That’s the problem - it depends on the person, and some of the ways of tracking it is self reported data, like the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) questionnaire.
Cortisol and adrenaline can be measured in lab tests, but those are rarely ordered, never mind paid for by insurance.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is the new metric du jour, and there’s a ton of apps and fitness trackers to tell you that, but I’m skeptical.
It’s the classic “the French don’t get fat” despite eating of cheese, bread, and drinking a ton of wine paradox. (Though sadly I think that’s changing as their lifestyles become more American.) Their food is high quality, they eat less of it, move more, work less, and fuck a lot (well, compared to people in the US).
You are not wrong. My contention is the deleterious nature of the #1-3 things to remove from US Food is so great, that it makes it almost impossible to over come.
I would guess your level of activity for someone in your age bracket is high to very-high, in comparison to the mean.
My contention with HFCS is not that real sugar is somehow better for people. Just that HFCS is objectively even worse because it's highly processed sugar that likely is toxic.
If grocery store bakeries, candy aisles, etc were banned for a year, the average American probably loses 10% of their body weight in that time. All of the processed shit that people have access to now versus 100 years ago is insane. The grocery store is probably more hazardous to your health than eating at McDonalds a few times a week, to be honest.
Yeah, it’s pretty difficult to want to get sexy when you feel poorly about your body (nevermind perform).
All these things being talked about in this thread, the oils, the HFCS, sleep, exercise, etc. are all just small links in a big ass chain that weighs us all down from being healthy - or maybe I should say, optimal living. I’m all for going after low hanging fruit for quick victories, but if this country is really serious about getting well, it’s going to need to tackle biggest systemic issues. (But that’s for another thread.)
The amount of sugar (real or not) in our food is shocking. Most people who I’ve spoken to from other countries say that was the second most (first being our portion sizes) shocking thing about the American diet - how sweet everything is. But we?ve been talking about this for over twenty years (Fast Food Nation was published in the early 2000s) and food quality has gone down, we’ve gotten fatter, and it’s all gotten more expensive.
That’s what I’m curious to hear from @pawz and everyone else - as I haven’t followed RFK Jr.’s proposals too closely - how are we going to make the switch? I doubt the Coca-Colas and MacDonalds of the world are going to give up all these cheaper ingredients without a fight.
I suspect my activity level and VO2 max is like 99.99% percentile for my age group. But it's not about me, per se.
People like to call out which population groups around the world are healthier that Americans- e.g., France's obesity rate is 17% vs 40% for the US, and that's fine and dandy. But as I often point to in this thread, you need look no further than West Bend or any other outdoor recreation focused/high education type community in the USA to see what's working- i.e., regular exercise, not overeating, no smoking, and moderate (or little or no) consumption of alcohol. Anecdotally speaking, you almost never see an obese youth, adult or senior on our side of town. And even adults being moderately over weight (though not obese) is very rare. I also suspect peer pressure plays are role as well- i.e., it's less socially acceptable here than in Redmond, Madras or Prineville, OR.
I'm not in disagreement with you that there is likely some public health benefit to elimination or HFCS or Round Up in Cheerios from the US food supply. Or that more research into (potential) adverse affects of seed oils is a worthwhile endeavor. But I view these things as tertiary to the larger problems facing the health of America, which are above all else are sedentary lifestyle and excess food energy in take. Any #MAHA movement needs to address these issues above else.
That's the issue. The grocery store aisle facilitates the excess food energy intake. Only one country on Earth eats more than Americans per capita and that's Ireland.
Only 20 to 23 percent of Irish are obese however so they're probably walking around more than a typical American.
Sounds like people should get off of the couch a little and not eat the crack. Like I said, switching to junk food with "real" sugar won't save you.
Eating a meal of "real" food - even if it's not organic - is way better than McDonald's. There's no way to make McDonald's healthy even if the coke had real sugar and the Big Mac Paddies were grass fed angus.
Comments
That’s the problem - it depends on the person, and some of the ways of tracking it is self reported data, like the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) questionnaire.
Cortisol and adrenaline can be measured in lab tests, but those are rarely ordered, never mind paid for by insurance.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is the new metric du jour, and there’s a ton of apps and fitness trackers to tell you that, but I’m skeptical.
