Attitudes to food and health

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vat_man

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Just thought I'd share something I saw this morning.

I walk through a large open air 'food court' which is a transport interchange - it sits on top of a station, with a large bus stop at the front - on my way from where I park the super Sube to the office.

I wander through there at about 7.50am or so (depending on traffic). This morning I saw a guy sitting amongst the chairs and tables out the front of McDonalds, who would have seriously weighed at least 150kg, if not more. He'd have been my height (a touch over 5'10), grotesquely overweight. Looking at him, I would guess he would have been around 30. He was dressed in a fairly distressed suit.

He was tucking into a large McDonalds breakfast which seemed to be dominated by a number of egg and bacon rolls, with a cigarette in one hand, all being washed down by a 1.25 litre bottle of regular coke. This single meal would be as many calories as I'd consume in a week, and I run 50k a week

I can't for the life of me understand this - he MUST know what he's doing to himself, high levels of sugar and caffeine, high levels of fat - there's no way on this earth he'll make 40. So - why is he doing it? Is he stuck in some mental rut where he eats these things for comfort? If so - how does he break out of it? What hope has this man, and others like him, have?
 
Sounds like this bloke has an eating - that he can't stop eating!

I usually feel sorry for people like this when I see them in the street, but not too sorry - it's their body, not mine.
 
Originally posted by vat_man
This single meal would be as many calories as I'd consume in a week, and I run 50k a week
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Maybe that's the only meal he eats a week! :lol:

The circumstances you describe make me think it's maybe 'escapism eating', where the guy is being forced to diet at his home, and as soon as he gets out he piles in the burgers.

Just a theory...

A lot of people don't know, or don't care. One of the things that people seem to miss is the change in their physiology. As you get older, you need less food, and a lot of people miss this, and by the time they realise, they're already 20KG overweight. I'm certainly a victim of this, but I'm working on it, and I'm not 20KG overweight any more.
 
Eating, like other things, can be an addiction, or a substitute, if you will, for stress management.

Some professionals believe that obesity is a product of genetics,... but I dont hold that theory true.

On the other hand,. he may just really enjoy eating. Maybe he'd rather eat great for 40 years than not and live 80. I think that way about smoking. I know it's bad for me, but I love it. I'm not scared to die, therefore I have no problem enjoying my life before I die. People put too big of enphasis on 'living longer'. Whats the point of living, if you cant enjoy it?
 
I used to think I was fat, and felt self concious about it. My mom always told me how skinny I was and worried about me (6' 1", 168 lbs). Now I wish I would've enjoyed being thin when I was. I'm like Giles. Thirty two years old and recently having gained some weight. But I've lost five lbs since my son was born and I didn't even try. I'm sure quitting smoking pot has a lot to do with it, too... no more munchies. I feel fortunate that my body reponds quickly to change. It always has.

I like a Big Mac and fries every now and then. But for the most part I'm not really into junk food or sweets. I prefer coffee.
 
A couple of theories on this one.

I'm over weight. Standing 5'9", and tripping the scales at 230lbs. One advantage that I have is a large chest and solid legs. This means that I proportion out very well. The day I got married, I was 205 lbs. that was nearly 2 years ago. I love to cook. That's my big fall down. What this all relates to is that when I cook, I don't cook healthy stuff. So it's my own fault that I am 230 lbs.

That's 100 lbs less than the guy Vat_Man mentioned. I don't know where I'd pack on another 100 lbs.

In college, one of the ladies I dated, had a roommate (well into the 200lbs range). This girl if you saw her at dinner or anywhere else, ate next to nothing. A small glass of OJ, and a few pieces of fruit for breakfast. Similar for lunch and dinner. We all wondered what her problem was. Back in her dorm room, it was stockpiled with junkfood. Which she ate constantly. Escapism? ingrained from her parents? Who knows.

Whenever I feel bad about how I look, I go stand in front of WalMart for an hour. That does wonders for my thoughts. Not sure of the equivalent outside the US borders.

