely watch. That new sofa you don't actually need but like the colors of. Whatever. The point is that healthy food is an option and weird consumer goods are an option, and the masses generally go for the consumer goods. It's not like they don't know about the benefits of eating healthier. They just don't care. And ranting about it ain't gunna change their minds.
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Yeah, she kind of made a big deal about that. It was, like, you know, an example. People spend their money on odd stuff. Instead of a cell phone, maybe it's that gym membership you don't use. Or those movies you buy and rarely watch. That new sofa you don't actually need but like the colors of. Whatever. The point is that healthy food is an option and weird consumer goods are an option, and the masses generally go for the consumer goods. It's not like they don't know about the benefits of eating healthier. They just don't care. And ranting about it ain't gunna change their minds.
Kinda like those people who have taken out loans for mortgages they can't possibly pay for?
*waits to get berated with "NO"* -_0
I get what you're saying Sai, but that doesn't change the fact that it's simply cheaper and easier (I think being easier is a much bigger reason) to buy crap, processed, mechanically separated, super-preservatized foods.
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Well, a combination of everything more than likely.
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Yeah, I'm saying it costs more to eat regular food. It should cost more. But not so much more that it's inaccessible to vast numbers of people. You can see how much it adds up. And again, not all people have the luxury of choosing between consumer goods and food. A lot of the things you're naming are things that some people take for granted and splurge on, but that other people could never afford.
Also, I think you can technically get fat on fruit...it all depends on how many calories you're taking in. But fruit is generally low in calories and high in fibre (making it filling) so you'd have to eat a damn lot of fruit and feel very sick to gain significant weight.
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Also, if that fruit is an avocado.
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Bananas are pretty heavy too.
But seriously I know what you mean about the bag of apples...I can probably kick back an entire crate of clementines if no one stops me.
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Look at the ancient rich Greeks. They're always depicted as being fat and being hand fed grapes. How bad cou-...
I just remembered they used to eat a lot of meat. Didn't they have meat orgies and purge all the time? My theory is abashed.
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Not really the Greeks. That was more of a Roman thing. They would have orgies, gorge themselves on food, then stick peacock feathers down their throats to throw it all back up.
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We buy the stuff that is cheap. People don't want to feel hungry so they buy a lot of cheap food instead of little expensive food.
But alas, the cheap food is manufactured pretty badly and not that very healthy. And yet, we are so greedy that we agree on it and buy it either way.
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I wouldn't be surprised if American junk food was made out of cattle feed.
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We buy the stuff that is cheap. People don't want to feel hungry so they buy a lot of cheap food instead of little expensive food.
But alas, the cheap food is manufactured pretty badly and not that very healthy. And yet, we are so greedy that we agree on it and buy it either way.
For a lot of people I think that's true, but again, for a lot of people it's not. http://www.dietitians.ca/resources/resourcesearch.asp?fn=view&contentid=1944
I'm starting to think, though, that maybe this isn't as much of a crisis in Europe as it is in N. America. Even Lucas said it wasn't much of a problem in Brazil.
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I'm pretty sure Taco Bell meat is worse than dog food meat.
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In regards to terrible meat. Back in my highschool days, A friend of mine swears he caught a glimpse of some boxes being unloaded from a truck. It was frozen foods and stuff and on the side of the box labeled "HOT DOGS" apparently it said, "Grade D, but edible."
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Doubt it. Never tried any of them, but dog food is made of whatever is left of the meat they produce + whatever is left of their crops. Some smart guy had the brilliant idea for taking the left overs, mixing it in one product, and selling it as "Dog food".
But of course, that was many years ago.
I feel sorry for your dog if that's your definition of dog food.
Dog food is supposed to be more healthy than our food. Because dogs can't handle too much fat or sugar without going barrel rolling.
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I mean the world's gonna end in 2 years so what's the point? Eat, drink and be merry - regardless of how much it kills ya :) Not like the people that are making huge profits off this are gonna suddenly have a change of heart anyway.
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Right, the world is going to end. Just like it did in Y2K and in '84 when Nostradamus said it would.
Oh, and in '06, '07, and '08 like Yisrayl Hawkins predicted.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/Hoy_botnb.jpg)
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balut
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So when 2012 comes and goes when's the next major apocalypse? I cast my vote for 2020.
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2026 '29 and '31. One of those dates, there's a small chance of some asteroid hitting us. I forget which one tho and I forget where I heard about the other dates and what they're about. I could have them wrong.
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Let's put it like this.
The fact that the world might end isn't really news.
Most religions have been aware of the distant apocalypse for many hundred years. But we shouldn't worry too much about the stuff that can't be avoided. Like our sun exploding, moon crashing into us, molten core freezing up, meteor showers or alien attacks.
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They're just dates. The world could end at any moment. A distant gamma ray burst could obliterate us. There's no real way to predict that. We would be alive one second, then bright light, then dead.
So yeah, predictions of the end of the world, whether scientific or psuedo-bullshit, not much you can do about it, and the chances are slim, so calm down.
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we will all be dead anyway.
Unless you're a vampire or something.
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Like our sun exploding, moon crashing into us, molten core freezing up, meteor showers or alien attacks.
