I've been working on losing weight over the last five years. I've gone from 270 pounds to 175. Have been fluctuating for the last year because I kinda stopped giving a fuck for a bit tbh.
I do intermittent fasting/low carb. I am not rich in money, but thanks to a lot of luck I have more time than the average poor person.
My quick thoughts on the obesity epidemic as a person who has managed to lose weight:
Food that has long shelf life and is easy to prepare is all heavy in carbohydrates. Hamburger helper, rice-a-roni, top ramen etc... That stuff is nothing but starch and carbohydrates. It's cheap and quick to prepare. I know that when I was at my poorest I ate a whole lot of stouffers mac and I gained about 60 pounds and type two diabetes.
American prepackaged food is often loaded with high fructose corn syrup. Even stuff that you wouldn't think would have sugar in it has more sugar added to it. Sugar is addictive, as addictive as cocaine, and it is in just about everything. I don't think companies realize this consciously, but they do notice that more sugar = big money line go up.
Carbs and sugar lead to insulin spikes, which leads to more hunger, which leads to more eating. The wretched thing about being poor in America is that you are starved of nutrition while also being fat. Then people shit on you for being "fat and lazy" while you're working your ass off trying to make rent. Oh, and more insulin spikes lead to type two diabetes, and hormone irregularity. So not only are people fat, nutritionally starved, they're also emotionally unstable. Long term, these dietary issues lead to painful bodily complications that ultimately shorten the lifespan.
Losing weight takes research, and research takes time, and proper research takes a skill in disseminating information. When I decided to lose weight I had to spend hours looking up facts about diet and nutrition. I knew how to disseminate bullshit fad diets from helpful information, but a lot of people don't. A lot of people take marketing at face value, and they don't have time to look any deeper. Then, when the fad diet fails (as it is designed to), people give up and go back to their original way of eating.
Cooking takes time. I do meal prep and plan a lot of my weekly meals out, but planning those meals, researching recipes, and cooking a mountain of food (that I am privileged enough to have access to) is work. Finding healthy recipes that I can stand is work. Tracking my diet and macros is work. Exercising is work. Sometimes, I just don't feel like I want to dedicate 4 hours of my Sunday to cooking, and it is the same for many Americans who are exhausted after working their two jobs in the retail mines. I can't blame them!
tl;dr our system is fucked and it fails to provide a sustainable life for all but the luckiest and most privileged and fat people are not at fault for being fat.
Thanks to America's poor urban design there are many areas in America where there are 'food deserts' where the only options are tiny convenience stores that carry overpriced, prepackaged garbage. For many poor Americans you have to take a car trip (gas) or bus trip (time/money/limited carry space) to get food. Shopping daily isn't an option. You have to buy food that lasts, which also makes buying fresh food less incentivizing, because fresh food spoils and spoiled food means wasted money.
I remember visiting europe in the early 2000's and I was shocked at how there were small grocery stores everywhere. That doesn't happen in America unless you live in the city, and good luck w/that with the way rent is in urban areas.
America Sucks Shit thank you for reading my Ted Talk.
Damn this sums up the struggle quite well. Also planning my meals for the week by cooking a bunch, and I gotta say it's really hard not to just grab some fast food on the way home from work or frozen meals.
I've been working on losing weight over the last five years. I've gone from 270 pounds to 175. Have been fluctuating for the last year because I kinda stopped giving a fuck for a bit tbh.
I do intermittent fasting/low carb. I am not rich in money, but thanks to a lot of luck I have more time than the average poor person.
My quick thoughts on the obesity epidemic as a person who has managed to lose weight:
Food that has long shelf life and is easy to prepare is all heavy in carbohydrates. Hamburger helper, rice-a-roni, top ramen etc... That stuff is nothing but starch and carbohydrates. It's cheap and quick to prepare. I know that when I was at my poorest I ate a whole lot of stouffers mac and I gained about 60 pounds and type two diabetes.
American prepackaged food is often loaded with high fructose corn syrup. Even stuff that you wouldn't think would have sugar in it has more sugar added to it. Sugar is addictive, as addictive as cocaine, and it is in just about everything. I don't think companies realize this consciously, but they do notice that more sugar = big money line go up.
Carbs and sugar lead to insulin spikes, which leads to more hunger, which leads to more eating. The wretched thing about being poor in America is that you are starved of nutrition while also being fat. Then people shit on you for being "fat and lazy" while you're working your ass off trying to make rent. Oh, and more insulin spikes lead to type two diabetes, and hormone irregularity. So not only are people fat, nutritionally starved, they're also emotionally unstable. Long term, these dietary issues lead to painful bodily complications that ultimately shorten the lifespan.
Losing weight takes research, and research takes time, and proper research takes a skill in disseminating information. When I decided to lose weight I had to spend hours looking up facts about diet and nutrition. I knew how to disseminate bullshit fad diets from helpful information, but a lot of people don't. A lot of people take marketing at face value, and they don't have time to look any deeper. Then, when the fad diet fails (as it is designed to), people give up and go back to their original way of eating.
Cooking takes time. I do meal prep and plan a lot of my weekly meals out, but planning those meals, researching recipes, and cooking a mountain of food (that I am privileged enough to have access to) is work. Finding healthy recipes that I can stand is work. Tracking my diet and macros is work. Exercising is work. Sometimes, I just don't feel like I want to dedicate 4 hours of my Sunday to cooking, and it is the same for many Americans who are exhausted after working their two jobs in the retail mines. I can't blame them!
tl;dr our system is fucked and it fails to provide a sustainable life for all but the luckiest and most privileged and fat people are not at fault for being fat.
Forgot to add one more thing: Access
Thanks to America's poor urban design there are many areas in America where there are 'food deserts' where the only options are tiny convenience stores that carry overpriced, prepackaged garbage. For many poor Americans you have to take a car trip (gas) or bus trip (time/money/limited carry space) to get food. Shopping daily isn't an option. You have to buy food that lasts, which also makes buying fresh food less incentivizing, because fresh food spoils and spoiled food means wasted money.
I remember visiting europe in the early 2000's and I was shocked at how there were small grocery stores everywhere. That doesn't happen in America unless you live in the city, and good luck w/that with the way rent is in urban areas.
America Sucks Shit thank you for reading my Ted Talk.
deleted by creator
Damn this sums up the struggle quite well. Also planning my meals for the week by cooking a bunch, and I gotta say it's really hard not to just grab some fast food on the way home from work or frozen meals.