People in the US have a serious weight problem. My thoughts are that is stems from all the fast food, and the lack of exercise. There's probably a way to work Sitcoms into the blame as well. What does it take to get out and walk a mile each day? 15 minutes? Seriously. If people could look in the mirror and make an honest evaluation of themselves, it would do wonders for the US Waistline. This is where I think some of the problem stems from.

When parenting shifted from "spare the rod, spoil the child" to "can't we all just get along" there was a fundamental shift in the attitudes of people. When I was younger, if I screwed up, I knew there would be retirbution. Now this doesn't mean that I would prefer that someone knock the snot out of their kid because they spilled a glass of milk, but rahter that children need to be disciplined when they do screw up.

Too many times, I've been in a restaurant with my wife trying to enjoy a night out, when there's a screaming kid at the next table.

My reasoning behind parenting skills failing = obese children isn't much of a stretch. When you coddle a child, they learn no respect. Not even for themselves. This equates to "everybody will love me for who I am" When this doesn't happen, people seek to keep themselves happy. Who doesn't feel content when their stomach is full. Don't get me wrong, McDonald's food isn't Boombexus cooking, but it does have flavor, and it is hot. This puts a person in a happy place. The old justification of 3 three meals a day means I can have 2 Sausage Mcmuffins for breakfast, two Big macs for lunch, and A double 1/4 pounder w/ cheese and a shake to wash it down at dinner time. The person then arrives home, in a good mood, and think they are too tired, from the long day and commute, to get in an hour of exercise. So they flip on cable and spend two hours in front of the TV.

So now that I've written a small dissertation, I'll think about it abit more.

I will say that for the most part, I agree with RER on the genetics fall back. I think far more people use that back-up to make themselves feel better. "It's not my fault that I'm 300lbs, My parents are the same way" Maybe they should have taken a clue from their parents, and hit the stairmaster for an extra hour.

Of course, I do love that old saying "When you're 70 years old, lying in that hospital, dying of nothing, I'll be dying of a heart condition from all that steak I ate"

AO
 
I'm being forced onto a high proteine (what I like to call bananas & pasta) diet. Purely because of the sport I practice, I don't mind my own diet at all. It's mainly the people around me who literally feed supposedly "good" food and keep me away from the "bad" stuff. I don't like fat food, sure -- I enjoy the occasional cheesburger, but entire fast food meals can really upset my stomach.

You should eat as much pasta as you can, lots of banana's in between meals, salad, low-fat nuts and huge breakfasts with lots of fruit and protein. So you're not hungry all the time during the day.

Huge breakfast -- bananas -- mideocre lunch -- bananas -- light dinner. :D
 
I only eat breakfast on the weekends. Mmmmm waffles. Or sometimes freedom toast.
 
Originally posted by vat_man
Just thought I'd share something I saw this morning.

I walk through a large open air 'food court' which is a transport interchange - it sits on top of a station, with a large bus stop at the front - on my way from where I park the super Sube to the office.

I wander through there at about 7.50am or so (depending on traffic). This morning I saw a guy sitting amongst the chairs and tables out the front of McDonalds, who would have seriously weighed at least 150kg, if not more. He'd have been my height (a touch over 5'10), grotesquely overweight. Looking at him, I would guess he would have been around 30. He was dressed in a fairly distressed suit.

He was tucking into a large McDonalds breakfast which seemed to be dominated by a number of egg and bacon rolls, with a cigarette in one hand, all being washed down by a 1.25 litre bottle of regular coke. This single meal would be as many calories as I'd consume in a week, and I run 50k a week

I can't for the life of me understand this - he MUST know what he's doing to himself, high levels of sugar and caffeine, high levels of fat - there's no way on this earth he'll make 40. So - why is he doing it? Is he stuck in some mental rut where he eats these things for comfort? If so - how does he break out of it? What hope has this man, and others like him, have?
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Ok, Kg is mass not wieght, if you want to post weight, convert to Pounds (US/UK) or newtons (rest of world). Weight is the effect of gravity on mass. Don't worry, half the world makes that mistake.
 