You've put a lot of thought into this
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You've put a lot of thought into this
Not nearly enough thought if he thinks any of those are legitimate threats in the near future (where "near future" is at least 500 years). Yes, most of those will happen in the lifecycle of the planet, but I figure by the time they're actually impending, humanity will either have blown itself up, left the planet, or have powers and abilities so far beyond our imagination that they can just deal with it outright.
Heck, of that entire list, alien attacks is actually the most legitimate danger, and the only reason that is so is because of general fear of the unknown - we can't be sure that there aren't aliens with that sort of capability. But we're darn sure the rest of those things aren't going to pose a threat any time sure.
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I was actually just making a sarcastic joke lol Basically I'm just agreeing with what someone else said about the money aspect to it. So might as well just appreciate what you have and enjoy life, regardless of how or what you eat, because who knows maybe it will be over tomorrow. Not saying it's pointless to be humanitarian, but in the large scheme of things this one just isn't a battle that can be won.
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We shouldn't lose hope though. The world can be made a better place, but we can't change the fate of the world.
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I actually wish the world could be like 1984's. As long as I am a member of the party! Well, the higher party, not the regulars. Or thought, police, yeah, definitely.
But no, the world sucks and will always suck. Why? Humans...
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But no, the world sucks and will always suck. Why? Humans...
We have a thread called "Everything sucks" for those statements. This is about foodstuff... Or was about.
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=P I don't think I was nearly that pessimistic. About the eternity of "Suck", that is.
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I actually wish the world could be like 1984's. As long as I am a member of the party! Well, the higher party, not the regulars. Or thought, police, yeah, definitely.
But no, the world sucks and will always suck. Why? Humans...
You actually wish we were perpetually at war, constantly being missiled by our own government, brainwashed into thinking sex is for the good of the party, prevented from having independent thought, and constantly monitored, or tortured if we deviate?
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As I said, I would, but only if I am a member of the higher party! Be part of those throwing missiles, brainwashing, preventing independent thought, constantly monitoring and torturing. Why not?
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Hey, sounds better than another 4 years of a W. Bush presidency.
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So what about 8 years of Robotnik instead?
Somebody we'd love seeing beaten over and over again by mutated animals.
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As I said, I would, but only if I am a member of the higher party! Be part of those throwing missiles, brainwashing, preventing independent thought, constantly monitoring and torturing. Why not?
Hey, sounds better than another 4 years of a W. Bush presidency.
YOUR PRIORITIES WORRY ME.
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Hey, at least dubya was comical. It was like watching a sitcom show for 8 years where dubya was the main character. The only thing missing was the canned laughter.
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Is that... ****ing strawberry ice cream? 0_0
Believe it or not, here in western Massachusetts, especially around areas north of where I live in more rural cities, buying local is a HUGE thing. It's even quite trendy and hipster of one to do so.
Someone made a comment about organic not tasting very good. Eh, I think that's very much personal preference. Organic really doesn't taste that bad to me, and plus, non-organic but non-processed foods taste great and is kind of in the middle and is most certainly a hell of a lot better food choice for you then processed food. I mean, where I like I can get a pound of apples for 1.39. That's like, 2 apples for a little more than a dollar. That's not bad.
This.
I, oddly enough, am also in Western MA. Even though I'm in a wicked low income area, we have farmer's markets and stuff all over.
I just wish it were better promoted-- most people here just hit up Market Basket, rather than go down the road to the farms and such.
I was actually at a huge local food festival (garlic festival-- protip: don't eat garlic ice cream) and it was just amazing.
That's the kind of thing I'd really like to see promoted, more. I'm just not sure how to do it.
(And yeah, I know that is a bit off topic now. Sorry :-X)
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You know, I've been reading 1984, and I ****ing love our world. I love our food, I love our people, I love our politicians. Because I know that given the right chances to happen everything in that book could've been true. But it isn't. And dear man I'm happy for that.
Im late here....but the irony of your statement is...
LOL NEWSPEAK
That book is true, and we pull of INGSOC far more effectivly and sublimely then in the book, and on a global scale. The book was not actually a critique on socialism as much as it was a satire of capitalism. Orwell was a socialist.
Seriously, Im glad you love our world, but the book is relavent today because its all true and currently happening.
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This.
I, oddly enough, am also in Western MA. Even though I'm in a wicked low income area, we have farmer's markets and stuff all over.
I just wish it were better promoted-- most people here just hit up Market Basket, rather than go down the road to the farms and such.
I was actually at a huge local food festival (garlic festival-- protip: don't eat garlic ice cream) and it was just amazing.
That's the kind of thing I'd really like to see promoted, more. I'm just not sure how to do it.
(And yeah, I know that is a bit off topic now. Sorry :-X)
Creeeeeepy...
And, I'm assuming the only place, or one of the few places, where you could find something as... odd... as garlic ice cream in wmass is Northampton? Maybs? Really weird someone lives in the same area as me. I never would've assumed.
@gem: what book is that?
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Not quite that west-- it was in Orange, if I remember correctly.
Gem-- According to Orwell's own letters, it was a critique of executed communism.
While I can absolutely see elements in place in modern American society, that wasn't Orwell's stated intent.
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I thought it was about fascism? As in, it was an alternate timeline where the fascists won WWII?