It’s the classic “the French don’t get fat” despite eating of cheese, bread, and drinking a ton of wine paradox. (Though sadly I think that’s changing as their lifestyles become more American.) Their food is high quality, they eat less of it, move more, work less, and fuck a lot (well, compared to people in the US).
#3 thing to remove from US food is Seed Oils
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A thread …
You are not wrong. My contention is the deleterious nature of the #1-3 things to remove from US Food is so great, that it makes it almost impossible to over come.
I would guess your level of activity for someone in your age bracket is high to very-high, in comparison to the mean.
.
Agree. I do wonder if the fucking a lot is causation or correlation, where perhaps Americans don't fuck as much because we're fatter.
I pick on french fries though because they are so ubiquitous with the American diet. Low value calories.
File this under, "no shit, Sherlock."
My contention with HFCS is not that real sugar is somehow better for people. Just that HFCS is objectively even worse because it's highly processed sugar that likely is toxic.
If grocery store bakeries, candy aisles, etc were banned for a year, the average American probably loses 10% of their body weight in that time. All of the processed shit that people have access to now versus 100 years ago is insane. The grocery store is probably more hazardous to your health than eating at McDonalds a few times a week, to be honest.
Yeah, it’s pretty difficult to want to get sexy when you feel poorly about your body (nevermind perform).
All these things being talked about in this thread, the oils, the HFCS, sleep, exercise, etc. are all just small links in a big ass chain that weighs us all down from being healthy - or maybe I should say, optimal living. I’m all for going after low hanging fruit for quick victories, but if this country is really serious about getting well, it’s going to need to tackle biggest systemic issues. (But that’s for another thread.)
The amount of sugar (real or not) in our food is shocking. Most people who I’ve spoken to from other countries say that was the second most (first being our portion sizes) shocking thing about the American diet - how sweet everything is. But we?ve been talking about this for over twenty years (Fast Food Nation was published in the early 2000s) and food quality has gone down, we’ve gotten fatter, and it’s all gotten more expensive.
That’s what I’m curious to hear from @pawz and everyone else - as I haven’t followed RFK Jr.’s proposals too closely - how are we going to make the switch? I doubt the Coca-Colas and MacDonalds of the world are going to give up all these cheaper ingredients without a fight.
I suspect my activity level and VO2 max is like 99.99% percentile for my age group. But it's not about me, per se.
People like to call out which population groups around the world are healthier that Americans- e.g., France's obesity rate is 17% vs 40% for the US, and that's fine and dandy. But as I often point to in this thread, you need look no further than West Bend or any other outdoor recreation focused/high education type community in the USA to see what's working- i.e., regular exercise, not overeating, no smoking, and moderate (or little or no) consumption of alcohol. Anecdotally speaking, you almost never see an obese youth, adult or senior on our side of town. And even adults being moderately over weight (though not obese) is very rare. I also suspect peer pressure plays are role as well- i.e., it's less socially acceptable here than in Redmond, Madras or Prineville, OR.
I'm not in disagreement with you that there is likely some public health benefit to elimination or HFCS or Round Up in Cheerios from the US food supply. Or that more research into (potential) adverse affects of seed oils is a worthwhile endeavor. But I view these things as tertiary to the larger problems facing the health of America, which are above all else are sedentary lifestyle and excess food energy in take. Any #MAHA movement needs to address these issues above else.
BTW, I respectfully suggest we move this to the Tug. You can’t separate a lot of this policy talk from politics at this point.
Make The Shoppe About Music Again!
That's the issue. The grocery store aisle facilitates the excess food energy intake. Only one country on Earth eats more than Americans per capita and that's Ireland.
Only 20 to 23 percent of Irish are obese however so they're probably walking around more than a typical American.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_food_energy_intake
Same thing in my neck of the woods, Yella. Very few overweight people, super outdoorsy/active…
…but also much more affluent.
It costs more money to be healthy unfortunately.
The other countries are not purposely adding (non)nutritional crack to their food supply.
Sounds like people should get off of the couch a little and not eat the crack. Like I said, switching to junk food with "real" sugar won't save you.
Eating a meal of "real" food - even if it's not organic - is way better than McDonald's. There's no way to make McDonald's healthy even if the coke had real sugar and the Big Mac Paddies were grass fed angus.
Denial isn’t a good look.
You realize many of the major food companies were acquired by tobacco conglomerates who already ran these scams in the 60s and 70s