Originally posted by Belda_Da_Hun
Ok, Kg is mass not wieght, if you want to post weight, convert to Pounds (US/UK) or newtons (rest of world). Weight is the effect of gravity on mass. Don't worry, half the world makes that mistake.
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Arent we chipper today. You must have had Wheeties* for breakfast huh?
 
I'm also overweight. About Der Alta's height, but with 7 extra years of midsection drift added on. I have been since childhood. I enjoy eating, and I'm not really ashamed of that.

Honestly, it started when I was 7 or 8. It sounds stupid to say it, but nobody ever told me that eating too much (or the wrong kinds of) food would make me fat. By 10 my habits and tastes were set, and I was wearing "husky" sizes.

Two things have gone against me - 1) I find excercise for its own sake duller than ditchwater, and 2) I never understood the importance of breakfast, which I often skipped. Consequently, my metabolism stinks. It has been many years since I formally dieted. I could make myself miserable with self denial, and drop 10 pounds for a while. Or, I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted and gain 3-5 pounds a year. It was a no brainer at the time.

I've come to realize that as long as I don't eat like a total glutton, my weight is going to stay mostly stable with a slow drift upward. Although I still find it incredibly boring, I know that excercise would help me reverse that trend with minimal impact on my chosen eating patterns. Unfortunately the reality of a full-time desk job and an active family life means I have no convenient, appropriate time to excercise. I can't realistically get on the Nordic Trak or walk a few miles at 11:00p... but I can sure as heck fire up the PS2 for an hour before bed.

Would I like to be 50lbs/25kg lighter? You bet. Do I eat less/better? A little - I'm making some effort to change my habits in little ways. Now that spring is approaching we'll go back to taking a 45-minute walk after dinner, which puts a serious dent in our evening's schedule, but is worth it. Will I see any great result? Not likely... but it's better than nothing.

I have a coworker who is a very successful amateur body builder, so the contrast is marked. But I will tell you this - even if you could guarantee that I would develop that good a physique, I would never trade lives with him. I'm just not that interested in it.
 
Originally posted by Belda_Da_Hun
Ok, Kg is mass not wieght, if you want to post weight, convert to Pounds (US/UK) or newtons (rest of world). Weight is the effect of gravity on mass. Don't worry, half the world makes that mistake.
Click to expand...

If this is the case, then why I can easily convert kilograms to pounds by multiplying by 2.2046 - giving a result of 330 pounds in this instance. This was a fairly educated guess at this guy's weight.

What a bizarre post.

I think what I couldn't work out here was this guy is going to die in the next ten years as a result of exactly the behaviour he was displaying - and I think he was probably past the point of no return.

Look - I had a bit of an epiphany on this stuff three and a half years ago (in the run up to turning thirty), after the old man died and mum started to show the first signs of cancer (both in their late 50's). I had a stressful job that I spent a bit over two hours a day in the car getting to and from - so that, combined with long hours, meant I had no time to exercise and was eating badly. My weight had got to about 95kg (just under 210 pounds for Belda_da_Hun) and I was dreadully unfit. I've since lost 15-16 kilo and and am the fittest I've ever been.

Knowing just how I feel know compared to then, and hearing the constant messages from governments and health organisations, it's just curious that this sort of thing goes on - I guess it's very similar to the smoking issue. Maybe the message on healthy eating is getting completely swamped in the marketing messages of 'unhealthy' food choices like big fast food chains, sugary soft drinks and tobacco companies.
 
No, it's just as much a cop-out to blame it on 'marketing' as it is to blame it on 'genetics'. The guy is living the life he's living because it is easier for him to accept (conciously or unconciously) that he's halving his life expectancy than it would be for him to accept the changes he'd have to make.

