Food is Gross

[Zerlina]

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?

[RuneBlade]

Where I live Mc'Ds shut down and moved away since they got facerolled by nicer, local places

[SaiKar]

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.

[Cerebus]

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!

[fruckert]

This thread title is totally misleading.
Mickey D's definitely does not count as food.

[Valiere]

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.

[Ben]

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

[Bluhman]

Ah, looks exactly like penis.

[Zerlina]

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).

[drenrin2120]

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.

[Valiere]

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.

[Cerebus]

Yeah. I eat garbage and I'm still skinny. Take that, fruits!

[Valiere]

You guys are dudes. Big difference.

[X_marks_the_ed]

$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.

[Cerebus]

Yeah, me too. I barely weight 130 lbs >_>