I don't smoke. I drink very modestly. I try to eat less fat and salt than I did 5 years ago. The only thing really missing from the equation is a free hour a day to ride the ski machine... and unfortunately buying that hour is not worth all the various things I'd have to give up. So it's an uneasy, but stable, truce.
 
Originally posted by neon_duke
I find excercise for its own sake duller than ditchwater...

Unfortunately the reality of a full-time desk job and an active family life means I have no convenient, appropriate time to excercise. I can't realistically get on the Nordic Trak or walk a few miles at 11:00p...
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About a year ago I signed up at a gym... I can't remember which now, but it wasn't Bally's because their commercials make me sick. Oh I just remembered it was Pure Fitness.

When I was signing up I found out their adverised rates were only applicable from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. But I bit the bullet and payed.

I went three days a week for a few weeks. I got so sick of waiting to use equipment, which doubled how long a workout should take, and gave my heart rate plenty of time to fall. Everybody said "run in place while you wait." No. I don't want to waste my entire evening standing around with a bunch of smelly people waiting to use some weights.

Eventually I lost interest and cancelled the membership. Of course I had to come in person to do it, so they could pressure me into feeling bad about it. Then they tried ripping me off and continued billing my credit card, saying I had not filled out the cancelation form which nobody told me about. It was a joke. All because I wanted to be in better shape.

Having a desk job and living in a city where you have to drive everywhere doesn't help. I'm not fat, but I prefer to keep my shirt on, if you know what I mean. Way back I used to work in food service, I was always on the move. I didn't own a car and rode my bike everywhere for four years, or took public transport. I was in great shape. After that I delivered blueprints and ran in and out of office buildings all day. My wife and I would go hiking almost every weekend.

Excercise should be a symptom of your lifestyle. At least that's how I want it for me. Going to a gym isn't for me. I'd rather take advantage of all the great state and national parks in Arizona, which leave me with more than a smelly gym bag in my car. I'm pushing for a more active summer this year, and already know that it will have good long term results. I have no interest in body sculpting or any of that. I'm just not that vain. I'm asking for a baby-backpack-carrier for father's day. Hiking with that extra weight should do the trick.
 
Originally posted by neon_duke
No, it's just as much a cop-out to blame it on 'marketing' as it is to blame it on 'genetics'. The guy is living the life he's living because it is easier for him to accept (conciously or unconciously) that he's halving his life expectancy than it would be for him to accept the changes he'd have to make.

I don't smoke. I drink very modestly. I try to eat less fat and salt than I did 5 years ago. The only thing really missing from the equation is a free hour a day to ride the ski machine... and unfortunately buying that hour is not worth all the various things I'd have to give up. So it's an uneasy, but stable, truce.
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True - but I think a lot of people underestimate the power of the subconscious. Coming from an economic background, your comment about not being willing to give up or trade off things you enjoy or want in exchange for fitness or health is probably true - but I think when people make that judgement, they may not necessarily making it with an objective set of facts in front of them, so they are to a degree impaired. Many people are very poor long-term decision makers when it comes to lifestyle matters like this, probably because the consequences of their decision aren't readily apparent.

I don't think you need to hit the gym 5 times a week and run yourself stupid (like, um, some of us) - even if it's a good walk for an hour or so a couple of times a week. I know from the research I've seen, health's a pretty simple thing for guys - the more active you are, the longer you'll live.
 
I think that many people (Americans, at least) want instant results and when they don't get them, they give up. Too many diet pills, drinks and surgeries to get the fast fix... they teach people nothing about working towards a goal and changing your lifestyle. If you're not raised to eat well and exercise regularly, I'm not sure there's a great chance you'll do it when you're older. Personally, I am learning to be as active as I used to be and in turn, my kids are more active. We go to the gym at least four times a week for an hour each time. Since I've become a vegetarian, our fast food consumption is nearly extinct and the two of these things combined are resulting in us being healthier.

I'm sure I could go on, but it's bedtime for me. Maybe I'll come back to this later. :)
 
I personally can't think of why people are so consumed in eating food (sorry, bad pun!), and I'm *hoping* that I can't understand when I'm older too. :)

I can eat just about whatever I want, because I have an incredibly fast metabolism (helped in part by the fact that I've eaten a huge breakfast everyday since I could first eat solid food), but I don't-- I only stock up on calories the day before a Track/Cross County meet, such as tonight. :D

I've never been a gym person... running out in the open air works just fine for me. :)
 
Just to drop my two pennies....

I am often confounded when I see someone who is so grossly overweight (like vat_man's sighting....or bigger) that they are almost as wide as they are tall. I see this sort of thing with greater frequency than I care to ponder. Sure, genetics accounts for some of it - but I refuse to believe that being 5'6" and weighing 400 lbs. (181 kgs. for the metric audience) has genetics as the sole reason for their size. I saw a woman in a special on obesity in the US (60 Minutes, I believe) who fit that description pretty closely. She weighed 400+ (by her own admission), and although I can't be certain of her height, she wasn't over 5'8".

Her attitude was what really bothered me. She maintained that this was her body type, and that it wasn't a problem. It was the way she was supposed to look. The smugness of her denial made me want to slap the taste out of her mouth (couldn't have hurt ;) ). I seriously doubt that she'd weigh anywhere near 400 lbs. if she was forced to live on the Serengeti plains.

My point (I think there is one) is that so many people would rather deny they have a problem and allow it to get worse rather than swallow their pride and face it. It's kinda frustrating - to know that all it takes is not eating crap all the time and maybe getting out and walking around a bit to curb that kind of weight gain - and maybe even lose a bit.

~sighs~

<- Needs to adjust his diet before it comes back to bite him. :|
 
Originally posted by youth_cycler
I personally can't think of why people are so consumed in eating food (sorry, bad pun!), and I'm *hoping* that I can't understand when I'm older too. :)

I can eat just about whatever I want, because I have an incredibly fast metabolism (helped in part by the fact that I've eaten a huge breakfast everyday since I could first eat solid food), but I don't-- I only stock up on calories the day before a Track/Cross County meet, such as tonight. :D

I've never been a gym person... running out in the open air works just fine for me. :)
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Just you wait until you hit your late twenties, young fella...
 
Originally posted by risingson77

My point (I think there is one) is that so many people would rather deny they have a problem and allow it to get worse rather than swallow their pride and face it. It's kinda frustrating - to know that all it takes is not eating crap all the time and maybe getting out and walking around a bit to curb that kind of weight gain - and maybe even lose a bit.
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Yeah - and in the twelve months before I turned things around I think went through that self-delusion - we didn't have scales at home - and when the gain's gradual you don't realise looking in the mirror that there's an issue - you just buy bigger clothes

I've heard comments about people not being ashamed of their body shape, which is fine to a point, but when it's affecting your health, it's a problem.

The genetics line is a classic - I'm sure that explains why obesity rates are so high. :rolleyes:
 
Just you wait until you hit your late twenties, young fella...
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That's what I'm afraid of. :scared:

Hopefully I'll still be determined to keep running and eating healthy. :)
 
Originally posted by sn00pie
I'm being forced onto a high proteine (what I like to call bananas & pasta) diet. Purely because of the sport I practice, I don't mind my own diet at all. It's mainly the people around me who literally feed supposedly "good" food and keep me away from the "bad" stuff. I don't like fat food, sure -- I enjoy the occasional cheesburger, but entire fast food meals can really upset my stomach.

You should eat as much pasta as you can, lots of banana's in between meals, salad, low-fat nuts and huge breakfasts with lots of fruit and protein. So you're not hungry all the time during the day.

Huge breakfast -- bananas -- mideocre lunch -- bananas -- light dinner. :D
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Bananas and pasta are not protein. its carbohydrates man.
 
Originally posted by TsLeng
Bananas and pasta are not protein. its carbohydrates man.
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ROFL! Yeah,... but banana's are an excelent source of potasium. Good for muscle cramp prevention :)
 
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